Jonathan Turley: With Control of Virginia, Democrats Go Into a Tax and Regulatory Frenzy

[mystery-ak]

With Control of Virginia, Democrats Go Into a Tax and Regulatory Frenzy

Jonathan Turley
 January 23, 2026

In the last election, Democrats again campaigned as moderates, including Abigail Spanberger. Once in control of the Governor’s mansion and the legislature, however, Virginia Democrats have moved quickly to fulfill the worst stereotype of a tax-hungry, economy-crushing party. The Democrats introduced an array of new taxes on every aspect of life. At the same time, Spanberger moved to take control of Virginia universities and colleges after years of trying to move those schools to the center. Now, members are pushing rent control legislation and defining landlords as “gougers” if they raise rents by as little as 3%.

The tax frenzy immediately began after the Democrats took control.

Spanberger has also announced that the state will rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-trade program that imposes a de facto carbon tax.

Virginia Democrats appear to be replicating California’s disastrous tax policies that have chased high earners and companies from the state. Here are a few of the new taxes being pushed:

more
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/01/23/with-control-of-virginia-democrats-rush-go-into-a-tax-and-regulatory-frenzy/

[DefiantMassRINO]

The liberal midnight madness sale has come to Virginia ... spend & tax, regulation up the wazoo, coddling criminals, increasing the cost of living, and decreasing the quality of life.

It's misnomer to say liberals 'tax and spend'.  They spend first, then use budget crisis/emergency to raise taxes ... for the children ... and illegal crminal aliens ... law-abiding, working folk be damned.  It will be dystopian and Orwellian.

[Free Vulcan]

These aren't your Reagan era Rats. Tax and spend is the least of VA's problems.

This will be a Rat reign of terror.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Dukakis may have been a technocratic wimp, but he was no peacenik.

While George Stephanopoulos was Il Duche's coffee boy, the Duke's primary henchman, John Sasso, would use the powers of state Government to persecute political enemies.

Many media personalities who spoke against Dukakis and state Dems were audited by the Mass Dept of Revenue.

The Dukakis years were like living in Stalinist USSR, complete with political purges, persecutions, and misinformation in the press.

Any Republican who dare run for Governor or US Senator would feel the full wrath and fury of the Boston Globe propaganda machine - truth, optional, and relegated to retractions, with small print, buried inside the newspaper.

Voters couldn't unread, unhear, and unsee what the Boston Globe put before them in the court of public opinion.

They will attempt to fill every position in state Government, state agencies, state universities with relatives of local Dem politicians as apparatchiks to ensure loyalty to the party at every level of state Government.

[Fishrrman]

Whatever accomplishments Youngkin may have achieved, are being dismantled faster than Mr. Trump is dismantling the biden [autopen] regime...

Methinks Virginia (as it stands in its current borders) is now a solid blue state that won't be going back. Am I correct that spanberger's victory was of a sizeable margin? Virginians (at least in the northern and eastern part of the state) are getting just what they voted for.

Maybe it's time for a re-negotiation of that Virginia/West Virginia border...

[Smokin Joe]

Whatever accomplishments Youngkin may have achieved, are being dismantled faster than Mr. Trump is dismantling the biden [autopen] regime...

Methinks Virginia (as it stands in its current borders) is now a solid blue state that won't be going back. Am I correct that spanberger's victory was of a sizeable margin? Virginians (at least in the northern and eastern part of the state) are getting just what they voted for.

Maybe it's time for a re-negotiation of that Virginia/West Virginia border...

The distribution of votes is as biased as you might think, with NOVA and cities going blue and the rest of the State, red.