Legislative Newsletter No. 4— February 9, 2005

Calendar for 2005 General Assembly Session

February 8 House and Senate floor votes on their budgets
February 21 Last day for committee action on bills
February 22 Deadline for budget conferees to agree on compromise spending plan
February 26 Adjournment

BUDGET items of interest

The House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees have proposed their amendments to the current two-year budget. This came following news last week that additional revenue exceeding the December forecast on which the governor's introduced budget was built, now is expected to yield an additional $200 million for the current biennium. The Senate included a language amendment in its budget stipulating that revenues collected above that forecast would be held in reserve to allow for an FY07 payment to the Rainy Day fund.

The respective chambers will vote on their budget proposals this week, then a committee of conference, composed of senior legislators, will meet to hammer out a compromise spending plan. Here are some highlights of proposed House and Senate budget provisions affecting local governments. Additional details on the amendments are to be made available on Wednesday.

Pay raises-The House budget includes a 3% payraise for state-supported local employees, while the Senate plan provides for a 4% increase. The House proposes a 2.5% increase for teachers, effective December 1; the Senate proposes a 3% teacher payhike, effective January 1.

Transportation-The House proposes a $1.02 billion transportation funding package (about $200 million more than in the governor's plan), which includes $100 million anticipated from the increased revenues noted above. The Senate plan totals about $670 million.
Specifically, both plans include more than a quarter billion dollars in one-time money to pay off completed project deficits. Both include transit funding, largely as stipulated in the governor's plan, and a rail enhancement fund. In addition, the Senate includes language directing a Trans Dominion Rail Pilot Project from Washington to Richmond to Bristol.
The House plan includes $265 million for the Commonwealth Transportation Investment Fund for highway and transit projects. It eliminates references to the local partnership fund, as introduced, and instead includes $60 million in FY06 for a new local congestion mitigation incentive fund to provide matching funds for projects in high-growth or non-attainment areas. It includes funding for additional CTB-approved projects and increases the revenue sharing program from $35 to $50 million in FY06, making cities and towns eligible for these funds along with counties. The Senate includes $40 million for the local partnership fund and adds language to strengthen the link between local land use planning and transportation by giving priority to certain areas that complete a build-out analysis of their comprehensive plans and zoning.

Water Quality Improvement-Both proposals add dollars to the Water Quality Improvement Fund. The House provides $50 million in FY06 for grants to publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities, while the Senate provides $57 million in the current year, with the relevant legislative committees to develop recommendations for a permanent source of funding in time for the 2006 session. The House plan envisions this as the first installment in a 10-year plan to improve these facilities. Grants would cover from 10% to 75% of project costs.

Water supply planning-The House eliminates over $700,000 included in the introduced budget for groundwater research and for grants to local governments for local and regional water supply planning. The Senate provides $10 million for the Department of Housing and Community Development for water supply and wastewater project grants.

Land Conservation-The Senate includes $20 million in the current year for grants to secure parks, natural areas, farms, forests and historic sites.

Comprehensive Services Act-The House includes language to update the base year used for calculating CSA program administrative costs from 1994 to 1997, but does not include the $57,000 requested to restore funding to the 1997 level. The Senate includes a language amendment to direct that the current study of parents relinquishing custody of their children to access mental health services report and recommend changes that strengthen child advocacy. The House also adds $500,000 for services to children not-mandated for services under CSA, while the Senate adds $1 million to create two community-based "systems of care" models to serve adolescents with mental and behavioral health needs.

Auxiliary Grants-The House plan increases the rate from $894 to $910 a month, while the Senate proposes a maximum rate of $979 a month (the introduced budget included a $50 increase). In both cases, local costs will increase because localities pay a 20% match.

Other Human Services- The House provides $50,000 to Charlottesville Area Dental Access for the establishment of a dental clinic serving about 10,000 low-income children each year. Both plans increase reimbursement rates for dental services. The House also proposes a statewide task force to develop a plan to assess, identify and communicate ways to strengthen families in Virginia. The Senate provides $750,000 in general funds for Healthy Families.

Public Safety-The House removes the proposed $1.6 million increase in jail per diem spending for FY06 pending completion of actual inmate population counts through the first quarter of FY06 as required by current budget language (this could delay state per diem reimbursement until after approval of an amended FY06 budget next session).
The Senate provides $1.3 million to fund Compensation Board staffing standards for Commonwealth's Attorneys over the next three years. The Senate plan proposes $500,000 for local-responsible community corrections and pretrial release programs. The Senate also creates a special fund to reimburse localities for the local share (10%) of a new federal grant program to encourage localities to hire more firefighters. Should the federal program continue, the local contribution would eventually increase to 100% of the cost of the new firefighters.

