Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger told a local reporter she is open to "entertaining" new taxes on services including gym memberships, streaming subscriptions, and dog grooming, declining to promise a veto if such bills land on her desk.

When 8News reporter Tyler Englander asked what she would do if legislation taxing streaming services and retail sales of services reached her, Spanberger did not shut the door. She opened it wider.

The exchange captures a broader pattern: a Democratic governor who took office in January and has already drawn fire for executive orders, reduced cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a willingness to explore new revenue streams that would reach deep into the daily habits of ordinary Virginians. The bills in question failed this session. The governor's posture toward them did not.

What Spanberger actually said

Spanberger framed her openness as a matter of principle, telling 8News:

"I think every idea, as long as it's reasonable and makes some amount of sense, should be entertained should be discussed."

She then pivoted to the streaming-services question specifically, arguing that the shift from physical media to digital delivery creates a gap in existing tax law:

"You mentioned the one on streaming services, you used to buy a DVD, there was a sales tax. Streaming is different."

And she left herself maximum room to maneuver on any future bill:

"I recognize there is value in having these conversations, but whether I'd ever sign a bill is wholly predicated on what is actually in the bill, and how it is outlined."

That is not a no. It is not even a "probably not." It is an invitation for the legislature to send her something she can sign.

The bills that didn't pass, this time

During the most recent General Assembly session, Virginia Democrats introduced a range of new tax proposals. Bills would have extended the sales tax to storage facilities, counseling, dry cleaning, vehicle repair, website design, data storage, and digital subscription services. Fox News reported that Republicans tied their criticism directly to these legislative proposals, which represented a significant expansion of the state's taxing reach into everyday services.

One bill in particular, HB978, floated a tax on retail sales of services that would have included fitness memberships and athletic club services. In plain terms: your gym membership, taxed.

None of these bills made it through the General Assembly before the session ended on March 14. But Spanberger's refusal to dismiss them outright means the proposals are not dead. They are dormant, waiting for the next session and a governor who has publicly said such ideas deserve discussion.

The pattern is familiar to anyone watching Spanberger's early tenure. A governor who campaigned as a pragmatist has governed as something else.

A first week that set the tone

Spanberger moved fast after taking office. In her first week, she signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination in employment, described as fostering "a culture of inclusion, diversity, and mutual respect for all Virginians", and reduced cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Since January, her office says she has not signed any new state-based tax increases apart from one raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. On May 1, she announced a $2.48 million investment into a capital fund aimed at expanding project financing for underserved communities across Virginia.

Her team has framed her agenda as focused on "addressing high costs for Virginians." But telling Virginians you want to lower their costs while simultaneously entertaining new taxes on their gym visits, streaming accounts, dry cleaning, and car repairs is a contradiction that speaks for itself.

Last week, Spanberger attended festivities in Front Royal, Virginia, to greet King Charles and Queen Camilla during a whistle-stop tour of the East Coast. The royal visit made for pleasant optics. The tax discussion does not.

Trump and the administration respond

President Trump weighed in on Truth Social in April, criticizing Spanberger's direction for the Commonwealth. He wrote:

"I can't believe what this new Governor, Spanberger has done to the Commonwealth, So sad. She is adding so many Taxes, a Food and Beverage Tax, Digital Services Tax, Utilities Tax, and more."

He added that Virginia "has lost its Energy, Vitality, and Strength. People are leaving that would never have even thought of doing so!"

Trump also wrote that the shift happened quickly: "This went from a thriving and powerful place, one envied by all, to a Commonwealth run by a person who has no concept of Low Taxes and Economic Strength."

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon offered her own assessment of Spanberger's early moves, saying bluntly: "She's like a Bond villain."

Spanberger's office was contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of reporting.

The broader Democratic tax impulse

Breitbart reported that Virginia Democrats had introduced proposals to tax not only gym memberships and streaming but also deliveries, home repairs, and other services, a broad menu of new revenue sources that would touch nearly every household in the state. Spanberger declined to promise a veto on any future bill creating such taxes.

This is not unique to Virginia. Democratic officials in other states and cities have pursued similar expansions of government's taxing power. In New York, officials have floated significant property tax increases while simultaneously expanding government programs.

The logic is always the same: the economy is changing, old revenue models don't work, and government needs new streams. What never changes is the direction of the money, out of the pockets of working people and into the hands of officials who insist they know better how to spend it.

Spanberger herself acknowledged the framing plainly: "I think there are worthy conversations to be had about what revenue generation looks like into the future as our economy changes in so many ways." Revenue generation. Not spending restraint. Not efficiency. Not asking whether government has grown too large. Revenue generation.

The same instinct has driven Democratic leaders in New York City to invoke social justice rationales for sweeping tax hikes and program expansions. The vocabulary changes from state to state. The trajectory does not.

What comes next

The immediate practical impact is limited. The tax bills failed this session. Spanberger has not signed them. She may never sign them. Her supporters will argue she was simply being open-minded and responsible, refusing to prejudge legislation that hasn't been written yet.

But governors who want to stop bad policy say so. They draw lines. They tell their legislature which ideas are non-starters. Spanberger did the opposite. She told Virginia's Democratic legislators that she considers taxes on gym memberships, streaming services, dry cleaning, counseling, and vehicle repair to be "reasonable" topics for discussion.

That is a signal. And legislators read signals.

When the General Assembly reconvenes, those same proposals, or versions of them, will return. And they will return to a governor who has already told the public she finds them worth entertaining. The question is not whether Spanberger wants to tax your gym membership. The question is whether anyone in Richmond will stop her.

Meanwhile, Spanberger has also moved aggressively on other fronts, including signing legislation to hand Virginia's electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, another decision that drew sharp conservative criticism and reinforced the sense that her administration is pursuing a far more ideological agenda than her moderate campaign rhetoric suggested.

The real cost

Virginians already pay sales tax on goods. They pay income tax. They pay property tax. Now their governor is publicly musing about taxing the services they use every day, the gym where they work out, the streaming service they watch at night, the dry cleaner that presses their shirts, the mechanic who fixes their car.

Each of these taxes, individually, might seem small. Taken together, they represent a philosophy: that there is no corner of private life too minor for government to reach into and extract a cut.

Spanberger says every reasonable idea deserves discussion. Virginians who just want to go to the gym without funding another government program might have a different definition of reasonable.