June 26, 2008

Roadblock: House committee rejects Kaine bill

The highlights:

• Governor’s bill fails in House Rules Committee 11-4
• Senate bill survives (for now), but faces likely defeat
• Senate calls it a day, but will return for action July 9        

 AS EXPECTED, Gov. Tim Kaine’s bill to raise money for highway maintenance, construction and transit was killed Thursday morning by the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee.  The 11-4 vote to pass by indefinitely HB 6026 (Armstrong) was largely along party lines.

The committee, however, did vote (11-4) to send a Senate bill to raise money for transportation to the House floor for a vote, probably to be scheduled for after the Fourth of July.  That bill – SB 6009 (Saslaw) – appears to stand little chance of passage either. 

The Senate, having acted yesterday on all of its pending bills, met in pro forma session this morning, and adjourned until Wednesday, July 9.  The House also met pro forma this morning for parliamentary reasons.  The House will meet again on Friday morning, in pro forma, to set up votes for either next week or the week after on SB 6009 and House bills advanced by several of its committees. 

Speaking on his monthly statewide radio call-in show on WTOP in Northern Virginia this morning, Gov. Tim Kaine said that the committee’s action was not a surprise.  The Democrat vowed to continue working to break the six-year legislative logjam over long-term transportation funding.

“The plan was never going to be exactly as proposed,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted Kaine as saying on its Web site.  “If everybody gets a plan on the table, we’ll cobble together some kind of plan and make it work.”

House revenue bills headed for floor vote

The House Rules Committee reported two transportation money bills this morning for floor votes.  

Committee members voted 12-3 to report a bill directing that all future revenues and royalties received by the state as a result of offshore natural gas and oil drilling be deposited into the Transportation Trust Fund.  Because the amount and value of recoverable natural gas and oil are uncertain, no reliable estimates of the potential revenue under HB 6006 are available. 

A 2006 report by Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade indicates that it is unlikely that any royalties could begin until the year 2016 at the earliest.  This date assumes that: (1) Congress will lift the moratorium on drilling in the coastal areas; (2) the Presidential withdrawal of offshore areas along the Atlantic Coast will be cancelled; (3) the federal government will authorize states to share revenue from offshore drilling; (4) Virginia will remain in the federal Minerals Management Service 2007-2012 offshore oil and gas leasing plan; and (5) energy companies will be interested in bidding for this drilling opportunity.  The Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee defeated similar bills, SB 6005 and SB 6011, by party-line votes this week.

 In addition to HB 6006, the committee sent without recommendation a measure rewriting portions of last year’s transportation bill (HB 3202) for a floor vote.  HB 6055 authorizes several fees and taxes that the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in February were unconstitutional.  The rewrite of the legislation is designed to overcome the court’s objections.

 The bill directs the state to impose an additional fee of $100 for the initial issuance of a driver’s license for Northern Virginia residents.  A “congestion relief fee” imposed by the state would increase the grantor’s tax from 10 cents to 50 cents per $100 value.  Lastly, HB 6055 requires the state to impose in Northern Virginia 2 percent increases in the vehicle rental tax and the transient occupancy tax.

 For Hampton Roads, the state would impose an additional non-refundable annual vehicle registration fee of $20, an additional $20 for the annual vehicle safety inspection, and a 2 percent increase in the vehicle rental tax.  (These taxes and fees, however, would expire on Oct. 1, 2013.)

 The legislation also establishes a new state tax to tap revenues attributable to economic growth related to the cargo marine terminals in the ports of Hampton Roads.  These new revenues would be dedicated to a Hampton Roads Transportation Revenue Fund.  Similar measures were defeated in the Senate this week.

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