It’s Saturday morning and Freddy’s priorities embody grocery purchasing and visiting associates in one other a part of Fairfax County. Freddy, who’s graduating from George Mason College quickly, checks the clock to calculate the time wanted to stroll over to the bus cease and begin his errands. 

Freddy is simply one of many many individuals in Virginia that depend on public transportation to get to highschool, work, and extra. Like so many others, he can be impacted by tax proposals lawmakers are at present contemplating that might drastically scale back sources that assist make public transportation protected and dependable. Negotiations on these tax proposals proceed within the 2022 Particular Session. Whereas the Virginia Senate has proposed focused tax reduction to assist struggling households, the Virginia Home of Delegates has included a two-year gasoline tax discount of their proposed biennial finances and is contemplating a extra sweeping proposal to get rid of the gasoline tax for 3 months and cap future index changes, which might erode  funding for future transportation enhancements and operations.

What would these proposals imply for our associates and neighbors that depend on this significant public service? With out plans to boost income to make up for the cuts that include pausing the state retail gasoline tax and eliminating the state grocery tax, Virginia’s Transportation Belief Fund would face $1.8 billion in losses over the following six years. This could doubtlessly embody $258 million in cuts to public transportation funding that retains transit companies dependable, improves and expands routes throughout Virginia, and pays transit workers. 

This lower in public transportation funds can also be a difficulty of fairness for a lot of throughout Virginia. Areas like Northern Virginia, Accomack, Richmond, Galax, and extra are residence to a major quantity of weak communities, in accordance with the Census Weak Inhabitants Index (VPI). The VPI takes under consideration Census blocks which have important quantities of people who find themselves restricted English proficient, individuals with disabilities, individuals over the age of 65, and households at or under the poverty line. These communities can be impacted by cuts to public transportation {dollars} as a result of these identical areas are residence to important prepare and bus companies. Cuts to public transportation {dollars}, notably funds devoted to sustaining and enhancing companies, would disconnect individuals from work, household, and their native economic system. 

Whereas Virginia has made nice progress in increasing entry to driving over the previous couple of years, there are nonetheless various immigrants who solely depend on public transportation and can’t afford much less frequent bus and prepare companies. Low-income households that can’t afford to purchase and preserve a private automobile shouldn’t shoulder the burden of irresponsible tax proposals that do little to assist these most in want. The truth is, evaluation from the Institute on Taxation and Financial Coverage finds that the present proposal to pause the retail gasoline tax and cap retail gasoline charges for future years would do little to influence rising gasoline costs. Almost a 3rd of potential financial savings would stream proper again to the oil trade. Even executives of 4 international oil corporations admitted to not having the ability to assure financial savings to drivers when requested if pausing the federal gasoline tax would translate to financial savings for drivers. 

There is no such thing as a denying that Virginia households are going through financial hardships. Fortunately, there are extra focused and fiscally accountable proposals that lawmakers can think about that might assist these most in want. Making Virginia’s Earned Revenue Tax Credit score (EITC) absolutely refundable would supply about $500 every year on common to working households whose budgets are being stretched probably the most. That might pay for seven months of water payments, 1,700 diapers, or 250 WMATA bus journeys. Moreover, increasing the one-time tax rebates to account for household dimension and low-income individuals with no revenue tax legal responsibility would guarantee these funds are dispersed extra equitably. The present legislative proposal for tax rebates not solely excludes individuals most in want, however would supply the very same rebate to a single grownup incomes $250,000 a yr and single mother or father of three kids incomes $75,000 a yr. Accounting for household dimension would imply much-needed cash within the pockets of households with kids. 

Lawmakers can go a finances that creates alternatives for all of us to thrive. As a substitute of chopping sources for public transportation, which Freddy and so many others throughout Virginia depend on, lawmakers can present actual financial reduction by way of a refundable EITC and extra equitable tax rebate checks. Finances negotiators ought to seize the chance to guard transit funding whereas offering actual monetary reduction for individuals who want it most. 

Rodrigo Soto is the Income Marketing campaign Supervisor at The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Evaluation and is a part of the Tax Equity for Virginia Coalition