VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Governor Glenn Youngkin announced a budget proposal to exempt service tips from Virginia’s State Income Tax on Monday.
The proposal would directly impact the food and hospitality industries, including Oceanfront restaurants and employees.
“I think it would be a lot better for a lot of the servers to have an opportunity to keep a lot of that money that comes in,” said Jacob Scarborough, a server at Ocean Eddies Seafood Restaurant.
While many of the service workers believe Youngkin’s proposal would be financially beneficial, there’s are inquiries.
“That money that we were being taxed on, it’s got to come from somewhere else, otherwise you’re going to have a deficit somewhere, so is sales tax going to come up? Are property taxes going to go up? State taxes going to go up? Because you got to make up for it somewhere,” said Rick Leebrick, the general manager of Oceans 14 and Ocean’s Ole.
Oceanfront restaurant employees do agree tax relief is helpful as tips are their livelihood.
“The average server makes $2.13 an hour, bartenders $2.13-$5 an hour. The rest of it comes from your tips,” Leebrick said.
With tips being taxed, servers say they often take home a fraction of their pay.