Op-Ed by Larry Roller
What’s all this talk about a great tax increase? The only tax increase was raising the sales tax from 4.5 percent to 5 percent. Emmett Hanger is working for tax reform, and tax reform means everyone paying his/her fair share. A sales tax certainly does that.
But what is not talked about is the reduction of taxes that is benefiting everyone in the 24th Senatorial District. Emmett Hanger supported a tax bill that removed the sales tax from non-prescription drugs and eliminated the 2 percent state’s portion of the sales tax on groceries. It abolished the marriage penalty; increased the personal exemption for Virginia’s income tax; ended the Virginia estate tax; reduced the car tax; enacted a back-to-school sales tax holiday; and eliminated the income tax entirely for thousands of low-income Virginians. All of this tax reduction for just a half-cent sales tax increase. That’s a good deal!
In fact, Attorney General Bob McDonnell stated at a meeting in Staunton last month that the overall taxes that most Virginians will be paying is less than it would have been with the old plan.
Let’s vote for Emmett Hanger in the June 12th primary so that he can continue to work for tax reform that will best serve all of us.
Dr. Larry Roller resides in Mount Sidney.
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