Legislative Update May 1, 2006

Delegate Robert J. Wittman
Legislative Update: May 1, 2006

Well this week the House and Senate continued to work on a budget. Little work was accomplished on the House side because they were waiting to get a transportation plan from the Senate. The Senate has yet to act upon the House budget that was passed last week. They have continued to work on regional transportation plans and have revamped their proposal for various tax increases for a basic overall state transportation funding plan.

This Senate plan is significantly different than earlier proposals. First the latest proposal from the Senate has created revenue legislation instituting new taxes and fees separate from its version of the budget. The new funds would come from increased titling taxes and registration fees on motor vehicles, higher fines on bad drivers and a 1.5 cent increase in the tax on diesel fuel, raising it to equal the 17.5cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline.

Additionally, the state would impose a 6-cent-per-gallon fee on oil companies, paid on the fuel they store in terminals located in Virginia. The Senate has added a provision to their revenue legislation that would prohibit oil companies from passing the 6-cent per gallon fee onto consumers. There are some who believe that this provision may not stand up in court and petroleum companies say that smaller locally owned terminals may have no choice but to pass these fees onto consumers.

The regional element of the Senate’s transportation proposal allows localities to impose new taxes, tolls or issue bonds to pay for additional transportation projects in their regions. These new taxes would include an additional sales or use tax, grantor’s tax or transient occupancy tax which would have to be approved by local governments but would not be subject to a voter referendum.

All of these proposals were completed by the Senate late on Thursday April 27th. Unfortunately this was too late for the House to consider these proposals this week. The House reconvenes on Wednesday May 3rd to consider the Senate’s transportation proposals.
I have had a number of calls about what is being done in the 99th District to address the potential for the Pandemic Flu. There will be a public presentation on the Avian Flu (H5N1) and its connection to the Pandemic Flu on May 9th at 5 p.m. at the Glenns Campus of RCC. The presentation will also address what the community can do to be prepared for the Pandemic Flu. Dr. Thomas Irungu, from the Virginia Department of Health, Three River Health District, will talk about how they are working in conjunction with local health departments to assist local governments and citizens on preparations.

I have also received a number of responses from the questions that I asked about funding the Chesapeake Bay Cleanup. For those of you have responded I would like to extend my sincere gratitude. For those who have not yet had a contact our office with your responses it is not too late. You can simply send your responses to the below questions to robwittman@verizon.net, or P.O. Box 995, Montross, Virginia 22520. Or you can call in your responses to 804-493-0508. I look forward to hearing from you.

Do you believe that there needs to be a steady funding source for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort?

Do you believe that funds to clean up the Chesapeake Bay should come from money in the General Fund?

Would you support a tax increase designated to funding Bay cleanup?

What type of tax increase would you support?

As one last note, I am very excited to announce that we are hoping to get a new website up and running in the next few weeks. I will keep you posted on the progress.