BabbleFest

Taxation Without Representation? OK!

by geo on Sep.10, 2007, under Courts and the Law

“Taxation without representation is tyranny!”

Everybody knows that. It was the reason for the American Revolution, the rallying cry of Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry and the other revolutionists.

But a Virginia Judge has ruled that a non-elected “transportation board” has the legal authority to impose taxes:

An Arlington judge yesterday ruled that starting in January an unelected regional body can levy on Northern Virginia residents a slew of new taxes and fees to pay for local transportation upgrades.

The ruling by Circuit Court Judge Benjamin N.A. Kendrick would allow the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, composed of 14 voting members, to raise about $300 million a year through higher taxes on home sales, car safety inspections and auto repairs to fund regional road and rail projects.

“Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is an independent political subdivision similar to other entities such as water and sewer authorities, sanitary districts, and industrial development authorities,” Judge Kendrick said. “It is not a local government with an elected governing body.”

The Virginia Constitution and Declaration of rights, authored primarily by George Mason (NOT Thomas Jefferson) specifically states that Virginia’s citizens “cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected”. So how can a judge determine that a group of appointed bureaucrats has the authority to levy taxes? By ruling that the Virginia Constitution does not apply to the board because it is not a unit of  government. Rather, it is an independent political subdivision created for a special purpose.

Oh, OK, I get it. The Virginia Constitution says only an elected government body can impose taxes, so all the elected body has to do is create an unelected body and give it the power to impose taxes, and the Constitutional restriction doesn’t apply. Nice. Very creative.

Watch for this ingenious scheme for politicians to raise taxes without having to vote on tax increases to arrive in your neighborhood soon.

Oh, by the way, “taxation without representation” was NOT the reason for the American Revolution. It was one of a laundry list of grievances listed as justifications for independence. But it was a catchy phrase, and a simple concept, and came to be perpetuated by newspapers, pamphleteers and eventually historians as “the reason.” Kind of like “weapons of mass destruction” has been plucked from a list of reasons and perpetuated as “the reason” for the war in Iraq.


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