New taxes!

ONLINE READER REACTION
Published: May 16, 2008

These are some of the online reader reactions to Gov. Tim Kaine’s plan to raise money for transportation in Virginia.

Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads already pay their fair share of taxes and do not get an equal amount back. Why then should we be targeted for additional taxes?

Richmond and Roanoke are large metro areas with a lot of roads to maintain, why do they get off for free?

I am against raising taxes that the whole state does not have to pay. If necessary, raise the gas tax for the entire state.
That is what it was designed for. Northern Virginia is generating tons of money for the state, but whenever we need money to help keep the engine running Richmond wants to tax us separately. 

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Seriously people, taxes for the roads are not the problem.  We’re not going to build the roads for nothing. Get over it. 

The problem is that we need a guarantee that our transportation tax money gets spent on Northern Virginia roads and isn’t squandered elsewhere in the state by Richmond. I’ll pay an extra 50 cents at the pump if I can be assured the money will be spent improving roads in PWC.

Unless that happens, we’re right to resist any new taxes.

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Raising taxes, any taxes, for transportation is not the answer. We in Northern Virginia don’t get the monies that we send to
Richmond back in services, let alone for the area roads. If we are taxed more, the likelihood that the additional monies collected will be spent elsewhere in the state is very high. Richmond needs to reconfigure its budget to pay for the roadwork as it should have been all along.

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Why does Kaine continue to support the flawed Northern Virginia Transportation Authority? The NVTA has a clear record of repeated failures ranging from poor decisions to violating our rights. It’s time to abolish the NVTA.

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When does the taxation stop for continuing to be able to drive an automobile in the state of Virginia? Automobile registration fees, state sales taxes, state income taxes, gasoline taxes, automobile purchasing taxes, safety inspection fees for autos and, of course, personal property taxes.

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Here comes Jeff Frederick.  I appreciate his wariness about new taxes, but when is this guy going to offer some solutions?
By all means, keep working to shut down any expensive and unjustified programs, but we need to do something about roads NOW.

Look, I’m certainly not dying to pay more taxes. But if the state can guarantee that an additional 1 percent sales tax would go directly to transportation costs in our region only, it’s at least worth considering.