Another Problem For ICE: Virginia Is Blue

After her inauguration, Governor Spanberger repealed an executive order by her predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, that required local and State Police to cooperate with ICE.

When the new Governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, cancelled the state’s cooperation with ICE under the federal 287(g) program, her move further to the left was celebrated by CASA In Action as “a major victory for immigrant communities across the Commonwealth.” Now that Virginia has joined the army of sanctuary states, we can expect harassment of ICE federal officers in Henrico County near the capitol, Richmond, and elsewhere.

What is CASA In Action? It was called CASA de Maryland before 2010 when it was a charity for immigrants. It was reorganized, and now is allowed to operate across the United States and:

1. conduct registration and turnout for selected candidates, like Spanberger.

2. conduct issue advocacy, such as immigration reform.

3. organize campaigns for progressive candidates.

4. lobby for public policy, like voting without a photo ID.

How’s that for a charity turned into a left-wing political operator?

But there’s more. Much much more.

The General Assembly in Richmond is completely controlled by Democrat legislators, and they do whatever their Democrat governor commands. In a region where states are phasing out state income taxes they’ll do what Democrats do best.

Raise taxes.

Despite inheriting a $2.7 billion surplus left by Governor Youngkin, part of a $10 billion surplus he created for schools and tax relief, Governor Spanberger and her other Democrats in the General Assembly simply want more of our money. I write this as a citizen of the Commonwealth.

Even before the new Governor could change the curtains in the Governor’s mansion, Democrat legislators produced more than fifty new tax bills -- Democrat Spanberger will sign every one that makes it to her desk. The end of the tax feeding frenzy in Richmond is not in sight, and it will not be in sight for years.

Among those noxious tax bills is HB 378. It imposes a 3.8% net investment income tax on individuals, trusts, and estates beginning in taxable year 2027. If enacted, HB 378 would raise VA’s top income tax rate on portfolio and passive income to 9.55%.

Other States

Nearly all the states around Virginia and more across the country, are moving in the opposite direction that Virginia Democrats will take their tax policies. States that already have completely phased out taxing income are even seeking other ways to make their tax codes less burdensome and more competitive.

What Democrats plan to do in Virginia is in somber contrast to what is happening in states around it. West Virginia legislators are working on phasing out their state income tax entirely. In North Carolina, the state’s income tax fell from 4.25% to 3.99% this month. Besides that, North Carolina’s income tax rate will continue to fall in coming years until it hits 2.49%, and the state’s corporate income tax will be completely phased out by the end of 2030.

“It’s always a bad time to raise taxes, but it would be particularly foolish for Governor Spanberger and the Democrats who now control Richmond to do so at this time of heightened state tax competition,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Governors and lawmakers in other states aren’t just seeking to reduce income taxes and other levies; they’re pursuing full tax elimination in many state capitals. For individuals, families, and employers who wish to avoid the hostile tax policies pursued by Democrats in Richmond, they have plenty of options close by.”

If only a few of the tax hikes proposed in Richmond are enacted, Virginia will still have a hard time competing for job-creating opportunities in faraway Georgia, where the income tax fell from 5.19% to 5.09% at the beginning of this month. The Georgia state Senate is now planning to totally phase out their income tax in the coming years. And a full income tax phase out is a goal that every candidate who wants to be South Carolina’s next governor has embedded in his or her campaign promises.

Affordability

Even in a herd of ugly tax bills, HB 978 is a doozy. The bill “levies the retail sales and use tax on the following services: admissions; charges for recreation, fitness, or sports facilities; non-medical personal services or counseling; dry cleaning and laundry services; companion animal care; residential home repair or maintenance, landscaping, or cleaning services when paid for directly by a resident or homeowner; vehicle and engine repair; repairs or alterations to tangible personal property, storage of tangible personal property; delivery or shipping services; travel, event, and aesthetic planning services; and digital services.”

Wait until those housewives who voted for Spanberger get a load of her attack on “affordability”! No more dog walkers or getting your car fixed or your coatcleaned. Those things will be taxed by Democrats and passed on to the lady of the house by the providers -- sinking the “affordability” of her family budget.

HB 900 authorizes sales tax increases in certain transportation districts. It imposes a new tax on all retail deliveries in Northern Virginia by Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, and UPS. It’s like the tax imposed in Minnesota by Governor Tim Walz, another Democrat. Naturally, the tax on those delivery companies will be passed on to you and me.

HB 243 “imposes on large employers, as defined in the bill, a corporate welfare tax equal to 100%of the qualified employee benefits received by any employees of such large employer residing in the Commonwealth.” What are those “qualified federal benefits”? They include school lunches “and the amount of payments made under the Social Security Act.” In other words, if the large company hires anyone who depends on Social Security, Virginia will fine the company for doing so. Think the Human Resources department of that company will hire anyone receiving Social Security checks?

Then there is the obligatory Democrat attack on the Second Amendment. HB 919 imposes “a firearm and tax equal to 11% of the gross receipts from the retail sale of any firearm or ammunition by a dealer.”

Return To The Carbon Tax

Governor Spanberger wants to join the fun. In the name of carbon being bad for growing things she has announced she will reinstate Virginia as a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap and trade regulatory regime that acts as a backdoor carbon tax. By design, RGGI membership comes with higher utility bills, which is why Spanberger’s predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, removed Virginia from the regional cap and trade program.

The Final Insult

When the Democrat legislators in Virginia got tired of inventing new taxes, they created bills that:

• replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day

• banned “assault weapons

• offered illegal aliens’ free education

But overarching the tax bills, the free schooling for illegal aliens and the banning of assault weapons is the Democrat attack on Thomas Jefferson’s immortal words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

That monstrous attack has taken the form of an amendment to Virginia’s Constitution that guarantees the right to an abortion!

The amendment will add Section 11-A to Article I of the Constitution of Virginia and will be placed before the people of the Commonwealth for approval on the statewide ballot of 3 November 2026. If passed, the amendment will:

• make abortions and abortion centers constitutionally protected rights

• severely limit lawmakers’ ability to regulate

• shift power from legislators to courts and doctors

• create long-term legal permanence

It is one of the most expansive state-level abortion protection rights ever proposed in the United States. Examine your conscience when you vote on 3 November.

God will.