eNews Feb. 12, 2019

Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - 05:03pm

 

In this issue:

• Action Alert: Oppose short-term rental bill
• House and Senate synchronize tax bills
• Transportation bills moving forward
• Coal ash bills likely to pass
• Redistricting update
• Bills being closely monitored

 

Oppose short-term rental bill

Subcommittee meets Wed., Feb. 13, at 4:30 p.m.

For the past two years, legislation has been introduced that chips away at the local authority to regulate short-term rentals that we fought so hard to keep in 2017. This will only continue and will probably get worse if we don’t defeat these efforts now!

While SB1701 (Ebbin) is targeted specifically at Fairfax County, next year the legislation could target any specific locality. The bill prohibits Fairfax County from enforcing their ordinance and restricts their ability to determine the appropriate number of nights and types of residences in which a short-term rental can be operated.

Action

Please get in touch with your delegates to urge a “no” vote on SB1701. The bill will be heard by the House Counties, Cities and Towns Subcommittee #2 on Wed., Feb. 13, at 4:30 p.m.

Talking points

• The current state law is designed to allow localities the flexibility to determine what is best for their locality. Just as an example, Fairfax County held more than 10 public meetings and spent a year studying the adoption of its ordinance before enactment.
• Our goal is to preserve local authority to reasonably address short-term rentals while protecting the property rights of all citizens and the character of local neighborhoods.
• This bill sets a precedent that will encourage the General Assembly to regulate the activities of specific jurisdictions.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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House and Senate synchronize their tax bills, but budget issues remain to be settled

Although the House, Senate and Gov. Ralph Northam are singing from the same page on tax relief, the House and Senate budget packages are currently somewhat out of tune with each other.

To resolve the dissonance, the Senate Finance Committee moved ahead today to put the two budget bills into conference by conforming the House bill (HB1700) to the Senate budget bill (SB1100). After the Senate passes the amended House bill and the House formally rejects the Senate’s changes, the budget conference can begin.

Below is a summary of the issues of significant concern to local governments.

Local Taxes:

The Senate includes budget language (Item 255 #1s) directing the Secretary of Finance to convene a work group of interested parties for the purpose of presenting a legislative plan and budget for next year’s Session that would require all localities to assess a “zero” rate on a manufacturer’s machinery and tools for the first five years the equipment is put into service. Under the budget amendment, reimbursements to local governments would be provided from Internet sales tax collections up to $50 million. The result would be another “car tax relief” program with localities stranded in the budget wilderness when (and not if) the Commonwealth reprograms the reimbursement dollars for state programs in the next economic downturn.

The House did not include the language in its budget package.

VML recommends that members contact their state senators to drop the amendment.

Both the House and Senate budget packages include amendments (Item 3-1.01 #1s and Item 3-1.01 #6h) to strip out $2 million in FY20 from the Communications Sales and Use Tax Trust Fund. The money would be transferred to the state general fund. In last year’s Session, the General Assembly confiscated $2 million in each year of the biennium. Gov. Northam restored the funding slated for the second-year grab. The General Assembly is choosing to continue the transfer. This tax came about as a means to reimburse localities after the state exercised its Dillon Rule powers in 2006 and repealed local authority to impose taxes on telecommunications providers.

VML recommends that members tell their senators and delegates to restore the $2 million to the Trust Fund. The funds should be allocated to local governments.

The Senate amendments include budget language (Item 136 #7s) modifying the calculation of the Local Composite Index (LCI). The language would incorporate within the real estate indicator of local wealth the land-use assessment value for properties located within a land-use plan.

If enacted, the LCI for rural localities that use land-use values rather than fair market values in land assessments would end up with lower LCIs beginning in FY 2021. The state funding formula for the Standards of Quality provides greater financial assistance for localities with lower LCIs. The House does not have a comparable amendment.

VML urges members to ask their senators and delegates to oppose the amendment.

Water Quality:

Gov. Northam’s budget initiative to boost funding for the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF) was washed away in the House (Item 368 #1h) and seriously eroded in the Senate (Item 368 #1s).

