For a brief two-year window (2020-21), Democrats held full sway in state government, controlling the governorship and both houses of the legislature.
They made the best (to some) or worst (to others) of it, passing a raft of legislation that, even though the Old Dominion is now back in its more typical divided-government status (hooray!), has left Virginia tilted perhaps permanently left.
Fairfax County supervisors – nine of the 10 being Democrats and none facing voters for three more years – almost assuredly will use a remnant of that 2020-21 Democratic dominance in Richmond later this fall, imposing a meals tax on a populace that twice has rejected it in referendums.
Previous Virginia law had required counties like Fairfax to obtain voter approval for imposition of a meals tax, but that requirement is now a goner.
There are arguments for and against a meals tax. We recognize the need to diversify taxation streams so local governments are not so heavily dependent on real-estate taxes. But there’s not a chance in this wide, wide world of ours that ladling a meals tax on top of other taxes in Fairfax County is going to result in a reduction in the burden of homeowners. On that you can bank.
