Last Updated on June 11, 2021
A Virginia tax enforcer is threatening to fire county employees who refuse to be injected with the experimental COVID-19 vaccination shot and has already issued a notice of “corrective action” to at least one non-vaccinated individual employed by Chesterfield County’s local revenue department.
“You have been placed on corrective action for your failure to get one of the three FDA approved COVID19 vaccines,” the letter, from the office of Chesterfield County Commissioner of Revenue Jenefer Hughes reads. “You have also not submitted an application for accommodation under the Americans for [sic] Disabilities Act, nor for other medical or religious accommodations,” the letter continued, before laying out the vaccine “requirements” apparently decreed by Hughes.
“I have made vaccination a requirement for service in my office,” wrote Hughes. “[…]part of our service is to keep our taxpayers and ourselves safe and healthy,” she continued, before lecturing the letter’s recipient on the level of “trust” apparently instilled in local government employees by county citizenry and the need for local government employees to “model the benefits of getting vaccinated.”
Aside from purportedly protecting fellow employees and citizens who cannot be vaccinated due to pre-existing health conditions, Hughes says that taking the experimental shot proves to citizens that revenue department employees are capable of basing their decisions on “facts and evidence” while also “equitably” enforcing the tax code.
“Our office is responsible for interpreting and applying the tax laws in the Code of Virginia and County ordinances fairly and equitably,” Hughes went on to write. “They need to have confidence that we are basing our decisions, objectively, on facts and evidence.”
“As a result of your decision not to get vaccinated against COVID19, you have been placed on corrective action,” the letter closes in saying. “If you choose not to get vaccinated before June 30, 2021, you will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
Virginia State Senator and America First conservative firebrand, Amanda Chase, whose Senate district includes Chesterfield County, blasted Hughes’ letter and her department’s totalitarian vaccination policy in a Facebook post, encouraging constituents to call the revenue office and let Hughes, an elected official, know how they feel about the policy. “By the way,” wrote Chase. “The 2 Senate Bills I introduced in the Senate in January 2021 would have made this practice illegal.”
