Down at the diner in Richmond, the fella in the corner booth makes about $17,001 a year, and he pays Virginia's top income tax rate. So does the fella who makes $999,999. Under current law, every dollar over $17,000 gets taxed at the same 5.75 percent, which makes Virginia a place where a short-order cook and a hedge fund manager are, technically speaking, in the same bracket.
State Sen. Mamie Locke, a Democrat from Hampton, would like to fix that, in her own way. She has prefiled Senate Bill 849 for the 2027 session, which would add a new 10 percent bracket on income over $1 million, starting with taxable year 2027. The bill was referred on Oct. 26 to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, according to the state's legislative records and the bill tracker LegiScan.
Now, I've lived in Virginia long enough to know how millionaires respond to news. They don't write letters to the editor. They call a moving company.
And here's the part that had the whole counter laughing over their eggs. The tax doesn't start until 2027. So the bill, in effect, gives Virginia's millionaires a little over a year's notice, which is roughly how long it takes to buy a house in Florida, register a boat in Florida, and develop strong opinions about Florida's lack of a state income tax.
Folks may remember we've been here before. Back in February, a House bill, HB 188, proposed the same 10 percent rate on income over $1 million, with the money split among public schools, the Child Care Subsidy Program and the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. It never made it into law. Now it's back for another lap, like a casserole somebody keeps bringing to the potluck because they're sure this time folks will try it.
The pitch is that only a small number of very wealthy people would pay it, and the money would go to schools, child care and housing. All fine causes. The waitress here has two kids and could use help with all three. But the trouble with taxing a small number of very wealthy people is that there's a small number of them, and they're very wealthy, which means they can afford a moving truck. The waitress, meanwhile, is not going anywhere. She's working a double.
A regular named Earl, who has never earned a million dollars and doesn't intend to start, put down his coffee and said the Democrats in Richmond remind him of a fella who finds out his neighbor's got a nice truck and decides the solution is to charge the neighbor more for gas. Earl doesn't own a truck, but he does own opinions.
The bill still has to clear committee, both chambers and a governor's signature. Plenty of these never make it out of the kitchen. But Virginia Democrats have now served this one twice in one year, and if there's one thing every diner owner knows, it's that when a dish keeps coming back, somebody in the back really wants you to order it.
Until then, the cook and the hedge fund manager remain in the same bracket. One of them is looking at houses in Naples. The other is looking at the grill.
This article is satire. The Demorat is a parody news site; real facts are drawn from the linked sources, and jokes, invented scenes, and fictional characters are not real.
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