Proponents of the McDonnell-Bolling-Howell-Saslaw-Norment-Toscano tax hike have become so desperate that they are now lining up behind Daniel Cortez, who had the unmitigated gall to hint that opponents of the tax hike are racists – or, to use his language: “troubling for the minority community.” That apparently was supposed to be enough for all of us to meekly censor ourselves forthwith.
If so, it obviously did not succeed, and the Commonwealth is better for the failure.
As it is, the rest of Cortez’s piece is full of small bits of history taken wildly out of context, and a complete lack of understanding of economics…and those were its good points.
For starters, we have Cortez’s comparison to Reagan. Just about any Republican trying to justify tax increases (especially where transportation is concerned) relies on Reagan’s 1983 increase in the gasoline tax. They conveniently forget that Reagan also reduced income taxes across the board, including by 2/7 at the top level and nearly half at the lower levels, in 1981. By contrast, the last tax cut Virginians ever saw was over thirteen years ago.
Moving on, Cortez, like most tax hike backers, seems to focus on 1986 (the last gas tax hike) as the last time Virginia acted on transportation. They don’t seem to notice that Virginia’s actual road system hasn’t experienced true reform since the Byrd Administration of the 1930s. The tax increases did nothing to address the overcentralized road network, or the government monopoly on road maintenance, or the state government funding of subdivision roads – completely disconnected from local government land-use decisions. In short, this “accomplishment” does nothing but pave the road (pun intended) for future tax increases designed to hide the real problems affecting the system.
Then again, Cortez doesn’t seem to understand the very plan he endorses. He praises the 5.3% tax hike as “the lowest in the region.” He seems to forget that the sales tax in Northern Virginia will actually be 6%, which brings it up to Maryland’s level. He also ignores North Carolina, which already has a lower state sales tax rate than Virginia’s current 5%; it will certainly be lower than Hampton Roads’ new 6%. Meanwhile, Cortez talks about the 3.5% wholesale gas tax without acknowledging that the tax is likely to rise to 5.1% – unless Congress reverses course and authorizes and internet sales tax hike, an idea they unceremoniously shelved last year.
Finally, I can only presume Mr. Cortez missed the entire HB3202 debacle. From his cavalier dismissal of Bob Marshall’s legal concerns (“Does Marshall forget McDonnell WAS at one time Virginia’s Attorney General?”), I can only assume he did not notice how Marshall insisted HB3202 was unconstitutional. McDonnell, who was AG at the time, insisted Marshall was wrong. The Virginia Supreme Court – all seven Justices – disagreed, emphatically.
This brings us back to the first objection – the notion that opposition to a tax hike for roads is “troubling for the minority community.” Said community had the chance to register their approval for the last Republican attempt to raise taxes for “roads” – the aforementioned HB3202. The results from 2007 were crystal clear. Not only did the Republican vote fail to rise in “the minority community,” it hemorrhaged in both Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads (four House and four Senate seats lost) – the areas most affected by both HB3202 and the current tax hike.
In the end, Cortez’s slipshod attempt at history and shameful attempts at race-baiting still don’t address the issues tax hike opponents (including yours truly) have raised throughout this debate: that tax increases will do damage to Virginia’s economy, and that genuine efforts to reform the Commonwealth’s antiquated system of road management have been squelched by the revenue-centric discussion.
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