Several big corporate gets, notwithstanding, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is in a ditch — thrown there by Virginia’s fall from No. 1 to No. 3 in a best-state-for-business survey.
The Republican is suggesting that tax breaks for business can restore Virginia’s supremacy.
It would also give him something to yammer about as a 2024 presidential wannabe, perhaps allowing the 6-foot-5 Youngkin to stand a bit taller in a Republican field still dominated by Donald Trump.
The much-ballyhooed CNBC list last month put Virginia, the top state in 2019 and 2021 (there was no list in 2020) behind second-ranking Washington and top-rated North Carolina. It was a setback — embarrassment may be more to the point — that not even the script-dependent Youngkin and his cynical spin machine could fully explain.
Our neighbor to the south was very much on Youngkin’s mind in his remarks this past Friday to the General Assembly money committees. Youngkin cited North Carolina for “systematically reducing its business taxes” to generate industry and jobs.
What he didn’t say is that North Carolina has the lowest corporate tax rate in the county — 2.5% — and by 2030 will do away with its business levy altogether. In response to the pandemic, six states have cut corporate income taxes over the past year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
Two states have no corporate income tax: South Dakota and Wyoming. Virginia — with a rate of 6%, the third-highest among its six neighbors, which charge from 2.5% to 8.25% — is one of 44 states and Washington, D.C., that tax business income.
Youngkin, who won $4 billion in tax cuts for individuals under a bipartisan deal this year that he groused didn’t go far enough, says Virginia can be more attractive to industry by lowering business costs. In that category, the CNBC findings, which must annoy Youngkin or he wouldn’t repeatedly demean them, rated Virginia 25th — the state’s worst score. Costs include taxes, wages, utilities and the price of office and industrial space.
The improbable — doing away with Virginia’s corporate income tax, the state’s third-biggest source of revenue behind the 5.75% individual income tax and the sales tax — is not a new idea. At least three times since 2010, GOP legislators introduced proposals to eliminate the tax. The measures died quietly in committees, even those run by Republicans.
In a state where the business and political classes tend to be one and the same, there are sharp differences over taxation. Some of this is rooted in an enduring reality.
For example, taxes on business licenses — determined by gross receipts — and levies on machinery and tools drive the corpocracy nuts. They’re attacked as outdated, unnecessary and unfair. Protected by state law, they are important sources of local revenue.
If only because Virginia government is divided — a Republican governor, a GOP-dominated House of Delegates and Democrat-controlled state Senate — neither the politicians nor the plutocrats are getting too far out front on tax goodies for business.
Youngkin has put down a marker for unspecified additional tax givebacks, declaring he’ll set aside nearly $400 million from the state’s latest surplus, $1.9 billion, to pay for them. Republican legislators, such as Del. Joe McNamara of Roanoke County, who honchoed Youngkin’s first tax cut plan, have roundly said business will be the next beneficiary.
Business, however, is taking a wait-and-see approach.
Barry DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, said in an email that a survey of businesses by his organization shows they want the governor and lawmakers “to work on comprehensive tax reform to better position the commonwealth for economic growth and investment; to include a competitive corporate tax system.”
As for doing away with the corporate income tax — much like Youngkin’s since-discarded pledge as a candidate in 2021 to eliminate the individual income tax — it’s a nonstarter, particularly with the legislature’s most powerful Democrat, Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw of Fairfax.
“I have not heard a single businessman in 47 years say we should do away with the corporate income tax,” said Saslaw, a member of the powerful finance and commerce committees, which, respectively, write the state budget and oversee business.
Might Virginia consider doing what’s been done — to the consternation of the left — in Florida, home of Gov. Ron DeSantis, the leading alternative among party activists to Trump for the Republican nomination? Under DeSantis, the corporate tax rate temporarily dropped in 2021 to 3.35% from 5.5% because revenues exceeded projections. The rate returned to 5.5% in January.
Advocates for schools, the social safety net, the environment and public employees worry the Florida law will limit investments in public services while rewarding rich corporations.
But tax laws are about winners and losers.
