Legislative Newsletter - February 29, 2008

Number 7

Calendar for 2008 General Assembly Session

March 3           Last day for committee action on bills

March 4           Deadline for budget conferees to agree on a compromise spending plan

March 8           Scheduled adjournment

BUDGET

            The House and Senate budget conferees have until midnight next Tuesday to reach an agreement on a compromise budget, both for the remainder of FY08 and the next biennium, though that deadline frequently is extended if necessary. Both chambers approved their version of the budget last Thursday, then subsequently rejected the budget of the other chamber this past Wednesday, which proved to be a very contentious day in the Senate, which has been split along party lines over the past two weeks in advancing its version of the state’s spending plan.             Disagreement in the Senate largely is centered around the size of withdrawal in the current fiscal year from the state’s rainy day fund, a big capital projects bond package and the use of anticipated lottery profits that normally would go to localities to help pay the state share of education. Some members say the diversion is a violation of the state Constitutional provisions concerning use of lottery proceeds.

             The House, in developing its budget, proposes to alter some of the methodologies used to recalculate the costs of public education, thus reducing the state’s rebenchmarking commitment in the next biennium and escalating in future years. House and Senate Democrats have railed against that proposal which would recognize only state-awarded salary increases granted in the state budget in this and future rebenchmarking (or updating) education costs.

            The conference committee of senior legislators which will meet to hammer out a compromise are as follows: Senators Colgan (Prince William), Houck (Spotsylvania), Howell (Fairfax), Saslaw (Fairfax), Wampler (Bristol) and Stosch (Henrico) and Delegates Putney (Bedford), Hamilton (Newport News), Cox (Chesterfield), Joannou (Portsmouth), Sherwood (Frederick) and Hogan (South Boston).

LEGISLATION

            Yesterday afternoon, the House Rules Committee agreed to carry over for the year a substitute version of the proffer/impact fee bill, SB 768 The bill would have repealed local authority to accept voluntary cash proffers from new residential projects, limited the ability to accept off-site non-cash proffers and capped the amount of impact fees a locality can impose to an unscientific $7,500 per unit. The substitute bill contained mostly technical/mechanical changes as a result of the ongoing discussions being held between local government and homebuilding representatives. In delaying action on the bill, the Committee chairman agreed to write a letter to the major organization stakeholders requesting that they continue to meet in the offseason to discuss proffer reform and the details of this bill and it may ask localities not to increase their proffer guidelines during that time. Also, it is anticipated that an amendment will be offered to HB 111 presently on the Senate floor that would place a one-year moratorium on the enactment of impact fee ordinances by localities. Much work remains to be done in the offseason to discuss meaningful impact fee and proffer legislation. For now, thanks to all of you who continued to contact our legislators urging that this bill not be approved this year.

            In other action this past week, the Senate Finance Committee carried over for the year HB 1009, the bill that would have required localities to establish a deferral program for real estate taxes on primary residences of taxpayers, and to provide additional information on both real and personal property tax bills about the tax rate and assessed values. A special subcommittee of the Committee will examine this and other, similar bills this coming year. The Committee also carried over HB 1318, which called for a mechanism for providing tax relief to low and middle income taxpayers from excess revenues in the rainy day fund.

            Both chambers have approved SB 99 to revise current highway revenue sharing provisions to give first priority to locally-administered projects, second priority when more local funds are committed than state funds requested, and third priority to projects that are accelerated in the state six year or local capital plan. The House companion, HB 111, awaits action on the Senate floor (see above).

            Both chambers also have approved a substitute version for HB 991, which permits the severance and transfer of development rights from a sending property without requiring those rights to be immediately affixed to a receiving property. The uncodified act provides such authority only to Albemarle County, expires in 2012 and does not become effective unless or until the county adopts an ordinance implementing the bill’s provisions.

            The House and Senate also approved HB 1078, which makes several changes to the vested rights and nonconforming use provisions, including that when a property owner has paid taxes to the locality for a building or structure for more than 15 years, a zoning ordinance may provide that it shall be nonconforming, but not illegal. Also passed was HB 1079, which provides that a structure permitted by a variance may not be expanded, unless the expansion is within an area of the site or part of the structure for which no variance is required.

            Two bills dealing with local school construction have been rejected. The Senate Finance Committee carried over HB 923, which would have established a school construction revolving loan fund. The House Appropriations Committee carried over SB 408, which would have increased the maximum amount of any Literary Fund loan from $7.5 million to $14 million.

            Efforts to place a Constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall that would authorize the General Assembly to enact legislation to authorize localities to exempt or defer up to 20% of real property taxes a homeowner’s primary residence are dead for this session. Earlier this week, the Senate recommitted a pair of House bills, which had passed that body unanimously, to committee, effectively killing them for this session.

TRANSPORTATION NEWS

            The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that provisions of last year’s transportation reform package, as contained in HB 3202, that authorized the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to impose an array of taxes is unconstitutional.  The Court’s decision is based on the fact that the General Assembly delegated the authority to impose taxes to a non-elected body.  The court ruled the constitution allows delegation to a county, city, town or regional government, so long as the members of the taxing entity are elected by the voters. While not specifically a target of the ruling, the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, which was granted comparable revenue-raising authorities, is similarly affected. Governor Kaine and legislators were weighing how to address the court ruling, with a springtime special session of the General Assembly being a possibility.

Locally-Requested Legislation:

HB 883 to allow the City of Charlottesville to adopt provisions in its zoning ordinance that would provide, in rezoning or special permit cases, for the construction of affordable units or for the payment of cash in lieu of units, has passed the General Assembly and is headed to the Governor’s desk for his signature. The identical Senate version, SB 268, has been unanimously approved by the House Counties, Cities and Towns Committee.

SJR 17 awaits action in the House Rules Committee, which meets Monday afternoon. This resolution, introduced at TJPD request, calls on the Office of Comprehensive Services to revise or replace the service fee directory that deals with information about residential services. Anticipating the resolution will not pass, we also are advocating that this issue be addressed by a workgroup of stakeholders, established in both the House and Senate versions of the budget to examine local match rates related to the provision of residential and community-based services under CSA.

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)