Legislative Newsletter - March 1, 2006

Number 6

Calendar for 2006 General Assembly Session

March 6           Last day for committee action

March 7           Budget conference report deadline

March 11         Scheduled adjournment

BUDGET ISSUES

The House and Senate have until midnight tonight to appoint their respective members to serve on the budget conference committee, which will try to reach a compromise 2006-2008 state budget prior to a Tuesday midnight deadline. Both chambers approved their version of the budget last Thursday. The House initially had 46 objections to specific funding or language items, while only one item was objected to in the Senate. Subsequently, each chamber passed its version as proposed in committee, thus setting the stage for senior lawmakers to try to reach a budget compromise in the final two weeks of the session. However, at this writing, it is appearing more and more possible that the two sides will not be able to reach agreement by March 7, in large part due to differing approaches to transportation funding. Failure to reach agreement would push the legislature into overtime past the scheduled March 11 adjournment.

Amendments to the introduced budget proposed by each chamber vary greatly. Overall, the House version adds $566 million over the next biennium, mostly with the infusion of an additional $406 million for transportation, while proposing to reduce funding contained in the introduced budget in public and higher education, public safety, health and human services and natural resources. The Senate plan proposes to amend the introduced spending plan by adding about $79 million, though it also reduces funding in the health and human services area. Both plans reduce capital outlay funding as well.

In the education arena, two amendments in particular are troubling. The Senate proposes to lower the inflation factor used to calculate SOQ costs, by recognizing less inflation (which had already occurred) than the introduced budget, resulting in a $35.6 million reduction over the biennium. The House proposes to begin phasing out the cap on the amount of federal revenue that can be deducted from the SOQ cost calculation prior to determining state and local funding shares. This would “save” the state about $5.8 million over the two years. Recall that this policy change was implemented two years ago, with 29% of such revenues being discounted.

LEGISLATION        

Vastly different versions of eminent domain legislation will be taken up later this week. HB 94, which was radically altered on the House floor two weeks ago, will be heard in a Senate Courts of Justice subcommittee tomorrow afternoon. In its current form, the bill severely restricts condemnation authority for state and local governments. The Senate version, SB 394, contains the language that had been endorsed by local governments, developers and many property rights advocates. It likely will be taken up the end of this week in the House Courts of Justice Committee.

After two meetings of a special subcommittee to consider HB 1435, a much-altered version of the bill was reported from Senate Local Government yesterday. The language that came to the Senate would have allowed on farm wineries, without being subject to local land use regulation, activities that promote Virginia wine, even if the activity is inconsistent with an agricultural zone. The approved substitute language puts the brakes on additional local regulation of wineries for one year, while the Secretary of Agriculture facilitates discussions by local governments, wineries and other interested parties to examine the economic viability of farm wineries and the relationship between them and their local communities.

Also on Tuesday, Senate Local Government narrowly defeated HB 704, which sought to put local hunting and discharge of firearms ordinances on the same level by prohibiting ordinances governing discharge from being more restrictive than local hunting laws. The patron portrayed the measure as one that did not affect commercial zoning ordinances, and that his goal was to provide that where it’s safe to hunt, it should be safe to shoot. After much discussion and unsuccessful attempts to amend the bill, it was carried over for the year on an 8-7 vote.

The major transportation/land use planning bills approved by the originating chamber are moving through the opposite body. The House today approved SB 699, which links state transportation and local land use planning by requiring comprehensive plans, rezonings and subdivision plats to be submitted to VDOT for review and comment on transportation impacts. Localities still would make decisions on such applications as they do now. VDOT will develop regulations for when such a traffic impact analysis will be required. Senate Local Government approved the House version of this measure, HB 1513, yesterday. That committee also advanced the following bills:

HB 1506, which allows additional counties to utilize the cash proffer system and that those funds can be used for the local share in transportation revenue sharing projects, as well as for off-site improvements;

HB 1521, which requires the comprehensive plan to include a map with estimated costs of planned road and transportation improvements;

HB 1528, which requires capital improvement plans to include road and transportation improvements the locality chooses to include in its CIP and that are part of the comprehensive plan.

A House subcommittee today recommended approval of SB 373, which allows localities to establish transfer of development rights programs, and SB 374, which requires clustering provisions in local zoning/subdivision ordinances in localities that experienced 10% population growth between 1990 and 2000 (the cluster ordinance must apply to at least 40% of unimproved land zoned residential or agricultural). These bills will be before the House Counties, Cities and Towns Committee on Friday morning.

Additional Bills

The Senate Finance Committee has reported HB 568, which revises the taxation of communications services by applying a statewide, 5% sales tax to retail communication and video services, while eliminating several current levies.  A "911 Tax" of 75 cents would apply to each local landline and each wireless number. If ultimately approved, this measure would take effect January 1, 2007. Voting against the measure were Senate Finance Chairman John Chichester and budget conferee William Wampler.

SB 257 has passed the House. This bill exempts recreational programs operated by local governments from licensure, but such programs would have to adhere to local safety and supervisory standards. An attempt on the House floor to also exempt non-governmental programs failed. The bill now goes back to the Senate floor, where a similar, though not identical House version of the bill also awaits consideration.

A subcommittee of the Senate Rules Committee has recommended that HB 1052 not be reported. This measure requires a sunset date on all state and local bills that add new taxes or increase tax rates. It is expected to die in the full Committee meeting later this week.

A House Commerce and Labor subcommittee has amended and recommended SB 262 for approval. This bill proposes a statewide energy policy, provisions of which stipulate that decisions about the siting of wind farms, liquefied natural gas storage facilities and solar and nuclear power facilities can be made without sufficient coordination with local land use plans. An amendment was added to require the State Corporation Commission to provide notification to and opportunity for a public hearing for the local government and citizens living near land suitable for these projects.

Finally, photo monitoring systems for traffic light enforcement have some new life. The Senate Courts of Justice Committee has tacked language onto HB 181 to authorize all localities to implement programs to enforce traffic signal laws. A pilot program in several Northern Virginia and Tidewater localities expired this past July and there have been intense efforts this session to revive the authorization. The bill awaits approval on the Senate floor, and then will go to the House floor for it to consider the Senate amendment (thus bypassing the House committee where photo monitoring bills have died in recent years). A close vote on the House floor, should the amendment be ruled germane, is expected.

LOCAL BILLS

A trio of locally requested bills have gained final approval from the General Assembly and will soon be on their way to the governor for his signature:

HB 779 authorizes Nelson County to charge up to a 5% transient occupancy tax for the rental of condominiums, apartments, townhouses, or similar buildings.

HB 998 and SB 202 revise the Charlottesville City charter to authorize several new means for providing affordable housing to low and moderate income persons.

Meanwhile, HB 999, which authorizes Albemarle County to utilize an administrative hearing officer rather than a three-person panel to hear employee grievances, was reported unanimously from Senate Local Government on Tuesday.

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)