Democrats' push for tax credit refund bill dies in GOP committee

The bill, sponsored by Del. Marcia Price, D-Newport News, said the state’s $300 income tax credit for households with income at or below the federal poverty line — $18,310 for a couple, $27,750 for a family of four — should be fully refundable.

Until last year, the credit could only be used to offset taxes owed. Since many of those taxpayers owed less than $300, they could not get the full benefit of that amount.

Last year, the General Assembly approved writing those taxpayers a check for a portion of the difference between the $300 and the amount credited against the sum taxpayers owned.

Price said the measure would help 33,000 families just in her Newport News and Hampton district pay their bills.

“It will trickle down to benefit companies and higher-income families,” she said, reversing a common Republican argument for tax cuts: that the money wealthier Americans save will trickle down to affect the entire economy.

But Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, after praising Price for her effort, asked that the bill be laid on the table. which means Price could try to resurrect it, but as a practical matter puts her proposal on ice.

"We made a lot of progress on this last year, and this year we're doing major work on taxes," Ware said, including a proposal to increase the standard deduction, which should have a big impact on low- and moderate-income family budgets."

"But we can't do everything every year," he said.

The subcommittee approved Ware's motion, on a 5-3 party-line vote.

The panel killed a measure that would create a tax credit for newspaper publishers to encourage hiring journalists to cover local news and another that would have extended a tax deduction for teachers who buy school supplies for their classrooms to teachers in state colleges and universities.