I haven’t heard much about “affordable housing” in the transportation debate, but it’s been lurking there in the background. One of the mechanisms the state Senate proposes to employ to raise $1 billion a year for new transportation expenditures is a tax on real estate transactions. In an earlier post in this blog, I noted that it made absolutely no sense to tax real estate transactions in order to fund transportation projects — there was no rational nexus between those who paid the tax and those who benefited from the expenditure.
It’s nice to see that someone else fails to see the common sense in the proposal. Del. Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, has spoken out against a version of the tax now being considered in the House of Delegates. In prepared remarks, she said on the House floor:
Affordable housing is essential for all Virginians. Affordability of housing diminishes each time another tax or fee is added to the homeowner’s bill. And, as all of you can attest, many of us are seeing our assessments going through the roof!
During this last election cycle, all the candidates for Governor recognized this when they proposed to protect homeowners from real estate tax bills — some of which have doubled for many Virginians in the past five years.
I hope many of you will agree with me that home equity is the single greatest source of retirement savings for most homeowners.
Real estate and grantor taxes leave Virginia’s seniors with less money in their retirement to pay for skyrocketing health care and other costs.
I hear people talking about how this tax is only a few hundred dollars — but to my constituents in Petersburg and to many of yours across the Commonwealth — a few hundred dollars is real money.
Virginia Commonwealth University Political Science Professor Robert D. Holsworth was right this last election cycle when he observed in the Washington Post that, “Virginia is on the verge of a property tax revolt in many localities…”
… Our friends in the Senate propose a plan which will require property owners to pay almost 50% more in real estate taxes in the year they sell their property.
Encouraging homeownership is really encouraging the American Dream, Mr. Speaker. This is the time when we are all going to make some difficult choices, but I encourage the conferees and the House to oppose any fee that will be a barrier to Virginians wishing to own their homes.