While the House budget amendment eliminated the $50 million the governor proposed in FY20, the Senate simply drained the proposed funding by $40 million, leaving $10 million for SLAF.

Given the enormous challenges in managing stormwater runoff, VML urges members to support the Senate amendment in budget conference.

Community Service Boards (CSBs):

The budget passed last year reduced general fund support for CSBs but assumed that the general fund dollars ($11.1 million in FY19 and $25 million in FY20) would be made up from federal Medicaid dollars related to the General Assembly’s decision last year to expand the Medicaid program.

The introduced Budget Bill includes language and special fund balances that could be made available to individual Community Services Boards in circumstances where the Medicaid reimbursements fail to meet at least 90% of the general fund reductions in FY19 after the close of the fiscal year.

The Senate amendment (Item 310 #2s) would distribute financial assistance before the end of the fiscal year in order to preserve critical services without disruption. The amendment also requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services to compare the value of the general fund cuts with the Medicaid reimbursements and to report budget shortfalls and other findings to the General Assembly for consideration in the 2020 legislative session.

VML asks members to voice their support for the Senate amendment.

K-12 Education:

The House budget (Item 395 #2h) includes $3 million for the School Resource Officer Incentive Grant Fund. With this amendment, the amount provided for the fund would increase to a total of $4.7 million in FY20. This is a recommendation of the House Select Committee on School Safety.

VML supports the amendment.

The House and Senate also differ from one another in direct aid to K-12 funding. The House boosts lottery appropriations, which offer local school divisions greater flexibility than state general funds since the lottery money can be used to match other state dollars.  And, both packages preserve the teacher salary increases. However, both packages also reduce state financial assistance for education as compared with the Introduced Budget Bill.

Issue/Amendment Item	House Biennial Amendment	Senate Biennial Amendment
Back-fill Expired Federal VPI Grant (Item 136 #3h)	($9,678,780)	($2,416,506)
Maintain FY20 Increase for Supplemental At-Risk Add-on (Item 136 #10h) and (Item 136 #4s)	($35,613,626)	($14,241,528)
Supplemental Lottery Per Pupil Allocation (Item 136 #11h) and (Item 136 #10s)	$27,442,009	($34,691,509)
Literary Fund School Construction Interest Rate Subsidy (Item 136 #8s)	No change from Introduced bill	($10,000,000)
School Counselor Ratio (Item 136 #2s)	No change from Introduced bill	($23,878,056)

Public Safety:

The House and Senate opted for different approaches regarding the body-camera issue. The House amendment (Item 70 #1h) provides $747,808 from the general fund in FY20, in addition to the $723,420 from the general fund included in the introduced budget, to fund additional positions within the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices. This will fund approximately twenty percent of the unfunded positions needed based on the FY19 Compensation Board staffing standards calculation.

The Senate amendment (Item 73 #1s) establishes guidelines for staffing requirements for Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices to hire one Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for every 75 body worn cameras employed by local law enforcement officers.

VML supports the House amendment.

Bottom Line: The window of opportunity is closing

With the Session scheduled to end in 11-days, the legislative pace will jump into hyperdrive. It is important for members to make their concerns known to their delegations as quickly as possible.

VML Contact: Neal Menkes, nmenkes@vml.org

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Transportation bills appear to be headed for passage

As we near the end of the 2019 Session, several transportation bills of interest to local governments appear headed for passage:

• A statewide maximum towing fee of $150 will be set by HB1865 (Fowler) and SB1567 (Marsden).
• Drivers will be required to use their cell phones hands-free as a result of HB1811 (Collins) and SB1341 (Stuart).
• An allocation formula for mass transit operating funds scheduled to go into effect this year will reduce state grants to some localities. HB2553 (Thomas) and SB1680 (Mason) will ease the transition to this new formula by providing supplemental funds in FY 2020 to those transit systems that will be experiencing these funding reductions.
• An Interstate 81 Improvement Fund and an Interstate 81 Committee are being created by legislation (HB2718-Landes and SB1716-Obenshain) aimed at implementing an Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Program; however, no funding is provided for this by the 2019 Session.

