Delegate Bob Hull's Richmond Report

Up, Down, and Changed

On September 1, several of the tax changes the General Assembly approved in May went into effect. Others are effective as of January 1.

The Virginia sales tax on non-food items has gone from 4.5-percent to 5-percent. But, the tax on food will go down over a three year period to 2.5-percent.

The state tax on cigarettes went from a national low of 2.5-cents to 20-cents per pack. Next year the tax will reach 30-cents per pack. And, we tax non-cigarette tobacco items for the first time.

The tax on the recordation of deeds has also increased for the first time since 1948 from 15-cents to 25-cents per $100 of value.

We also capped the annual expenditures to localities for the car tax cut at $950 million, thereby freeing millions of dollars to go to education. While these taxes went up, we also approved the largest tax reduction in history. Almost every single Virginian will pay less in income taxes.

We increased personal exemptions, eliminated the marriage penalty, and provided tax relief for military and National Guard families.

More importantly, we raised the threshold at which you have to even files taxes, allowing 141,000 families not to have to file and pay income taxes.

In making all of these changes, we provided the largest increase in school funding in Virginia history. An additional $1.5 billion will now go to public schools.

We also provide over a quarter of a billion new dollars to higher education to support growing enrollments and help with rising tuition costs.

Nader Surprise and Shrock Shock

It looks like Ralph Nader fell a little short in signatures to get on the Virginia ballot for president. He needed 10,000, but state officials said that he only had about 7,000 valid ones.

But, lesser well known presidential candidates for the Constitution and Libertarian Parties were able to muster the effort to get their names on the ballot.

I guess that shows that fame does not yield support. Fame of another sort has derailed another candidate whose name will not be on the ballot. Incumbent Republican 2nd Congressional District Congressman Ed Shrock abruptly withdrew from the race after a website accused him of having an illicit gay encounter.

Schrock was a retired naval officer who served briefly in the Virginia State Senate. His withdrawal came just days before the deadline for finding a replacement.

The GOP had to hold a party process to choose his successor the day after the withdrawal. It turned out to be a battle between party factions. Three incumbent members of the General Assembly announced their interest for the nomination, one of whom was a moderate. He did not make it. Senator Ken Stolle, who supported the Governor’s tax reform policy, withdrew from the race when he apparently found no support from party activists.

Instead, the 2nd District Republican Committee picked an outspoken conservative opponent of the Governor’s plan, Delegate Thelma Drake. While that nomination contest was narrowly focused, I believe that it was a harbinger of the battle to come between moderate and conservative factions of the GOP.

I am sure that we will see it during the General Assembly session starting next January and in the party nomination contests for next year’s legislative races.

It looks like an intraparty battle royale is shaping up for GOP House of Delegates nominations next year that may hurt their gubernatorial candidate.

Whether this does affects current Attorney General Jerry Kilgore’s campaign for the GOP nomination for Governor is hard to say. But, it will fun for political observers to watch.