Ask gazillionaire Glenn Youngkin: He claims to have paid $18 million in taxes over the past five years, but he reduced his bill with $37 million in charitable deductions — contributions that the governor believes are aiding worthy causes. Plus, he got a 95% tax break on his estate in Great Falls by having it designated by Fairfax County for farm use.
Youngkin’s apparently at it again by donating his $175,000 salary to charity.
Since taking office in January, he has given from his government paycheck $44,000 each to the Virginia Law Enforcement Assistance Program and the Virginia Veterans Services Foundation. Donations to both are tax deductible, but Youngkin spokesman Rob Damschen won’t say whether Youngkin is availing himself of the break.
Assuming Youngkin is — and we can’t know for sure unless he make public his income tax returns, which he refuses to do — the donations against his salary would allow him to avoid about $10,000 in state taxes and nearly $66,000 in federal taxes. That means his PR splash could annually cost taxpayers $76,000.
“If he’s going to use public assets to generate political publicity for himself,” said Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, an occasional Youngkin tormentor, “then he owes some transparency as to what the actual cost is.”
Youngkin prefers the dark. Because what the public doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
In October 1951, workers constructed a section of Forest Hill Avenue in South Richmond. The segment sits between Westover Hills Boulevard and Prince Arthur Road.
In December 1990, a Richmond Ballet dancer stretched before rehearsal of “The Nutcracker.”
In February 1953, Richmond Department of Utilities workers used a 65-foot hook-and-ladder firetruck to install new lights on Broad Street after attempts to secure other ladder equipment from private companies had failed.
In May 1954, Scoop sniffed around the pet food aisle at a grocery store in Richmond’s West End. The store offered a large selection of pet foods, a relatively new concept for the era. The accompanying article said: “Gone, apparently, are the days that Fido took the scraps from the table and liked them.”
In September 1942, members of Richmond Hotels Inc. donated typewriters to the War Production Board and the Office of War Information in response to an appeal for businesses to let the government have any machines they could spare.
In August 1981, children enjoyed outdoor recreation at Camp Happyland in the Richardsville area of Culpeper County, not far from Fredericksburg. The Salvation Army started the camp in the late 1950s to improve children’s health through exercise and proper nutrition.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. On hand were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland. The library opened in December 1970.
In June 1969, a Trappist monk at the Holy Cross Abbey near Berryville in Clarke County began his daily meditation. The monks spent their days balancing quiet prayer, spiritual reading and manual labor.
In June 1956, the Rev. Lawrence V. Bradley Jr. of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond and his secretary, Jean Bolton, got out the summertime heat beater: a simple cardboard fan. The pews were liberally stocked during the warm months because the church had no air conditioning.
In July 1959, the normally bustling downtown Richmond business district, including this stretch along Eighth and Main streets, was much quieter as motorists stayed home because of triple-digit heat.
In April 1966, Union Bag-Camp Paper Corp. officials oversaw manufacturing at a new plant in Chesterfield County. The facility produced millions of bags for supermarket chains and other clients on the East Coast. At the time, about 265 employees worked in two local company plants; the old factory at 13th and Canal streets in Richmond was open for limited operation until it was sold.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. The branch opened in December 1970. Posing with the sign were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland.
In August 1982, David Tidwell of Croaker posed with his girlfriend’s dog, Blazing Amber of Cinder, at the humorous “Norge Dog Station” at Norge Grocery on U.S. Route 60 west of Williamsburg. The sign had been put up seven years earlier, and the spot became a popular photo opportunity for visitors.
In March 1987, in preparation for new carpeting, the Dumbarton branch library in Henrico County had to remove about 80,000 books from shelves. About 50 people handled the first phase overnight — but restocking the shelves awaited.
This 1957 photo shows Collegiate School in the 1600 block of Monument Avenue in Richmond. The Town School elementary building was on the left and the high school on the right. In 1960, the Town School and the Country Day School merged, operating on the campus off River and Mooreland roads in Henrico County. It remains the location today.
