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House committee tables public safety overtime bill
A bill that would have required law enforcement agencies with fewer than 100 employees to begin counting vacation and sick leave time as "hours worked" when computing an employee's overtime compensation has been tabled at the request of the patron, Del. Charles Carrico of Grayson.
Amendment narrows scope of land-use disclosure bill
A bill that would have required the members of planning commissions and governing bodies in every city, town or county to disclose a potential laundry list of business relationships in the conduct of relatively routine matters before them was amended to narrow its scope.
SB 838 (Devolites Davis) would have required planning commission members, council members and supervisors in every locality that has a zoning amendment, special use or conditional use application before it to disclose all business relationships the members have with the applicant for the land-use change, as well as his attorney or other agents.
Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis worked with VML to rewrite the original version to simply include comprehensive plan amendments. As a result of the amendment, the governing body will be able to require an applicant to disclose any business relations with any members of the governing body or planning commission when an application for a comprehensive plan amendment affects the specific property of the applicant or the contract purchaser of the land subject to the application.
The original version would have required extensive reporting of business relations by town and city council members that are completely unrelated to a rezoning or other land use application. It would be burdensome for smaller localities and would serve no purpose. The Senate Local Government Committee has reported the bill in its improved form.
Impact fee bills fail in Senate committee
SB 1268 (Herring) and SB 1356 (O'Brien), two pieces of legislation that would have permitted impact fees for numerous public facilities, such as schools, roads and other infrastructure, were defeated in the Senate Local Government Committee by a substantial margin.
Affordable dwelling unit ordinance compromise moves forward
Several bills to amend the general affordable dwelling unit enabling legislation were combined into one compromise bill in the Senate Local Government Committee meeting held Tuesday.
The combined bill, SB 955 (Quayle), was reported by the Senate Local Government Committee Tuesday. The House bills are likely to be combined as well.
Under the compromise bill, increased densities are allowed, with incentives for a developer to increase the density by 30 percent (up from the existing law's 20 percent) if affordable dwelling units are made part of the project being constructed. In addition, in lieu of building affordable units, the developer could pay into a housing fund that the legislation allows the locality to create.
Bill defeated limiting town water, sewer rates for county customers
The Senate Local Government Committee took no action on a bill that would have required towns to sell water and sewer services to county customers at the same rates charged town residents. As a result, SB 1377 (Herring) died in the committee. The bill would have applied to any town that has more than 1,000 retail customers in the county.
Bill shortens subdivision review time; opens PSA easements to power companies
HB 2544 (Lingamfelter) is intended to limit the amount of time public service authorities and state agencies have to review subdivision plats. The legislation, however, also requires public service authority easements to be made available to power companies and other utilities.
The bill would allow the power company a right to put a power line in a water or sewer line easement without the PSA or landowner having any power to complain. VML is working with the patron to limit the opening of easements to those easements located in a public street. Existing language in the bill limits that opening to cases where the utility company obtains a permit.
Subcommittee amends land-use provisions of omnibus transportation bill
A subcommittee of the Senate Transportation Committee significantly altered the land-use provisions of SB 1417 (Norment), the omnibus transportation bill in the Senate.
First, the urban development area part of the bill was improved significantly. As recommended by the subcommittee, counties with a growth rate of more than 20 percent per 10 years or with a population of more than 50,000 will be required to establish one or more urban development areas. Cities, towns and other counties are allowed to create the districts. The UDAs must accommodate residential growth for a 20-year projection of new residents. The residential density must be four units per acre, or three times the density of the area outside the district. The prior versions did not require the establishment of UDAs, but did remove 50 percent of the road construction money of any county that didn't create the districts. That 50 percent funding cut is now removed. Another amendment allows any county that states that its comprehensive plan satisfies the requirements of the bill to certify that instead of amending the plan.
Another major land-use provision is the urban transportation service district provision. This applies to counties with a population of more than 90,000. The earlier version allowed such counties to deny rezonings for inadequate off-site roads. The new version removes the rezoning provision. This is a good move, because localities now have the authority to deny a rezoning based on inadequate off-site roads. Limiting the authority to counties over 90,000 would, by negative implication, deny the right to all other counties - a right they now have. The bill has an impact fee provision, but is limited to land zoned for agricultural uses and applies to by-right developments only. The transportation subcommittee recommended limiting the impact fee authority to northern Virginia localities only, which is assumed to be limited to the counties of Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William.
