Delegate McNamara renews push to repeal state food tax; local governments warn of revenue loss

Delegate McNamara presented House Bill 2,006 to eliminate the remainder of Virginia’s grocery (food) tax. He framed the measure as an affordability step for households facing sustained inflation and said Virginia is one of a small number of states that still taxes groceries.

"We are 1 of about 8 states that still has a food tax. The issue is vending machines pay their taxes, the tax is in a different section of the code… what this bill does is it simply tries to say if we have food as defined in the code… it should be appropriately taxed at 1%," McNamara said in related discussion about parity with vending machines earlier in his presentation.

Supporters included the Virginia Catholic Conference and the Family Foundation, who argued the food tax is regressive and burdens low‑ and moderate‑income households. The Family Foundation recounted prior repeal efforts on other regressive taxes to illustrate precedent for removing such levies.

Local government associations including the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo) and the Virginia Municipal League (VML) urged the committee to preserve prior compromise language and cautioned that state law and the budget currently provide for replacement revenue to localities. Katie Boyle of VACo said localities are reluctant to rely on a general‑fund replacement without full assurance from the Appropriations process; Joe Flores of VML noted localities collectively receive hundreds of millions annually from the local food tax.

McNamara said he would prefer the bill be kept alive for appropriation and broader review of the state’s revenue position before any change that would require the state to replace local revenue in perpetuity. No committee report or recorded vote on HB 2006 is recorded in the transcript.