Republican candidate for governor Winsome Earle-Sears is pitching her vision for Virginia. One of her central messages will be a familiar one to voters.
It was the biggest applause line of her stump speech to Republicans during a stump speech in suburban Fairfax County this week. Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears says she wants to get rid of the cart tax.
"You might know that as we talk about freedom, well freedom also means you keeping as much money that you make in your own pocket. I am a fan of that all day long, and let me tell you; we are axing the tax," Earle-Sears says. "We are rolling that out. We are going to get rid of this daggone car tax once and for all."
Republicans may be applauding that line on the campaign trail, but then making it happen after the election is way more difficult. Just ask former Governor Jim Gilmore, who campaigned on the issue of getting rid of the car tax way back in 1997, but then he ran into the Richmond buzzsaw.
"The challenge of implementation. It's very, very difficult to do. I learned that, and we put together a system that worked and I got 70% off while I was in my four-year term, but Virginia governors only get one four-year term," Gilmore says. "And the last opportunity to completely phase it out was lost when I left office."
And it's been an impossible task since then, mainly because local governments need the money. Governor Glenn Youngkin made a lot of noise about repealing the car tax last year, although he failed to deliver. Now, Sears is hoping she can persuade voters she'll succeed where Gilmore and Youngkin dropped the ball.
The campaign of Democrat Abigail Spanberger did not respond when asked for the candidate’s position on the car tax, though a spokesperson later told the Richmond Times-Dispatch she is committed to putting the state on a path to eliminating the tax.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
