Legislative Newsletter No. 3— February 9, 2005

Calendar for 2005 General Assembly Session

February 6 House and Senate budgets released
February 8 "Crossover"day
February 26 Adjournment

BUDGET

            The House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees will report their proposed amendments to the current two-year budget on Sunday afternoon. This week, those committees are hearing about the hundreds of budget requests totaling in the billions of dollars that were submitted by legislators last week. Here are some of the highlights:

            A trio of amendments restore $223.2 million for reimbursements to localities in FY06 under the Personal Property Tax Relief Act (PPTRA). Inclusion of these amendments in the final budget would thwart budget problems for localities in the spring of 2006. Please contact your legislators to support these amendments! (Meanwhile, House Republican leaders have announced intentions to eliminate the car tax over the next six years, an idea resisted by the governor and the Senate majority).

Several amendments propose phased-in full funding of the Compensation Board's staffing standards for Commonwealth's Attorneys over three years (rather than six years as proposed in the introduced budget), to restore previous reductions for Commonwealth's Attorneys and to fully fund the Board’s staffing standards. Meanwhile, a $5.1 amendment proposes additional dollars in the current year for HB 599 police department funding.

            A $60,000 amendment and accompanying language would update the base year from 1994 to 1997 used in the CSA program to calculate local administrative costs. A $2.1 million amendment proposes to restore funding for local and regional offices on youth.

            Several amendments include $15,000,000 to be distributed among those localities that have implemented Purchase of Development Rights programs.

            Changes are proposed to the governor’s transportation package to strengthen the linkage between local land use planning and transportation infrastructure by affording a higher priority to the proposed local partnership funds for localities providing a build-out analysis that includes housing units, commercial development and transportation projects needed to support that development (reimbursable up to $200,000 to those that do one). Other language amendments require VDOT to develop a proposal for the next legislative session that will enable a county to assume responsibility for their secondary construction program, and to direct the Department of Rail and Public Transportation to initiate the TransDominion Rail as a pilot passenger rail service project between Bristol and Washington, D.C.

            Finally, an additional $1.5 million is proposed in the second year to support the 21 planning district commissions. 

LEGISLATION

            HB 2880 and SB 1335 are bills that revise the taxation of communications services, including elimination of local taxes on various communications services (as discussed over the past two years) in lieu of a 5% across-the-board tax, plus taxation of voice over internet protocol and satellite video, and converting the cable franchise fee to a 5% tax and charging a cable rights-of-way fee. These bills are the outgrowth of discussions over the past three years between industry, local government and legislative stakeholders. On Monday, the Senate version initially was defeated in the Labor and Commerce Committee, then quickly reconsidered and put off for another week. Some senators expressed concern about the taxing of satellite. The House version will be considered this week in the Finance Committee.

            Bills to provide additional funding for the state’s transportation system are being considered this week. The House Transportation Committee has approved and sent most of its bills, dubbed the Virginia Reform Initiative on Transportation, to the House Appropriations Committee. The Senate Finance Committee also is hearing its bills this week.

            The House version of a bill to establish a “flush tax” in Virginia to help pay for environmental programs has been defeated, while the Senate version, SB 1240, will be heard next Monday. It requires local governments to impose a $52/year “flush tax” to be deposited into the Water Quality Improvement Fund, then most would be distributed through grants to localities for upgrading sewage treatment plants. Alternative bills, HB 2777 and SB 1235 would use a portion of the state sales tax for such programs also are on the table and could be considered in light of actions that the money committees propose in their amended versions of the budget. Also on the environmental front, SB 1056, which would have expanded the Chesapeake Bay Act boundaries to include the entire Bay watershed, was overwhelmingly defeated in a Senate committee last week.

            Legislative committees have been addressing a handful of biosolids bills this past week. Bills to provide state reimbursement for local monitoring costs are not going to advance. However, a subcommittee has recommended reporting a bill, HB 2198 that would establish a training program for biosolids monitors employed by local government. Other sewage sludge bills will considered later this week.

            On a close vote Tuesday, the Senate Local Government Committee approved SB 873, which extends current overtime compensation provisions for firefighters to law-enforcement employees. This bill could have a substantial fiscal impact on many localities. It will be on the Senate floor later this week.

            HB 2282, being heard in committee on Friday, creates a new, less restrictive noise standard for shooting ranges. The shooting range could operate so long as the sound, averaged over a 60-minute period, is less than 64dB.  With shooting, the noise impact isn’t that of a steady roar, but that each firing is very loud.  The bill creates a lower bar for shooting ranges than any other business.

            HB 2347 allows localities to adopt an ordinance to license abortion clinics, setting up a situation where localities may be pushed to do so. The bill contains no guidance for a locality on which to base criteria to obtain a license; local governments make judgments based on zoning ordinances and aren’t in the business of deciding whether facilities should be permitted. It is up for final approval Wednesday on the House floor.

            Proposed legislative studies also are being considered in the legislature. The following have gotten preliminary subcommittee approval:

HJR 640--subcommittee study of options to provide a long-term funding source to clean up Virginia’s polluted waters, including the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

HJR 643--JLARC study of the land application of biosolids, resources available to the Virginia Department of Health and to local governments to implement biosolids inspection and monitoring, programs to train local biosolids monitors, incentives to encourage information sharing and measures to encourage greater coordination between state and local governments.

HJR 681--Commission on Economic Growth and Development continued.

HJR 713--subcommittee study of workforce development and training resources for areas of consolidation or coordination.

HJR 742--13-member commission to study issues associated with promoting a more efficient transportation system.  

General Assembly Contact Numbers for David Blount, TJPDC Legislative Liaison

804-644-3702 (phone)

804-783-8226 (fax)

979-7310 x350 (Charlottesville voicemail)

(Richmond email)