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"Mr Gilmore had promised, in 1997, that he would slow down the pace of the car-tax refunds if the economy slowed.[Like a current politican who forgot a Greenhouse gas promise]. He seemed to forget that; instead, he ploughed on with the refunds, and asked at the same time for spending cuts [more Reaganomics also being advocated by George Jr]. ... By March 27th the budget deadline loomed, with no budget and thousands of state workers and teachers without the pay rises the legislature had already promised them."
Mr. Gilmores rational desire to help the working people of his state and get re-elected was attacked by folks with an irrational attachment to higher government spending. An unintended consequence of this oppressive tax was the supression of new car sales, forcing folks to drive older cars with high emissions or resorting to inflexible public transportation. A friend of mine who was a social worker in DC when this was originally being debated was driving the nastiest piece of crap econobox you could imagine. He refused to change cars until the repeal. He lived in an apartment complex populated mostly by foreign nationals who worked as maids and the like and were forced to spend their days carrying groceries on buses. If you want to stop urban sprawl in Virginia, without coercion, cut off the torrent of tax dollars to D.C.
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