The bill retains the most harmful provision to counties: the requirement to take over all new subdivision roads for maintenance. VDOT would retain maintenance responsibility for new subdivision streets in an urban development area. As stated above, any county that is below the population or growth rate floors set out above is not required to create UDAs. But, if a county doesn't create a UDA, then VDOT would not be responsible for ANY new subdivision roads. Therefore, all counties would be effectively forced to create UDAs in order to be eligible for VDOT maintenance of at least some subdivision streets. VML will report more fully on the bill over the next several days. The House Appropriations Committee will take up a substitute bill Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 31. It is likely that the House bill, HB 3202, will be amended in the same manner the Senate bill was amended.
Homestead constitutional exemption re-referred
The Senate Privileges & Elections Committee reported and re-referred to the Senate Finance Committee a constitutional amendment to direct the General Assembly to authorize localities to exempt or defer property taxes on up to 20 percent of the value of residential or farm property.
SJR 354 (Rerras) specifically provides that the local governments would be able to set restrictions and conditions on the exemption, partial exemption, or deferral of real property taxes. The exemption is limited to residential or farm property that is designed for continuous habitation and is the primary dwelling of the owner. SJR 354 incorporates a number of other constitutional amendments introduced on real estate taxation, including SJR 398 (Whipple), which incorporated Gov. Tim Kaine's proposal on homestead exemptions.
A House Privileges & Elections subcommittee will hear a House amendment on homestead exemptions -- HJR 624 (Brink) on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 5 p.m. Both VML and VACo support the amendments.
Senate Finance Committee reports costly retirement benefits
The Senate Finance Committee reported two bills that will increase retirement benefits for teachers and deputy sheriffs. Sen. Emmett Hanger of Augusta put forth a substitute version of SB 1218. The bill increases the health insurance credit for retired teachers to $4 a month (from $2.50), and removes the cap on the credit (which is now set at $75 a month). The cost to localities in FY08 is $18.6 million.
The committee also reported Sen. Ken Stolle's bill dealing with enhanced retirement benefits for deputy sheriffs. SB 1166 requires that localities cover deputies under the Law Enforcement Officers Retirement System, effective July 1, 2007; provides that the state will pay a portion of the increased costs for all deputies with a per deputy amount determined by the fiscal stress index and based on state-funded positions and salaries; increases the multiplier for state police and for sheriffs from 1.70 to 2.00; provides additional increases in the multiplier to state police and sheriffs based on years of service; allows localities to increase the multiplier for deputies and other public safety officials in the same manner that it is increase for the state police and sheriffs.
The bottom line for localities: the bill is projected to cost $23.2 million in FY08; Gov. Kaine's budget amendment for LEOS includes $11.5 million, which brings down the projected cost to localities.
No Child Left Behind bill advances
HB 2542 (Landes) ratchets up the level of dissatisfaction expressed by the General Assembly with the implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The bill, which has been reported to the House floor, requires the state Board of Education to seek waivers from complying with the provisions of the federal act that are "fiscally and programmatically burdensome" and are not "educationally sound." The board is further required to submit information on the status of the waiver requests to the General Assembly and to the Virginia congressional delegation. If the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently under consideration by Congress) does not allow the flexibility in implementing NCLB as contained in Virginia's waiver requests, the board is required to make a recommendation to the General Assembly on Virginia's continued participation in the implementation of NCLB.
Finally, the bill authorizes the board and the Attorney General to bring suit against the U.S. Department of Education if federal education funding designed to help children from low-income families is withheld as the result of the state's withdrawal from participation in NCLB. Similar legislation -- SB 1212 (Hanger) is pending in the Senate, and is expected to be heard at the Thursday meeting of the Senate Education and Health Committee.
Tax sunset bill tabled
The House Rules Committee tabled HB 2624 (Reid), which would have required a sunset clause on tax legislation at the state and local level. The legislature was warned last year that a similar bill would have threatened the state's bond rating.
Bill expanding workers' compensation benefits stricken
A bill that would have extended workers' compensation benefits to family members of emergency workers for certain diseases contracted by the emergency worker and transmitted to the family member was stricken by the patron. Both VML and VACo objected strenuously to HB 2428 (Albo).
Immigration bill on House floor
HB 2634 (Reid) would make the employer and not the insurance carrier responsible for providing workers' compensation benefits to illegal aliens injured on the job. In order for the bill to apply, carriers would have to prove the employer "willfully" hired the illegal alien. So as to not violate the law, carriers would then prior to making payments on any claims, require employers to provide documentation of the employees' resident status. The bill is on the House floor.
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