VML Contact: Bernie Caton, bcaton@vml.org

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Coal ash bills likely to pass

HB2786 (Ingram) and SB1355 (Wagner) require utilities to close and remove coal ash ponds.

VML Contact: Bernie Caton, bcaton@vml.org

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Redistricting update

In the General Assembly’s latest step toward redistricting, the House and Senate are likely to conform the opposite body’s redistricting resolution to its own. The House Privileges & Elections Committee will take up SJR306 on Friday; a subcommittee has recommended that the language regarding the local commission be inserted.

The Senate Privileges & Elections Committee has HJR615 on its agenda for today and the expectation is that the requirement for the local redistricting commission will be removed. With ongoing pressure to pass some form of legislation to address the Commonwealth’s current redistricting issues, it is likely that HJR615 (Cole) and SJR306 (Barker) will be go to a conference committee.

VML opposes the imposition of partisanship and procedural mandates onto local elections. We urge localities to continue their outreach efforts by contacting the members of the House Privileges & Elections Committee to voice their opposition to the local component.

Talking points:

• The vast majority of cities and towns across Virginia have nonpartisan local governments. Virginia is not unique in this regard: Nationwide, approximately 75% of municipalities have nonpartisan elections.
• There is not a partisan way of responding to public safety, street improvements, enforcing the codes, or taxation required for the various services that the state requires localities to offer (and pay for).
• HJ615 will unnecessarily introduce partisanship into nonpartisan local activities.

VML Contact: Jessica Ackerman, jackerman@vml.org

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Bills being closely monitored

Number / Sponsor	Description	Current Location
HB1966 (Yancey)	Uniform Statewide Building Code; issuance of building permits	Senate: Reported from General Laws and Technology with amendments (15-Y 0-N)
HB2375 (Roem)	Adoption of zoning ordinance	Senate: Referred to Committee on Local Government
HB2549 (Jones)	Cluster zoning; density calculation	Senate: Referred to Committee on Local Government
HB1838 (Marshall)	Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Act; revenue sharing; composite index	Senate: Referred to Committee on Local Government
SB1369 (Norment)	VPPA; statute of limitations on construction contracts; statute of limitations on actions on performance bonds	Senate: Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N 1-A)
SB1262 (Sturtevant)	Checkbook bill” – Localities and school divisions; posting of register of funds expended. NOTE: SEE ACTION ALERT FOR THIS BILL	House: Assigned CC & T sub: Subcommittee #1
SB1403 (Petersen)	Eminent Domain; costs	House: Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #2
SB1404 (Petersen)	Eminent Domain; costs for petition for distribution of funds; interest rate; recordation of certificate	House: Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (8-Y 0-N)
SB1421 (Obenshain)	Eminent Domain; entry upon private property; calculation of just compensation; damages	House: Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (8-Y 0-N)
SB1701 (Ebbin)	Regulation of short-term rentals; urban county executive form of government. NOTE: SEE ACTION ALERT ABOVE	House: Assigned CC & T sub: Subcommittee #2; To be heard 2/13 at 4:30 p.m.
SB1430 (Obenshain)	Conflict of Interest; duties of the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council; training requirement; inquiries from citizens	House: Subcommittee recommends reporting (6-Y 2-N)
SB1431 (Obenshain)	FOIA; FOIA Council; training requirements for local officials	House: Assigned GL sub: Subcommittee #4
SB1759 (Surovell)	Undergrounding utility lines pilot program; transportation infrastructure improvement; urban county executive form of government	House: Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor Committee may hear 2/13 or 2/15
SB1336 (Edwards)	Mechanics’ liens; notice of sale	House: Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) Committee may hear 2/13 or 2/15
SB1421 (Obenshain)	Eminent Domain; entry upon private property; calculation of just compensation; damages	House: Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (8-Y 0-N)

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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