Stealth Taxation

This has gone under the radar, but in the House of Delegates there is an HB399, introduced by Delegates Hixson and McIntosh, that would give county charter governments the statutory authority to set a tax rater higher than the tax cap and collect more revenues than allowed under the County Charter.

Delegate Hixson, incidentally, is Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Delegate McIntosh is Chair of the Environmental Matters Committee and likely the next Speaker of the House. And their scheme is perfectly constitutional because it is the state that has the authority to authorize the counties to have charter government.

What will Democratic leadership think up next?