Members of the General Assembly are considering a bill to crack down on people who have not paid state taxes. The debate has a partisan dimension.
"This is a bill that I got from George W. Bush."
That was the Majority Leader of the state Senate, Scott Surovell, a Democrat from Fairfax County. He was speaking about a bill he introduced that would help Virginia identify people who have not paid state taxes by awarding money to anyone who blows the whistle on tax cheats.
"It's a proven federal model that the feds have been using now for almost 20 years," Surovell said. "And this just allows us to do the same thing at the state level with this good, Republican idea. So, I'd hope we'd see a good, bipartisan vote on this good, Republican idea."
But that's not what happened. After the Majority Leader presented his bill to the Senate, Republican Senator Mark Obenshain of Rockingham County took the floor to say this…
"Why would we do this? Do you really think the IRS and the Virginia state Department of Taxation needs this kind of help? I think they do a pretty dog gone good job of sniffing out tax fraud themselves. What we’re doing is energizing a bunch of disaffected spouses in divorce contests or neighbors in boundary disputes digging up mischief on their neighbors."
The bill passed on a party-line vote, and now it's heading over to the House of Delegates.
