Why?

• The Virginia tax system is Unfair.

In Virginia, the lower your income, the more you are burdened by state and local taxes as a percent of your income. The wealthiest Virginians pay only 6.9% of their income while the poorest pay 10.4 percent. Our state needs to make the personal income tax more progressive and eliminate the sales tax on food in order to balance the burden.

• The Virginia tax system is Obsolete.

Parts of the personal income tax system of rates and brackets have not been adjusted since they were created in 1926. The Standard Deduction and Personal Exemption have not kept pace with inflation, and they are so low that much poverty-level income is taxed. We tax products but not services. Virginia needs to adjust our tax system so that the numbers make sense in 2005 dollars and expand the sales tax to capture the economic growth in service industries.

What can you do?

Call your state senator and delegate and ask them to commit to making the Virginia tax system adequate, fair, and modern. To get contact information, go to this website http://legis.state.va.us/ and follow the links to “Who’s My Legislator?”