In November 1970, a Richmond officer rode his horse by the police bureau’s new stables, which were under construction. The facility near Brook Road and Chamberlayne Avenue included eight stalls, a scrub area, a horseshoeing area and a tack room. The bureau had been looking for an established home for its horses since the mid-1960s, when the Virginia National Guard moved from the Richmond Howitzers downtown armory, where the horses had been stabled for two decades.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In November 1948, Army Lt. Charles D. Smith Jr. administered the oath to the first set of postwar draftees processed at the Richmond induction station at First and Broad streets. Several of the men were immediately sent to Camp Pickett in Blackstone.
In December 1938, Richmond Glass Shop had a new home at 814 W. Broad St., site of the old Ashland Railway Station. The shop, run by brothers Frank R. and A.G. Bialkowski, had glass of many types, and offered bath and kitchen installation, storefront construction and paint products.
In March 1979, corrections officer Howard Alexander held the homemade rope used by convicted murderer Michael Irwin Cross to escape from the State Penitentiary, then located along Spring Street in downtown Richmond. Cross was captured two months later after attempting to free a fellow convict who was being treated at Medical College of Virginia Hospital.
In June 1986, “Mr. Newspaper” greeted a young girl and her mother at a Richmond-area mall. The RTD mascot often traveled around town promoting the newspaper.
In July 1951, Alonzo Moore, 74, walked down a street in Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and blew his horn, alerting locals to his sale of the fresh catch of the day.
In July 1960, the Schellenberg family of Highland Springs prepared to have a bomb shelter installed in their yard, one of Virginia’s first privately owned radiation fallout shelters. The enclosure was designed to accommodate up to six people during a nuclear attack. The horizontal steel tank (rear) was 7 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. Once installed, the only elements aboveground would be a domed entrance and air filter and exhaust pipes.
In June 1979, Terry Woo set bricks for a walkway as construction of Kanawha Plaza in downtown Richmond continued. The $4 million dollar city-financed plaza linked the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond building and the Virginia Electric and Power Co. building.
In July 1951, two women enjoyed the white sand beach of Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
In June 1968, workers welded boilers at Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp., located on Belle Isle under the Lee Bridge in Richmond. At the time, Old Dominion’s owner was interested in expanding operations, and the city was interested in using the island as part of a James River park. The company’s history on Belle Isle spanned from before the Civil War to the 1970s.
In November 1972, after the remnants of Hurricane Agnes had washed out a bridge, a barge carried vehicles and workers across the James River from Tredegar Street toward Belle Isle in Richmond. A day earlier, a welder for Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp. drowned after a boat carrying him and others capsized on the same route.
This December 1973 photo shows the front counter in Roaring Twenties, a new restaurant and nightclub on state Route 10 in the Hopewell area. It was designed to resemble a 1920s speakeasy, with features including an antique cash register, a diving girl and even a dining table from Al Capone’s Florida home.
In October 1969, cadets at John Marshall High School in Richmond posed with their ribbon-bedecked sponsors after an awards ceremony. The school’s Corps of Cadets was established in 1915 — it was the first military training program in a public school in Virginia — and disbanded in 1971.
In May 1989, a transformer exploded under the sidewalk on the Fourth Street side of the Richmond Newspapers Inc. building downtown. The ensuing fireball charred two cars parked on the street and sent flames up the side of the building. No one was hurt in the nighttime explosion, and delivery of the next morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch (which was printed in the building) was only slightly delayed.
In August 1972, motorists approaching construction on Interstate 64 south of Bryan Park in Richmond were greeted by a robot signalman waving a bright red flag. “Silent Sam,” as the decoy was nicknamed, was used by the state Department of Highways to slow drivers as they neared workmen building an I-195 interchange and bridge near the Acca rail yards.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter, @RTDSchapiro. Listen to his analysis 7:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. Friday on Radio IQ, 89.7 FM in Richmond and 89.1 FM in Roanoke, and in Norfolk on WHRV, 89.5 FM.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin addresses a joint meeting of the General Assembly's money committees.
U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, whose redrawn 6th District includes Clarke County, is channeling the notoriously parsimonious political personality who, …
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