Democrats in Richmond are quietly pushing a sweeping plan that would slap sales taxes on things Virginians use every single week — from dog grooming and haircuts to streaming services and delivery fees — effectively turning everyday life into a cash cow for the state. Bills under consideration, including HB 900 and companion measures, would expand the sales tax base to cover a broad slate of personal and digital services that used to be tax-free.
It’s especially galling coming from a party that ran on “affordability” and claimed to have Virginians’ backs. Abigail Spanberger campaigned promising to focus on lowering costs and on her first day in office signed a flurry of executive orders touting affordability — yet her party’s legislative allies are now backing tax hikes that make life more expensive for working families.
The proposals aren’t small change or clever accounting; they would tax digital subscriptions like Netflix and Spotify, delivery platform fees, pet boarding and grooming, gym memberships, and even many household services — and some versions of the plan add new delivery fees and regional surcharges on top of that. Far from the limited, targeted tax adjustments voters were promised, this is a wholesale expansion of state power into the cash register of daily life.
Small businesses and gig workers will be first in line to feel the squeeze. Local salons, pet groomers, dry cleaners, independent landscapers, and delivery drivers already operate on thin margins; adding sales tax compliance and higher costs will force price hikes, paperwork, and fewer customers — and that will fall squarely on the backs of ordinary Virginians. Conservatives and free-market advocates in the Commonwealth are already sounding the alarm that these proposals will kill jobs and strangle small enterprises that built our communities.
This is fiscal hypocrisy in action: campaign on affordability, then tax your way into people’s wallets once power is secured. Democrats might wave studies and bureaucratic spreadsheets about narrow revenue grabs, but the reality is simple — families will cut back, restaurants and local shops will lose business, and inflationary pressures will get worse, not better. The contrast between lofty promises and political expediency could not be clearer.
Patriots who care about pocketbook freedom and local businesses should not sit silently while Richmond bureaucrats patent new ways to collect money from ordinary transactions. Call your delegate, show up at committee hearings, and demand lawmakers remember who pays the bills in this Commonwealth: hard-working Virginians, not an ever-hungry state treasury. The fight for fiscal sanity starts at the ballot box and at the microphone — and conservatives must lead it.
