Good editorial, thanks for the link and your comments, which inspired me to write a letter to the editor in an effort at positive reinforcement.

Actually, we do need a quick fix on the nutty transportation funding proposed, or we will end up with nothing to help our transportation mess after all, since not only is the surplus evaporating but the driver ("abuser") fees are under attack in court, AND the transfer tax (grantor tax) increase on real estate transations is also never going to produce the projected amount of money because of the decline in the real estate market.  In other words, We Been Screwed, again.

I am told some Northern Virginian Delegates plan on introducing an increase in the gasoline tax, since the petition against the abuser taxes has generated so much comment a gas tax increase is now an acceptable topic for conversation in the Assembly.

While this is better than the present dumb "fees," I would prefer a small increase in the sales tax, say one quarter of one percent.  Why? Because it is broad-based, will provide a steady, reliable stream of money which can be bonded--- and the added tax will be so minuscle it will be almost unnoticed on the average transaction (moreover, if you're worried about a sales tax hurting low-income people, then give them a tax rebate on their state income tax). An addition to the gas tax, while it seems directly related to transportation, ignores other forms of transit, and misses those who do not drive but who do, after all, buy groceries which arrived by trucks using gasoline.  Besides, a gas tax may not be such a reliable stream of money, what with more gas-efficient vehicles and people driving less as gas prices rise.

Now that the Minnesota bridge has collapsed we have yet another reason to spring for more money for transportation, especially when you realize that VDOT apparently borrowed from the maintenance fund recently and now has to pay it back, even while maintenance costs have been eating up more and more of the transportation funds. Bah!

We need a new tax structure.  Wonderful.  Do they suggest one?  No.  They advocate change but don't say what the change should be.  That's pretty useless.

to come up with a detailed new tax plan?  Isn't that what our wonderful legislators are supposed to do?

You're a Republican and the post/article points out just how poorly your party has been running things.  If the Republicans want better press then they should try doing a better job of running the government instead of catering to flat earth ideologues. 

"drown government in a bathtub."  So why would they try to make it work when they really want to kill it?

I would note that the a Democratic House passed The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981.  This was the origin of Accelerated Cost Recovery System (aka ACRS), probably the largest corporate tax cut in history.  They also lowered the top Income Tax rate from 70% to 50%. 

In 1986, a Democratic House passed The Tax Reform Act of 1986.  It lowered the top tax rate from 50% to 28% and raised the lowest rate from 11% to 15%.  It replaced the massive handout that was ACRS with a less massive handout called MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System).  Because if you have a long lived asset, say a telephone distribution plant, you should be able to depreciation over a third of it in the first five years because you know how fast those things wear out.  (And if you were wondering why income disparity has grown so much, look no further than these two acts.)

So, though both were "Reagan Tax Cuts", Democrats weren't putting up a fight to stop either of those.  And they have not been in a hurry to repeal them.  Democrats in the U.S. Congress have yet to offer up any tax reform legislation.  So, whether they are better than Republicans on the issue has yet to be seen.

As far as Virginia goes, I will believe it when I see it.  I would be amazed if they did something truly transformative.  But I would guess that they would maybe add a new marginal income tax rate at most.  That's if they don't turn to excise taxes to make up the difference.