Both Virginia governor candidates vow to end state's "car tax"

Driving the news: Last week, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP candidate for governor, announced her "Axe the Tax" initiative at a campaign event in Fairfax.

• Her proposal calls for ending the personal property tax on vehicles in Virginia and eliminating the state's income taxes on tipped wages.
• "We are going to get rid of this daggone car tax once and for all," Earle-Sears said at the event.
• A spokesperson for former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told the Times-Dispatch that she too supports ending the "car tax" and plans to work with both Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly to find a way to do it.

The big picture: Roughly half of states levy a personal property tax on vehicles.

• Better known in Virginia as the "car tax," it's deeply unpopular with residents, likely because, well, it's a tax ... and one that only about half the nation pays.
• That's largely why statewide politicians have been promising to repeal or offset it on and off for nearly 30 years, including earlier this year when Gov. Youngkin proposed $1.1 billion in car tax relief.

Yes, but: The tax is deeply ingrained in Virginia (it's been around since 1782) and provides significant revenue for cities, towns and counties, which levy and collect the money.

• So if and when politicians want to kill it at the state level, they have to find a way to reimburse the localities for the lost revenue.
• In 2024, the last time the state looked at repealing the car tax, the estimated price tag for Virginia was $2.5 billion to $3 billion a year, the Times-Dispatch notes.

The bottom line: Repealing the car tax may be popular with voters, and a perennial campaign platform, but paying for it is the real challenge.