I strongly support a more progressive and fair tax system. As the Federal government guts services, Virginia needs new sources of revenue if we want to maintain our school lunch programs, rural hospitals, green infrastructure investment, and effective emergency response programs. Currently our taxes cap out at $17,000, putting the burden on those who can least afford to pay. I urge you to invest in Virginia, and pass the Fair Share Tax reforms.

I am skeptical of HB 1074. Virginia taxes are already too high, in general: Virginia has a 5.75% top income tax rate, compared to the 3.99% top income tax rate in North Carolina. Yet this bill would raise taxes even higher for some households, giving Virginia a top tax rate of 7.75%, much higher than most states in this country. 7.75% is substantially higher than the rates in most neighboring states, such as Kentucky (which has a top rate of 3.5%), Tennessee (which has no state income tax at all), and West Virginia (which has a top rate of 4.82%). Virginia is richer than those states and has a bigger tax base, so Virginia should be able to get by with lower tax rates than most of its neighbors, such as North Carolina. Yet under this bill, the top rate in Virginia would be almost twice as high as in North Carolina. An earlier comment describes how a tax on millionaires led to an exodus of high-income people from another state, reducing that state's tax revenue, and leaving it worse off as a result of the tax increase. This bill would not raise taxes as high as HB 188 or HB 979, but it could still have some unanticipated consequences, resulting in some high-income people leaving Virginia.

My name is Jessica Mott, of Arlington VA, representing the Virginia Grassroots Coalition. This statewide coalition is comprised of more than 55 grassroots groups and tens of thousands of voters. We ask you to please support a “fair share tax” by creating a new tax bracket for millionaires, through passage of HB979 (Watts), HB1074 (Hernandez), or HB188 (Convirs-Fowler), or a reconciled combination of these bills’ provisions. We share the concerns of many Virginia legislators about the significant cuts and expensive regulatory requirements at the federal level, and the need to ensure funds and access for all to health, food security, education, childcare, and other essential services in the upcoming state budget. We believe Virginia needs new sources of revenue for these increased budget requirements, prioritizing measures which make our tax system more progressive, i.e., imposing higher tax rates on individuals with high income and wealth, thus taking into account their ability to pay and maintaining the overall focus of the Governor on affordability. Increasing the income tax rate provides an effective and fair way to address this need. Currently, all income in excess of $17,000 is taxed by the state at the marginal rate of only 5.75 percent! Accordingly, we ask that you pass one of proposed fair share tax bills, or a reconciled combination of them. In view of our priority of promoting progressive tax measures, we support HB979 with its higher 10% rate for those with income above $1 million and the 8% bracket for those with income between $600,000 and $ 1 million. We also urge you to include HB979’s provision to exempt food and hygiene products from local sales taxes. We note that HB979 and HB188 specify an allocation for education, and in the case of HB188, also for childcare and housing. HB1074 supports a health insurance subsidy. We support these or alternatively, ensuring that the main budget directly accommodates these needs. Thank you for taking our views into consideration.

This bill's 7.75% tax rate would result in Virginia having much higher tax rates than most neighboring states -- such as North Carolina (which has a 3.99% maximum tax rate), Kentucky (which has a 3.5% maximum tax rate) and West Virginia (which has a 4.82% maximum tax rate). Higher tax rates could lead to high-income taxpayers leaving the state, and no longer paying taxes to Virginia. That could mean less tax revenue for Virginia. When Maryland raised taxes on millionaires in 2007, many moved out of state, resulting in Maryland raising less revenue as a result, according to the Tax Foundation: "The Comptroller of Maryland has reported that the number of 'millionaire' returns tumbled sharply between 2007 and 2008, a 30% drop in filers and 22% drop in declared income. Rather than income taxes from this group rising by $106 million, they fell by $257 million….One-in-eight millionaires who filed a Maryland tax return in 2007 filed no return in 2008….A Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysis of federal tax return data on people who migrated from one state to another found that Maryland lost $1 billion of its net tax base in 2008 by residents moving to other states." Some rich people can move across the border to neighboring states where there is no state income tax, like Tennessee, or where tax rates are lower, like North Carolina (3.99%), Kentucky (3.5%), and West Virginia (4.82%). If they are retirees, they can easily move to states where there is no state income tax, such as Florida.