In the last election, Democrats again campaigned as moderates, including Abigail Spanberger. Once in control of the Governor’s mansion and the legislature, however, Virginia Democrats have moved quickly to fulfill the worst stereotype of a tax-hungry, economy-crushing party. The Democrats introduced an array of new taxes on every aspect of life. At the same time, Spanberger moved to take control of Virginia universities and colleges after years of trying to move those schools to the center. Now, members are pushing rent control legislation and defining landlords as “gougers” if they raise rents by as little as 3%.
The tax frenzy immediately began after the Democrats took control.
Spanberger has also announced that the state will rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-trade program that imposes a de facto carbon tax.
Virginia Democrats appear to be replicating California’s disastrous tax policies that have chased high earners and companies from the state. Here are a few of the new taxes being pushed:
HB 378 – Imposes a 3.8% net investment income tax on individuals, trusts, and estates beginning in taxable year 2027. This would raise the state’s top marginal income tax rate on portfolio and passive income to 9.55% in addition to federal taxes.
HB 900 – Imposes sales tax hikes on transportation districts as well as a new tax on every retail delivery in Northern Virginia (Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, UPS, etc.). This appears modeled on a Minnesota law.
HB 919 – Imposes a firearm and ammunition tax equal to 11% percent of the gross receipts from the retail sale of any firearm or ammunition by a dealer in firearms, firearms manufacturer, or ammunition vendor.
HB 978 – Extends the retail sales and use tax to dry cleaning, landscaping, and other previously exempt services.
Now, the Democrats are pushing rent control legislation despite a long history of failure in such programs to discourage new construction and property improvements. At the same time, it has been shown actually to increase rents overall.
Democrats have introduced two bills under the guise of fighting “rent gouging.” However, they define gouging as rent increases of just over 3%. That does not cover inflation in past years. Under these laws, restrictions could kick in for increases even below 3%.
In my forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the challenges for the American Republic in the 21st Century. That includes a predicted move by the left to introduce guaranteed incomes and rent controls. That appears to be unfolding sooner than anticipated.
In New York, Zohran Mamdani is seeking rent freezes and enhanced rent controls. He has surrounded himself with radicals who have called for the elimination or sharp curtailment of private property. The most noteworthy is Cea Weaver who has called for the elimination of private property.
The American left has cited South Africa and Cuba as models for the United States despite their economic meltdowns.
As they seek to impose an array of new taxes and regulations, Democrats are also pushing a bill that would make it more difficult to find federal fraud by nonprofits. As billions have been lost to fraud in other states, the Democrats want to make it harder for the federal government to investigate such fraud in Virginia.
Virginia Democrats are taking a prosperous and moderate state into the same failed direction as states like California. The desire to spend “someone else’s money” is irresistible when you want to increase spending. For many wealthy families, West Virginia or Florida are likely looking more and more appealing.
1-30-26.. local news has just published more updates to the Virginia Dems Tax Frenzy: ‘Some of the other taxes Virginia Democratic lawmakers have proposed despite running on affordability:
• Additional local sales tax in all Virginia counties and cities
• New personal property tax on electric leaf blowers and electric landscaping equipment
• Large employer tax
• Gun and ammunition tax
• New income tax brackets
• Delivery tax, which would hit Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, and UPS orders in Northern Virginia
• Investment income tax
• Event tax
• Storage facility tax
• Gym membership tax
• Dog walking tax
• Dog grooming tax
• Counseling tax
• Digital personal property tax
• New car taxes and highway use fees
• Increase in the hotel tax in Arlington
• Statewide speed cameras (not a tax, but more fines for drivers)
• Vehicle repair tax
• Home repair tax
• Dry cleaning tax’
…………….no doubt TBC.. none of whch makes sense as Gov. Younkin left the Commonwealth in the Black for the 1st time in 2 Decades plus brought in a lot of New Business…
…..and this surpises you? The dems campaigned on one thing but legislate on another. RHINOs have been doing exactly that for years. Instead of sicialism, they have been socialist lite. It ainm’t less filling and it sure doesn’t taste great.
..spamburger was programmed for 2 years by the uber funded ss 0 r 0 ss machine to be implemented with her marching orders to undo all The Good by the Youngkin Admin.. they want a new world order… it’s the Radical Dem (so far Left that it has become Reactionary Right..) playbook.. we saw it in the Brutal Dirty Politics ads like an Avalanche on TV.. and we see it every day being played out by the violence in the streets… and the complete BS from folks like Jeffries.. never mind that they have their facts backwards, etc…
Felony Investigation Into Obama’s Fingerprints All Over Investigations of Trump And Clinton
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/01/22/obamas_fingerprints_all_over_investigations_of_trump_and_clinton_1160121.html?mc_cid=496c73ade2&mc_eid=febb5a4d8f
You would never see this story in the New York Times that was a co-conspirator with Obama and his crime cartel who created the Russia Dossier. This is what actual journalism looks like.
In the run-up to the 2016 Democratic Party convention, FBI Director James Comey gained access to at least eight thumb drives containing large volumes of former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s sensitive State Department emails – as well as many directly from President Obama – that had been been compromised by five different foreign intelligence agency’s hackers.
That explosive new batch of physical evidence, now revealed in recently declassified documents provided by CIA Director John Radcliff, confirmed what CIA Director John Brennan had been telling both President Obama and Comey in multiple presidential briefings for years.
Instead of including that evidence in his ongoing investigation of Clinton opened after referrals from House hearings, Comey rushed to order the closure of that investigation into whether Clinton improperly transmitted and received classified material from a private, unsecured server she kept in her basement. Comey also took the unprecedented and extraordinary step of bypassing the attorney general and personally exonerating Clinton of wrongdoing during an unusual press conference on July 5, 2016.
Although such trips take long prior planning, just a few short hours after Comey exonerated her regarding her use of a private email server, Obama flew with Clinton aboard Air Force One to help launch her multicity campaign tour during which he officially endorsed Clinton as his preferred White House successor.
Comey’s decision to remove the cloud of scandal over Clinton’s campaign, allowing the president to get on with the business of of using his presidential resources to campaign for her even before she was the nominee, is just one avenue of investigation the Justice Department is pursuing in wide-ranging probes whose targets include a figure largely unscathed by his era’s scandals: former President Barack Obama.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said prosecutors are investigating, among other things, “possible coordination between the Clinton campaign and the Obama administration to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.”
Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has impaneled a grand jury to hear evidence related to an alleged “grand criminal conspiracy” by Obama and Biden officials to enlist law enforcement and intelligence agencies in rigging elections and carrying out political espionage against Donald Trump.