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Subscribe to RSSGov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA), someone many think has an eye on 2016, made an announcement today that could have an impact on his future ambitions.
Virginia has a transportation problem in Northern Virginia. Congestion and tangled roads are the norm. McDonnell wants to try and fix it, but it all requires money. Lots of money.
Today, he proposed eliminating the gas tax, but raising the sales tax and increasing fees on things like hybrid cars and alternative-fuel vehicles.
Central to the governor's plan, whose component parts would raise an estimated $3.1 billion for transportation over 5 years, is elimination of Virginia's 17.5-cent per gallon gasoline tax for most passenger vehicles -- the levy would remain in place for diesel fuel. Virginia would be the first state to go that route if it dumps the fuel tax, according to state officials. ...
McDonnell would replace the state surcharge on gas by increasing the state's current 5-cent sales and use tax to 5.8 cents and dedicating all additional revenue generated from that to transportation. Even at that level, state officials say Virginia's sales tax would remain lower than rates in surrounding states.
The administration's argument for the swap is that the buying power of the gas tax, a key road revenue source, continues to dwindle as construction costs rise and vehicle fuel efficiency standards improve. ...
Aside from the tax swap proposal, other elements of McDonnell's plan include:
- A $15 increase in annual registration fees on motor vehicles.
- An annual $100 fee on alternative fuel vehicles, including hybrids.
- Another attempt to dedicate a greater slice of existing sales tax revenue -- from the current .5 percent to .75 percent over five years -- to roads.
- Receiving more sales tax revenue from online retailers, a plan contingent Congress' passage of a law giving states the authority to compel such merchants to collect taxes on sales made through their sites and remit them to Virginia.
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WTF? Why a fee on alternative fuel cars? He has to be an absolute moron. Or be bought and paid for by oil companies. Either way he is not working for the people of Virginia.
The left is soooooooooooo predictable. A Republican governor proposes taxing one of their ideological sacred cows. But over in liberal Washington State they already tax electric vehicles, and it is being proposed in other states. Are they all bought by the oil companies? Are they all against their own constituents?
Ho Ho Ho!!!
Alan, I don't care what state it is or who leads it, a higher tax on more fuel efficient vehicles is just plain stupid! The tax on more fuel efficient vehicles should be lower than the gas guzzlers!
Totally stupid premise!
Many states have routinely raised gas taxes ... and sales taxes.
Government is never satisfied no matter how much money in its hands. But if that's what it takes to be fiscally solvent .... you never know.
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Bon McDonnell better be careful, every time a president is just elected, the opposing party's candidate wins Virginia's governor's race. Maybe this time will be different after McDonnell raised taxes.
Totally off topic but VERY interesting!!!
The Republican Main Street Partnership, a Washington-based group that has promoted moderate GOP lawmakers and policies, will remove the word "Republican" from its title and welcome center-right Democrats in 2013, Yahoo News has learned.
The organization's board of directors voted Tuesday morning to scrap party identification from its title and be known simply as "The Main Street Partnership." The group's new president, former Ohio Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette, told Yahoo News that he plans to begin conversations with Blue Dog Democrats and centrist groups in the coming months.
"The goal is to try and fill the void that is the middle," LaTourette, who resigned from Congress this year, said. "The American political system is like a doughnut: You've got sides, but you don't have anything in the middle, and it would be my goal to work with Republicans and Democrats who want to find the path forward to getting things done and compromise."
Will be interesting to see how this works out!
Do hybrids with only one passenger then get to use the HOV lanes if they pay the $100 fee?
So, suppose the utopia of all vehicles being electric comes into being. They still use roads. We're not the Jetson's yet. Who are you going to tax to build and maintain the roads? After all we all use them as we are building our businesses (Senator Warren). You see this is the consequence of higher gas prices...people drive less and some other group have to be taxed to make up the difference.
Looks like you should avoid Oregon and Arizona as well
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/04/oregons_electric_car_owners_sh.html
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/07/arizona-lawmaker-proposals-per-mile-electric-vehicle-tax/
And before we jump on to the subsidies that oil companies receive, you do realize that 25% of that is the Strategic Oil Reserve. Yes that is counted as a subsidy. Now I don't know how you propose to replace that with green energy.
