Yes, you read that right, the Senate Democratic monstrosity that includes statewide and regional tax increases (including the Fredericksburg, Richmond, and SWAC areas) might actually pass the House of Delegates - thanks to Republican votes.
Nearly every Richmond Republican has insisted that the Senate bill has no chance of passing the House, and that Howell only sent it to the floor to embarrass House Democrats. Yet Garren Shipley, the first fellow to actually give this disaster a chance to pass the House, still sees that chance (View from the Cheap Seats, h/t Norman Leahy at Tertium Quids):
Sen. Dick Saslaw, D-Springfield, is the author of the only revenue bill to pass either chamber, Senate Bill 6009. His bill would raise $1 billion or so a year by raising the gas tax by 1 cent per year over six years. It would also raise the general sales tax by 0.25 percent and lower the food tax by 0.5 percent.
That puts Saslaw is in the driver’s seat for Democratic plans. Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s $1 billion per year plan was never introduced in the Senate and was summarily executed in a House committee.
That would normally be the fate of a gas-tax hike in the GOP-lead House, but GOP leaders have apparently grown tired of being labeled as obstructionists, and passed the bill on to the floor for an up or down vote, likely on either July 9 or 10.
Democrats in the House would need to peel off only six GOP votes to pass the measure, provided their caucus held together as solidly as their Senate counterparts did. And there are enough Republicans in Democratic trending districts in Northern Virginia to make any nose counts interesting.
The following paragraph - which, oddly enough, Norman drops from his excerpt – is the one that counts (emphasis added):
A number of GOP delegates have said quietly that there could well be enough defections to push it SB 6009 over the top. But that depends on Democrats holding their 45 members in line to vote for a gas tax hike when gas is more than $4 per gallon.
In other words, we could very well end up seeing House Republicans help pass SB6009S1 – unless House Democrats stop them. Should SB6009S1 fail, we then get to see more House Republicans try to ram through HB6055, with likely more House Democrats mobilizing to block it.
Have the Republican Delegates really descended to the point where we need Democrats to save us from tax increases? Can anyone really dispute that it is time for Bill Howell to go?
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
