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Home – Virginia Politics & News – Virginia’s Gas Tax Increase: What Drivers Need to Know

Virginia’s Gas Tax Increase: What Drivers Need to Know

Drivers in the commonwealth will pay more for gas beginning on Wednesday. This isn’t because of the recent legislative budget deal. It isn’t because of a war in the Middle East. It isn’t because of a pipeline shutdown. It’s because lawmakers put tax policy on cruise control years ago, and prices just keep climbing.

It is a tenet of American governance that a previous legislature may not bind a future one. In simple terms, that means that today’s lawmakers can’t make spending and taxation decisions for their successors. That’s why Virginia’s budget lasts for two years, not 10 or 20, and even the second year is subject to change if circumstances change.

Today’s General Assembly, however, is allowing a House elected in 2019, three governors ago, to bind its hands. In 2020, lawmakers tied fuel taxes to the consumer price index, so as overall prices increase, so does the gas tax. Lawmakers started from what today looks like a very low rate. On Jan. 1, 2020, the retail tax was 16 and two-tenths cents per gallon of........

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