A republican gov, raising taxes, where is the out rage tea bags, or do you just save that for Black American Presidents?
He is also cutting taxes. Trade off.
Pau l ...
Hybrids in Virginia already get to use the HOV lane without paying a fee. Educate yourself.
Alan, NJ
Has a valid argument ... road surfaces do not care what powers the vehicles that drive on them.
bcwc - yes, road surfaces do not care what powers the engine so put a fee on Hybrids? They are already helping the environment so why penalize them for being good for the country? Makes NO sense!
@ Talk to the Hand: You said: He is also cutting taxes. Trade off. Not so. He's trying to increase revenue. That means one way or the other, call them fees or taxes, he is raising taxes. So @Johntho has a good point. Where is the outrage when it is a Republican and not a Democrat who raises taxes? I think what this really shows is that Republicans have cut taxes to the point that they have not only been a major cause of our debt problem, which they want to only blame on Democrats, they have gotten to the point that even basic governmental functions like road repair needs added revenue.
Seeking,
Unfortunately, putting a fee on hybrids does make sense. Road construction and maintenance is financed in great part by taxes on gasoline - less gas used, less money for roads. Regardless of fuel source, cars need roads. I believe Oregon is considering a supplemental tax upon high-mileage vehicles for that very reason.
Runs counter to what we would like to see - at first glance the addition of fees on high-mileage vehicles is completely counterproductive to long-term oil independence. However, until revenue structure changes to accomodate the loss of gasoline taxes, the fees do make sense.
I wonder if this a$$hole received any campaign contributions from the oil industry? Another intellectual giant. lol.
It makes a lot of sense, electric cars and hybrids also use the roads they have to pay their fair share.
It's a lot better than his original proposal to raise revenue: levying punitive fines on all unmarried women who fail state administered virginity tests.
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OMG! Higher taxes?!?
...yeabut...yeabut...yeabut...isn't Gov. Bob McDonnell a...a...a...
...REPUBLICAN?!?
What a bunch of hypocrites.
I like the plan. I think all on line sales should be taxed at the rate of where the merchandise is shipped. If merchandise is shipped to Virginia, apply the Virginia sales tax. I agree with taxing hybrids since they use the same roads. I agree with eliminating the state gasoline sales tax and replacing it with an increase in the state sales tax. With the new CAFE standards, vehicles would become more efficient resulting in less revenue for road repair. The sales tax would still be cheaper than the surrounding states and DC.
Is he going to use a vaginal probe to determine if the car uses alternative fuels ?
Since he had to kill the legislation for abortions and his government had already stocked up on 'em, Gotta use them somehow.
In a way, raising the sales tax makes more sense. The wear and tear on the roads is greater from the large trucks that are bringing the goods to the stores. Not everyone uses the roads, but everyone buys food and clothing.
McDonnell is in the pocket of big oil and has the IQ of an ant.
I fully expect to see Oil Rigs off the beaches of VA too under this dip$hhit
We need to get our voices heard in richmond. Sign the petition on Change.org
Removing a tax to pay for road work by those that use roads the most and implementing an offset tax that will be paid by many who don't even own a car sounds idiotic as does penalizing those who use less gas like hybrids.
Almost all goods and services used by those who don't own a car as well as those who do, are transported on the roads at some point. I don't particularly agree with the hybrid fee since the gasoline tax is eliminated. It would appear punitive. I have always believed that internet sales should be taxed at the rate of the destination's address as a leveling of the playing field with local businesses.
Now that's ass-backwards if I ever heard of it! I sure am glad Republicans don't believe in raising taxes...
I don't think Bob McDonnell will be happy until cars run on coal.
Me thinks old Bob forgot to attach his arms and legs before jumping in the pool. His brain is obviously water-logged. But hey Bob, if your goal is to ease traffic congestion and make money, why don't you simply increase the one-way fare on public transportation to $1,000.00, and throw in a bonus deal of a round-trip ride for $5,000.00. You could also implement a $5k bicycle tax, and tax pedestrians $100 per step. While you are at it, you could covert all those vagina probes into pede-meters. That should keep people out of their cars, right Bob?
