As Virginia Democrats have run the table in every statewide election since 2009, Republican gubernatorial aspirants have reverted to the same failed three-step playbook:
Declare the state’s economy is in a tailspin.
Promise to jump-start it by drastically slashing taxes, while insisting no harm would result to critical state services.
Pledge to shrink public spending by eliminating unidentified waste, fraud and abuse.
Now comes Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s current Republican gubernatorial nominee — a slicker, wealthier version of past GOP hopefuls who poses as a new kind of candidate while peddling much the same nonsense.
Mr. Youngkin, who made a fortune in private equity, says Virginia’s economy is “in the ditch” — an assertion flatly contradicted by a tsunami of evidence to the contrary. And, like his predecessors, he claims lower tax bills are the elixir that would cure what ails the commonwealth.
Specifically, Mr. Youngkin, when asked this spring if he hopes to reduce or eliminate Virginia’s income tax, replied as follows: “We are absolutely focused on not just getting our state income tax down, but how can we in fact eliminate it?”
That very baloney was also peddled by Republicans Ed Gillespie, who lost the governor’s race in 2017; Corey Stewart, who narrowly lost the GOP primary that year to Mr. Gillespie; and former state attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, who lost in 2013. In each case, the conceit was that cutting taxes would attract new businesses to Virginia and help them grow faster. But what businesses, and which employees, would flock to a state that would decimate its tax base, thereby starving schools, roads, health care, parks, prisons and police of resources?
Here are the facts. Virginia’s individual income tax — the target of Mr. Youngkin’s fever dream — accounts for 72 percent of the state’s $43.5 billion of revenue in the current two-year general fund budget. (Most of the rest comes from sales, corporate and other taxes.) Take an ax to the income tax, and funding for vital services is decimated.
That’s not theory; it’s been tried, recently — in Kansas and Louisiana, in both cases by Republican governors who promised that cutting taxes would generate higher growth. In fact, the predictable result was that revenue shriveled, and so did state support for services Democrats and Republicans alike care about. In fact, eliminating Virginia’s income tax is a perfect recipe for defunding the police, the very policy Mr. Youngkin (falsely) accuses Virginia Democrats of favoring.
The GOP tax-cutting experiments in Kansas and Louisiana were disasters. In both cases, the damage was severe, and the tax cuts were rolled back.
What makes Mr. Youngkin’s proposal even more preposterous is that Virginia’s economy is robust. Unemployment is significantly below the national average. Residents’ tax burden is squarely in the middle of the nationwide pack. The state government is running a $2 billion budget surplus, boasts a AAA bond rating (putting it in the top dozen states nationally) and is regularly ranked among the best states for business.
If Virginians want to see an economy run “into the ditch,” Mr. Youngkin’s plan would do the trick.
This site allows you to electronically sign petitions for Democratic candidates so that they can be on the ballot as candidates for the Democratic nomination in the June 8th, 2021 primary. We noticed different candidates were collecting these electronic petitions in different ways. This site allows you to sign multiple petitions at once for statewide and for House of Delegates candidates.
My name is Doug Ward, and I am excited to be a Democratic candidate for the House of Delegates from the 18th District.
I am 71 years old, living in Rappahannock County with my husband of 22 years.
While in college I was undecided on how I wanted to spend my life, and so ended up joining the Peace Corps, where I served for three years teaching junior high school in a small village in Liberia, West Africa. This experience convinced me that I wanted to pursue a career helping others, and decided to go to medical school. After graduation I did a residency in Internal Medicine and then a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the NIH.
For the last 34 years I have been in private practice in Washington, DC, specializing in Infectious Diseases and the treatment of HIV/AIDS. I have a large practice, and am widely recognized as one of the leading experts in this field.
I am proud to run as a Democrat. Since the Democratic Party took control of the Virginia legislature two years ago there has been significant progress in the issues that concern me, but we still have a long way to go.
For obvious reasons I am concerned with issues of healthcare. The expansion of Medicaid in 2019 provided healthcare to more than 400,000 Virginians, but there are still significant problems with access to care, particularly in rural areas. We are currently in the midst of a global pandemic, and need competent leadership to get us through these difficult times. While dealing with Covid 19 however, we cannot forget the traditional medical issues and preventative healthcare that can be so difficult in rural settings.
I strongly support raising the minimum wage. The current rate of $7.25 leaves someone working full time below the federal poverty line. This is unacceptable.
Broadband, and even cell coverage is a major problem in rural areas. This is more than a problem of convenience, but impacts education, healthcare, and the economy. It’s embarrassing that our access to this is so poor.
Equal rights, including LGBT rights, is another area where we have made progress. This session of the legislature has seen the repeal of the constitutional ban on gay marriage and a ban on the “gay panic” defense, but again, there’s still a need for more.
Green energy, including wind and solar and micro-nuclear power can improve the environment, reduce climate change, and be a source of new jobs.
Another issue important to rural areas is access to education, including community college and trades schools.
These are just a few of the many areas where progressive leadership in our legislature can improve the quality life in Virginia. I look forward to contributing to that progress.
