Data centers aren’t the only Big Tech battle coming to Virginia this year.
Democratic lawmakers, searching for new revenue to shore up the state’s mass transit systems, have proposed adding a fee to retail deliveries, such as Amazon orders. At least four bills, including one from the Senate’s Democratic leader, put forward slightly different forms of the fee as a component of larger transportation funding packages.
Industry is already mobilizing against the bills. The Chamber of Progress — which represents companies including Amazon, Uber, Lyft and Instacart — is arguing a retail delivery fee would contradict newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s affordability agenda.
And building off a strategy that has killed similar proposals in at least 10 other states, including neighboring Maryland, the group released polling this month arguing that such a fee would violate progressive values and sour voters on the Democratic Party.