Do I sound like a small government Republican yet?
So make them that don't use the roads pay for the roads. Eliminate the gas tax so more people will have the incentive to buy gas and thus drive more. Punish people who care about the environment and are trying to wean off the gasoline teat.
Of course sales tax is a regressive tax where gas tax is more progressive as only those who buy gas pay for it where sales tax includes everything for everyone even elderly and poor people.
Typical Right Wing Nut Job Fascist wannabe thinking. Screw the poor and elderly and environmentaly responsible in favor of big oil.
Adler,
I agree. The thought of eliminating the gas tax because less revenue due to better fuel mileage is like cutting your nose in spite of your face. I would think keeping the gas tax, plus doing the increase on sales taxes for everyone; regardless if they own a vehicle or not would have been better.
Bottom line, he is raising the sales tax, so just admit that you need more revenue, and leave the gas tax in. Get as much revenue as you can, then use it for road construction and maintenance due to your high volume and congestion.
Wondering why more republican/conservatives are not complaining about increasing taxes. Where is their pledge to Grover...is it breaking the pledge only when a democrat proposes a tax increase.
Almost all goods and services require the use of roads. Therefore, everyone should contribute to the maintenance of the roads. The best way to do this is to increase the sales tax. The diesel tax remains in effect since tractor trailers cause most of the wear and tear on our roads.
Yah! We've subsidized those Green Scum, now they pay!
Wooooo.
How about closing the huge tax loop holes that big oil now enjoys? This would be a good start!
Because they don't exist. The oil industry's tax breaks, compared to other industries, like Green Energy, are fairly small, and oil companies pay among the highest effective tax rates of all corporations.
Green energy companies have "huge tax loop holes". As in, you can not only pay $0 in taxes, you can get free money from the government to set up your failed idea.
Companies that paid the most taxes in 2011:
1. Exxon, 27.3 Billion
2. Chevron, 17.4 Billion
3. Conoco, 10.6 Billion
4. JP Morgan Chase, 8.2 Billion
........
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/04/16/which-megacorps-pay-megataxes/
Chesty - you're just posting lies. The oil industry gets massive tax breaks - far greater than Green Energy companies. It is time we closed the loopholes on big oil and let them pay as they should have been all along!
No, it's fact.
Stupid, braindead leftwing sheep (that would be you) have really bought into this political soundbite the Democrats keep repeating about "taking away tax breaks for oil companies" but in fact, they get nothing that other companies don't get, and their total tax breaks are much less than nearly all businesses.
Hence, the Big 3 oil companies paying the most taxes, as detailed by Forbes.
See, Dems come up with a politically driven non-issue like "let's single out the tax breaks oil companies get, and try to use that to rev up the hysterical base", and there's enough idiots out there in the Democratic Party, nearly all, to believe it's a serious, major issue to be addressed.
Do Oil companies get a high % of their taxes taken off in tax breaks, compared to other companies? No.
Would taking away the small % in tax breaks they do get seriously help us with the budget? No.
Are the two above facts meaningless when dealing with the drooling, neanderthal Democrat base? Yes.
Chesty - big oil gets HUGE subsidies to offset the taxes!
chestypuller Troll on. Show your proof of your statement Troll!
seeking -- massive you say? Oil companies save $4.4 billion every year through the industry’s tax breaks, according to an Associated Press report. dated may, 2012
eliminate this tax loophole and fuel costs will rise -- no company, regardless of industry would eat this difference.
please do recall that obama demanded the continuation of corporate welfare for companies like ge and citi with the recent cliff deal.
Smitty, idiot. Forbes link is there.
I've had several lefties so braindead they ask me to show proof when I give a news link to proof in my comment.
Smarter monkeys, please!
Chesty,
I find this frightening but I actually have to agree with you. I've seen the numbers breakdowns and big oil isn't really benefitting that much from their subsidies.
very fair and balanced of you, underemployed.
Next step can only be watching Fox News.
