So, what if someone submitted a bill (HB 1710) in the Virginia House of Delegates that simply required a sunset date of no more than four years on all taxation bills that add or increase a state or local tax?
This sounds like a reasonable and prudent law. Why should taxes have an indefinite life when the humans from which the taxes are seized enjoy no such earthly benefit?
Who could vote against such a commonsense proposition? Among others, your Delegate to the 57th district, David Toscano (or David Taxcano, as a creative contributor referred to him in a previous post).
And David cannot hide behind the skirt of his party on this vote, because there were Democrats who voted in favor of the bill (as there were Republicans who voted against it).
For all of his attempts to portray himself as a moderate, Delegate Dave has once again shown himself to be a liberal consumer—when it comes to your tax dollars.
If you’d like to call Delegate Toscano regarding his vote, here’s the number: (800) 889-0229.
It sounds good on the surface but in practice it just means that the tax will just go through the formality of being renewed every four years. Once enacted, future legislators will automatically renew the tax because they will not want to spend the time reviewing the issue already resolved by a previous legislature. The whole renewal process will be considered nuissance legislation. For example, it the legislature passes the sales tax legislation for Charlottesville and Albemarle County, I doubt if this tax will be re-considered with any scutiny four years from now. It would be reasoned that, if we have put up with it for four years, we can put up with it another four.
I suppose its just too much trouble to take the time to scrutinize that hand that keeps picking your pocket. Were it my place to decide, taxes would only be applicable to the year(s) specified. No tax should live an immortal life. The tax and the law is for the living, not the dead.
The attitude that its okay to let the tax man have his way with you since after a few times you should be accustomed to it is as reasonable as claiming that women who were raped were asking for it. No one asks to be raped and no one should get accustomed to bending over and staying that way for taxes of any kind. Taxation is a necessary evil at best and the only correct attitude about it is to look for the day in which this or that tax can be ended…or is bloodletting still a viable cure for cancer?