Free Republic

RICHMOND (AP) — Refunds of taxes and fees collected unconstitutionally for Northern Virginia road projects are on their way back to those who paid them. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine today signed a bill passed this year that sets up procedures for returning money collected by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. Among the refunds: — The Department of Motor Vehicles will return the 1 percent initial registration fee on new vehicles and the $10 regional registration fee. — Circuit Court clerks will work to return the grantor's tax paid on real estate sales. — The Treasury Department will return the 2...

Here's a grand development that should drive bonkers liberals everywhere trying to concoct sneaky ways to impose taxation without representation: The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that the state General Assembly did not have the power to give the 13-member unelected Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) the right to raise taxes for regional road and rail projects. Now the NVTA has to figure out a way to refund the $8.3 million it has collected from the public in taxes and fees since January, reports The Washington Times. The transportation authority imposed a $10 tax on state vehicle inspections, a 5...

RICHMOND — State and local officials today will start trying to figure out how to refund $8.3 million in tax money collected by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA). "It's something I am not very clear on," said Sen. William C. Wampler Jr., Bristol Republican. "I think it is very complicated and sets up a whole other dynamic. Obviously, if the courts tell us it needs to be done, we need to find out a way to do it." The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that the General Assembly did not have the power to give the NVTA, a 13-member...

The multibillion-dollar transportation plan Virginia lawmakers approved earlier this year is a constitutional train wreck that sells out the party's basic tenets of low taxation and less government, a group of Republicans says. "This is an ongoing massacre," Delegate Robert G. Marshall, Prince William County Republican, told The Washington Times this week. "Blood has been drawn and the incumbents sure are going to take the biggest heat. . .. If the Republican leadership thinks they can get out of this unscathed by shutting their eyes and hoping it goes away, it is not going to work." Mr. Marshall is one...

NVTA to vote on taxes, fees By LILLIAN KAFKA lkafka@potomacnews.com Tuesday, July 10, 2007 The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is poised to take action on seven taxes and fees that could raise about $300 million a year for the region's transportation system. On Thursday the NVTA meets to make its decision after a public hearing in Falls Church. Much of the authority's decision, however, rests on the result of a legal suit that it will file on Friday, according to members of the authority. That suit will ask a judge to rule on the NVTA's constitutional ability to impose those...

An unelected body, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, (NVTA) is set to implement completely unprecedented and controversial taxing powers for road projects, two thirds of which will not be identified until late November or early December. The NVTA wants more taxing power from the General Assembly in 2008, eminent domain authority to take homes, businesses, and land, and power to relocate utilities. Proposed Taxes and Fee Increases: - Tax on home sales will increase an additional 40 cents per $100 bringing the total state and local grantor/recordation taxes to 86.66 cents per $100, up from 46.66 cents per $100 ($3,467...