How about closing the legislative loophole on bill trailers that are added to a piece of legislation at the last minute?
Why not a simple up/down vote on ONLY the legislation? No addendums added at the last second.
Why not make it simple to follow the voting on a bill rather than having to search n?umerous sites to find out which legislator did this?
Why not simple language in bills? Heck, even Nancy Pelosi can't explain the ObamaCare bill yet!
1funnygirl
Well, then you can't trap a John Kerry into saying "I voted for it before I didn't vote for it." T'is but a game.
But it is ok for a republican governor to raise taxes to pay for roads. Amazing the lack of intelligence in the neo-fascist republican party.
The unique little silliness behind McDonnell proposal is adding a fee for hybrids while eliminating the gas tax. The actions of other states to add fees for hybrids has a logic (deeply stupid, but still logic) in that the states are theoretically losing money to hybrids because of lost gas taxes. But, what McDonnell is doing is proposing to penalize hybrid owners as a means to offset eliminating gas taxes.
What is it that faux fiscal conservative and economic illiterates tend to say? The government shouldn't pick winners and losers? Guess what McDonnell is trying to do, in the most envirionmentally and energy efficiency damaging way possible?
Riiiiight.
Seems odd, doesn't it. The article did state, however, an increase in sales tax will cover the loss of the gas tax. But, even though the money will still come in it makes the fee on hybrids and alt-fuel vehicles appear almost punative. Not a good PR move on McDonnell's part.
I will take Virginia's fiscal state compared to California any day of the week.
Had better do something--The Chinese are taking over the natural gas and oil fields in Colorado--Wyoming--The own 33% of 800,000 acres.
OK. Your suggested course of action?
Typical Republican Governor and their fees for everything.
How long before Republicans add a fee for breathing?
So he would be giving me a tax break because my "old pick-up" is a gas hog and penalizing my neighbor for driving a feul effecent car, talk about dumb.
Your old gas hog pick up uses the same road as your neigbor's fuel efficient car...shouldn't they pay their fair share? What happens when the CAFE standards kick in and you have to replace your gas guzzler for a more efficient vehicle? The roads still will be used and they still need to be maintained.
time for rocky rhode to disappear into the sunset
Yep, establish a right to work state. Right to work = right to starve and die.
so much for the GOP "less government and taxes initiative"
I can understand why alternative cars need to make up the difference for what they aren't paying in taxes on gas. It actually makes a little sense. But if you are then going to eliminate the gas tax, it no longer makes sense. It's just punitive. But as every good little Teahead knows, if Obama supports it you must find a way to sabotage it.
I think it is wrong to remove the gas tax and transfer it to the sales tax. This means that people who don't own cars are subsidizing those who do. Seems unfair to me. Raise the gas tax if you aren't getting enough money to pay for your road improvements. Let those who use the roads pay for the roads.
But Republicans are funny folk. They will call it a fee instead of a tax just so they can pretend they haven't raised taxes. Or they'll roll back one tax and apply another, calling it a wash. But it isn't a wash, because people spend a lot more money on taxable goods other than gas. When you buy a car, that higher tax is going to nail you but good. When you buy clothes, or a washing machine or anything else that is taxes in the state, you're going to find yourself paying a lot more taxes through the sales tax than you ever did on the gas tax. So it's a tax increase folks, no matter what your governor calls it. And I'll lay you dollars to donuts that it isn't just going to pay for roads. Your governor just doesn't want to admit that his state's expenses are running too high for revenues to match them.
That's what happens when you become the party of tax reductions. You cut and cut until you can no longer pay the bills. Since they always like to compare government budgets to household budgets (a fallacy if ever there was one) then imagine keeping up with your debt obligations while cutting your paycheck by 10% every year. How long do you think you could do that without getting into trouble.?
How does someone manage in today's world to not use the roads? Everyone uses the roads. The bus you ride is on the road, the sidewalks you use cost money to make and maintain. The food you buy travels on the roads to get to your grocery store. WE ALL rely on the roads, whether you own a car or not.
The country cannot pay its debt without cutting spending. Period.