Line of Duty Act-Both plans make budget adjustments for the provisions of SB 878, which transfers administration of Line of Duty benefits to the Virginia Retirement System. The bill extends eligibility for benefits retroactively to state troopers, and shifts responsibility for payment of current and future benefits to local employees to local governments.

Education Programs-The Senate adds $15 million to the Literary Fund to further shorten the waiting list for school construction loans, and provides an additional $4.6 million to restore the 8% reduction in 2002 to the at-risk add-on funding. Meanwhile, the House proposes to increase retired teacher health care credit from $2.50 to $4.00/month, costing the state about $8.3 million and localities nearly $12 million.

Planning District Funding-The House budget provides over $700,000 for a minimum appropriation to each PDC of $100,000, noting that, in many rural communities, planning districts are the "one-stop shop" for technical assistance and community and economic development. The Senate plan provides an additional $200,000 for PDCs.

Other items of interest-The Senate includes $350,000 for the Center for Innovative Technology to support the development and delivery of broadband services throughout rural and underserved areas, and also includes $100,000 for the Oakland Museum in Nelson County and $25,000 for the Trevillian Station Battlefield Foundation.

LEGISLATION for the homestretch

Legislation of interest that will continue to be debated in the second half of the session:

HB 1609—requires repayment of funds spent on a Rt. 29 bypass, if such road is not built, to be deducted from allocations to the localities where the project would have been built, rather than from the entire Culpeper construction district.

HB 1654—resumes the phase-out of the car tax beginning in 2007.

HB 1804—eliminates State Corporation Commission regulation of voice-over-Internet protocol service.

HB 1820—places additional notice requirements on condemners and authorizes landowners to collect certain attorney and witness fees if property is damaged by the condemner.

HB 1821—requires condemners to pay witness fees if amount awarded to a landowner is 30% greater than the condemner’s final offer.

HB 2159—revise the criteria for instances in which the zoning administrator may be authorized to modify the zoning ordinance.

HB 2197—requires biosolids applicators to notify localities 100 days prior to application.

HB 2198—establishes a program to train employees in local governments that have adopted a biosolids ordinance in the testing and monitoring of sewage sludge.

HB 2282, creates a new, less restrictive noise standard for shooting ranges, which would allowed to operate as long as the sound, averaged over a 60-minute period, is less than 64dB.

HB 2347—allows localities to adopt an ordinance to license abortion clinics, but does not provide any guidance for a locality on which to base criteria to obtain a license.

HB 2428—requires local governing bodies to give a preference to veterans in their employment policies and practices.

HB 2456—prohibits localities from seeking or requiring payment of a cash proffer prior to issuance of a building permit for construction on property subject to rezoning or development.

HB 2521—states that each locality shall seek to ensure that emergency medical services are maintained throughout the entire locality.

HB 2523—clarifies that local governments can charge insurers for ambulance services provided to anyone covered by an insurance policy that provides coverage for ambulance services (some localities are now charging for such services).

HB 2679—revises provisions for taxpayer appeals of an adverse decision regarding the assessment of a local business tax.

HB 2777 and SB 1235—provide the mechanism for deposits into the Water Quality Improvement Fund. The House bill designates $50 million annually for 10 years for enhancing wastewater treatment plants, while the Senate bill directs a current year appropriation and process for developing options for future funding.

HB 2880—states that the Auditor of Public Accounts shall determine the amount of FY05 revenues received by localities from certain telecommunications taxes (similar to that which was done this past year) and to report that information by December 1.

HB 2888—requires localities accepting cash proffers to begin or cause the start of construction of improvements for which the full cash payment was proffered within five years of its receipt.

SB 873—extends current overtime compensation provisions for firefighters to law-enforcement employees. The bill was amended to apply only to departments with more than 100 employees. 

SB 1223—allows a 60 mph speed limit on nonlimited access, multilane, divided parts of Rt. 29, subsequent to a traffic engineering study.

What’s GONE?

            Legislation defeated by the General Assembly includes bills that would: establish caps on real property tax assessments, establish a solid waste tipping fee, equalize county taxing authority with that of cities, alter BPOL provisions, authorize impact fees, expand the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, continue the Growth Commission…..and many more.           

Finally

            Bills requested by several of our PDC localities that are still in the legislative process include the following: For Charlottesville, SB 954 (regulation of mopeds), SB 955 (VASCAR speed determination devices), SB 845 (advertisements in right of way), and HB 1843 and SB 957 (activities of former local officials). For Greene and Albemarle, HB 2249 (regulation of panhandlers).

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)