Legislative Newsletter June 29, 2005

State Budget and Revenues

            It appears the state may end the fiscal year on June 30 with a multi-million dollar surplus. Through May, revenues had grown 15.2% above the same period last year, and well ahead of the mid-session forecast of 10.3% growth needed to pay for programs and services in the current two-year state budget. Growth in May alone was 23% over the same month last year, due largely to very strong collections in individual nonwithholding payments. Healthy gains also were recorded in sales (16.2%), corporate and recordation taxes. In addition, lottery income growth stands at 5.2% for the year, ahead of the projected 3.8% annual rate. June also is significant revenue month, as collections must total about $1.1 billion to meet the revenue forecast for the fiscal year (receipts last June totaled $1.5 billion). In late August, the governor will address a joint meeting of the House and Senate money committees to release final FY05 state revenue numbers.

FOIA Council Looks at Electronic Meeting Authority

The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory (FOIA) Council met earlier this month. One of the issues coming before the panel this year is the use of electronic meetings, which was the subject of two unsuccessful bills from this past General Assembly session. HB 2760 would have allowed local public bodies to conduct meetings through electronic (telephone or audio/visual) communication, which currently is authorized only for state public bodies. HB 2426 would have allowed a transportation commission to meet at two or more locations simultaneously, linked by telephonic or video conferencing, as long as each location is public and has met all advertising requirements. A subcommittee of the Council has met to discuss the issue, but reached no consensus on a recommendation. One suggestion in that subcommittee was to allow regional agencies to have electronic meeting authority. The Council expects to receive another report on discussion of this issue at a future meeting.

Water Group Holds First Meeting

A joint subcommittee charged with examining Virginia’s polluted waterways has begun its work. HJR 640 established the panel to study options for a long-term funding source to clean up Virginia's polluted waters. At that meeting, members learned that cleaning the Chesapeake Bay and other dirty waters across the state would cost an estimated $12.5 billion, including costs for improving sewage plants and factories, and planting shrubs around farm fields to prevent fertilizer runoff. Virginia's main source of Chesapeake Bay cleanup money is the Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF). That fund is expected to receive nearly $100 million this summer as a result of state revenue surpluses. Also, recall that the General Assembly appropriated $50 million to the WQIF for FY06, with that money to be used to finance the costs of design and installation of biological nutrient removal facilities or other nutrient removal technologies at publicly-owned sewage systems. The panel has scheduled its next meeting for July 20.

Housing Commission Workgroups Underway

            Workgroups of the Virginia Housing Commission have begun their respective reviews of housing-related issues for the year. The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) presented a report to the affordable housing workgroup at its initial meeting that showed how various housing resources were in a transition period, specifically citing the selling of assets in the Housing Partnership Fund to help address the state’s recent fiscal crunch. It also noted that previously uncommitted resources of the Priority Housing Fund and other assets from the Economic Development Fund are being combined to help establish a fund for targeted lending and investment for economic development in distressed areas, and that HOME funding, like other federal housing resources, is unlikely to grow in the near future. The second workgroup is addressing eminent domain, brownfields and blight issues. In future meetings, it likely will discuss ramifications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week that allows localities to utilize the eminent domain process to make way for private development. The majority opinion in that case also noted that states are free to pass property owner protections if they choose. Some legislators already are saying the General Assembly will rewrite state law next year to tighten Virginia’s current eminent domain procedures.

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)