Free cell phones, ATM SNAP cards allowed to be used at strip clubs, multi-generational welfare fraud, government bail outs of the private sector, tort abuse, Obama Care, tax laws with more loopholes and exceptions than anyone can possibly keep track of, Congress voting themselves a pay raise while federal employees have been in a pay freeze for 3 years, etc. Fraud, Waste, and Abuse at all levels of government is the problem with our "budget".
Everyone needs to pay taxes because everyone receives government benefits like roads, the power grid, security, and freedom. Those things are not free make or keep.
I think he wants to retire. The voters will surely comply with his wishes.
Seeking Sanity - why is a higher tax on more efficient/more productive people fair, but a higher tax on more efficient autos not fair?
Why does a vehicle that is "helping the environment" deserve not to be taxed, but the 1% of the population that is paying over 80% of the taxes deserve higher taxes?
It is obvious that the Hybrid owners are not paying their fair share of taxes. Suck it up, green boy. What goes around, comes around.
Where did you get that "1% of the population that is paying over 80% of the taxes" lie from?
Your own rear-end.
> 1% of the population that is paying over 80% of the taxes
Where did you pull that out, your rear-end?
The same 1% that gets out of paying their own tax burdens, apparently:
Underemployed - you must be underemployed for a reason.
You're household budget analogy is false. A cut in our world is not a cut in income, it is a cut in spending. Therefore, you cut spending and it allows you to pay your bills more easily. Pretty easy to understand, cut your spending by 10% every year and pretty soon you have surplus.
WTF?????
It would make much more sense to make every highway a toll road. That way, only the people who use the roads are paying for them.
Getting rid of the gas tax, but raise the sales tax - what the hell does that accomplish? Absolutely nothing. Just something to appease Bobby McDonnell's big oil puppeteers.
Governor, are you trying to disencourage the purchase of hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles? You have it all backwards, you need to tag a yearly $100 charge on fossil fuel vehicles. This way you can seriously make some money for your projects. Here in Japan they have a yearly road tax on vehicles with charges based on car engin sizes. Perhaps you can entertain this.
david
Oh! Because Japan is such an economic powerhouse!?! The tax on hybrids and increasing the sales tax is not about discouraging the purchase of hybrids. Hybrids still use the same roads. It is an attempt to change with the times. The cost of maintaining and building new roads will increase. The use of hybrids and the effect of the CAFE standards will result in lower revenues due to lower gasoline sales.
Japan's third, so yes, it's an economic powerhouse. Engine size makes more sense, as generally larger vehicles have larger engines. All this measure is, is a way to take more money from NOVA and redistribute it to rural counties. Here's a novel idea, raise the gas tax, it's currently ranked at #40. And why target hybrids, there're other normal vehicles with nearly the same gas mileage. Again, raise the gas tax.
Japan has been stagnant for going on 20 years. In case you missed it in the article, the "other normal vehicles with nearly the same gas mileage" is part of the reason for transitioning to a higher sales tax. The demand for gasoline will continue to decrease in this country due to higher miles per gallon requirements set by the CAFE standards of the EPA.
As far as redistribution of money from NOVA to the rural counties...if you lived in NOVA, you would know that the majority of road usage occurs there. The majority of road construction is there.
Also, the diesel tax continues. Ensuring that the use of tractor trailers continue paying for their share. If this implemented, it means that NOVA and all border towns will see a significant increase in gas station traffic. People in Maryland and DC already shop in the NOVA malls because of lower taxes.
Layton-3733410:
I have a hybrid vehicle and I DO not get any privileges. I don't get to ride on the HOV lanes. They got rid of that years ago.
If you pay the $100 fee, you should get a windshield decal that returns your access to the HOV lanes.
I am all for raising gas taxes if we need the revenue to keep the roads in decent repair. Or a flat fee on all vehicles that use the roads, or a fee per mile on vehicles, which should be prorated based on vehicle weight. (Heavier vehicles are harder on the roads.) But if hybrids are singled out I will refuse to pay the tax. Time for some civil disobedience if they penalize me for trying to cut down on our foreign oil dependence.