John Miller for raising taxes?

By J.R. | February 24, 2008
Filed Under General Assembly |

In today’s Daily Press, Hugh Lessig and Kimball Payne report on the 5-cent gas tax increase that Virginia Senate Democrats have been quick to support but that Governor Tim Kaine has called DOA in the House. However, their column focuses on the political conundrum that Democrat State Sen. John Miller faces based on his campaign promises on taxes:

On transportation, Miller said all along he didn’t want to reflexively raise taxes. Even the fervently anti-tax Stall acknowledged the feedback she heard from voters suggested they’d rather have a gasoline tax than the new authority.

Miller also repeatedly said his main goal was to craft a statewide plan to pay for transportation improvements. Miller and Senate Democrats can tell voters that they tried to pass a plan that got traffic moving and brought in money from out-of-state drivers.

But with the state’s chief executive predicting defeat, you have to wonder why they’d support a plan that opponents are sure to rehash during a re-election campaign.

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2 Responses to “John Miller for raising taxes?”

  1. Brian Kirwin on February 24th, 2008 3:08 pm

    He didn’t want to raise taxes, and he didn’t want to so badly that it took him an entire month to vote to raise taxes.

    What resolve! What leadership! What conviction!

    what a crock…..

  2. LittleDavid on February 25th, 2008 11:43 am

    Jim,

    Thanks for providing the link to the Daily Press piece. It does a much more thorough job of explaining the issue then I typically can find on my own.

    I will add to the piece provided that last year taxes were increased on diesel fuel. Perhaps this was an attempt to get “out of state truckers” (a phrase used in the Daily Press piece) to pay for more of our needed transportation improvements.

    Brian Kirwin,

    You are excessively condemnatory of Senator Miller while remaining mute on Republican Senators plans to increase revenue for transportation. My own Senator in Richmond, Senator Wagner, wants to provide funding through tolls. Tolls are taxes in my opinion. I am in favor of Eisenhower’s Freeways, not Wagner’s Tollways.

    Republicans = tollways.
    Democrats = increased fuel taxes.

    I’m in favor of increased fuel taxes. What method of providing the needed revenue are you in favor of?

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