The record tax increases approved this week by Virginia lawmakers left Darrell Payne angry yesterday as he worked the showroom at the New River Nissan dealership in Christiansburg.
“It hurts the working man. It doesn’t hurt the people up there [in Richmond] making the laws,” said the 54-year-old car salesman. “They have lots of money. Half a cent on the sales tax doesn’t hurt them.”
Mr. Payne was not alone in expressing his frustration with the Republican-controlled General Assembly for passing the state’s largest tax increase in decades. Yet, many Virginians seemed resigned to paying a larger tax bill, The Washington Times found in a telephone survey of residents across the state yesterday.
The legislature approved a $1.38 billion tax plan that would boost the state sales tax from 4.5 cents to 5 cents on the dollar and raise the cigarette tax from 2.5 cents per pack to 30 cents next year. The plan also contains tax cuts, including reducing the food tax by 1.5 cents on the dollar by July 2007.
Lawmakers also voted to freeze the state’s popular car-tax-relief program, which means car owners in Virginia will pay 30 percent of the car tax for at least two more years.
“We are paying too much as it is,” Mr. Payne said. “It seems like every time you turn around, there is another tax, tax, tax. It scares you too death.”
At Lee Roy’s Barber Shop & Beauty Salon in Cumberland, customers were not complaining much about the tax increases yesterday afternoon. But the shop’s proprietor, who is nearing retirement age, could barely contain his anger.
“There’s too much taxes on everything — your property, your cars,” said Lee Roy, who did not give his last name. “You are taxing us to death.”
The owner of Wine Works & Tobacco in Highland Springs wasn’t concerned about the cigarette-tax increase, but worried about the higher sales tax.
“It will adversely effect my life,” said Fadi, a 40-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who emigrated from Lebanon 20 years ago and lived most of that time in Virginia. He did not give his last name.
“People are going through rough times already,” he said. “They should only have risen [taxes] on cigarettes, but not on everything.”
James Herbin, owner of Mary’s Flowers & Gifts in Richmond, said the sales tax will affect his business like others, but he considered the cigarette tax to be particularly unfair, and a blow to the economy, especially in the Richmond area.
“I don’t mind taxes, it should just be equitable,” said Mr. Herbin, a nonsmoker and a former supervisor at tobacco industry giant Philip Morris USA. “State legislators and anti-smoking groups unfairly target the tobacco industry. There are other industries, such as the alcohol industry, that should also be subjected to [higher] taxes.”
Libby Hayes, a 55-year-old federal government worker who recently moved from Prince George’s County, Md., to Bumpass, Va., said the tax increases didn’t faze her.
“The state needs the money, so let’s be honest with one another,” she said. “I came from a state where I had to pay the 5 percent sales tax. But at least, we’ll have a cut in the food tax. So it’s OK.”
The General Assembly also got high marks from John Blum, a World War II Navy veteran who lives in Sterling.
“I highly approve what the Assembly has done,” said Mr. Blum, 88. “You can’t keep cutting taxes and keep services for the people. There are essential services, like education, transportation and safety, [and] as the population grows, you have to have money for them.”
Romona Fisher, an education coordinator in Accomac, agreed.
“As long as some of the money goes toward education, it is fine with me,” she said. “Education is my baby. I understand that we need money in other areas. But I believe that we need to be able to raise the education level of our children in order to compete with an ever-growing global economy.”
Residents such as Phil Goodwin, the news director for country radio station WJMA-FM in Culpeper, said he didn’t favor higher taxes but he figured they were unavoidable. He said cuts in state taxes usually lead to increases in local taxes, so taxpayers lose either way.
“It’s kind of a shell game,” said Mr. Goodwin, 53. “I don’t feel strongly one way or the other. I just wish [politicians] would be honest.”
• Tarron Lively, Frank Petrignani and Shelley Widhalm contributed to this report.
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