Both Virginia governor candidates vow to end state's "car tax"

Axios

2 days ago

There's one thing both candidates for Virginia governor agree on: the state's "car tax" should go, the Times-Dispatch reports.
Why it matters: Most locals who own a car just shelled out big bucks for their annual personal property tax bill.
Driving the news: Last week, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP candidate for governor, announced her "Axe the Tax" initiative at a campaign event in Fairfax.
Her proposal calls for ending the personal property tax on vehicles in Virginia and eliminating the state's income taxes on tipped wages.
"We are going to get rid of this daggone car tax once and for all," Earle-Sears said at the event.
A spokesperson for former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told the Times-Dispatch that she too supports ending the "car tax" and plans to work with both Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly to find a way to do it.
The big picture: Roughly half of states levy a personal property tax on vehicles.
Better known in Virginia as the "car tax," it's deeply unpopular with residents, likely because, well, it's a tax ... and one that only about half the nation pays.
That's largely why statewide politicians have been promising to repeal or offset it on and off for nearly 30 years, including earlier this year when Gov. Youngkin proposed $1.1 billion in car tax relief.
Yes, but: The tax is deeply ingrained in Virginia (it's been around since 1782) and provides significant revenue for cities, towns and counties, which levy and collect the money.
So if and when politicians want to kill it at the state level, they have to find a way to reimburse the localities for the lost revenue.
In 2024, the last time the state looked at repealing the car tax, the estimated price tag for Virginia was $2.5 billion to $3 billion a year, the Times-Dispatch notes.