Supervisors set legislative priorities

By Cheryl Chumley

Published: December 3, 2008

Minus a couple of taxing measures, Prince William supervisors Tuesday approved their list of legislative priorities to send to Richmond.

The General Assembly’s 2009 regular session convenes on Jan. 14.

Ranked highest were transportation and education. For the former, supervisors asked that the General Assembly provide an extra $188 million in order to meet its obligations to fund 95 percent of transit operating and capital costs. And for the latter — due to the “continued revenue shortfall at both state and county levels, the Prince William County School Board does not request any new funding from the General Assembly,” a summary of legislative priorities reads.

Rather, the School Board just wants enough money to continue with Standards of Quality programs and to give teachers raises. The county, meanwhile, asks that state funding be increased for “operations and capital needs of the school division,” according to the legislative priorities.

Also of importance to supervisors: full funding of all state mandates; authorization to home monitor certain inmates and in so doing save taxpayer money; and more local authority to “mitigate detrimental impacts of property foreclosures on neighborhoods and property values.” That last includes a request for legislation allowing Prince William to recoup the costs of cleaning graffiti from abandoned and otherwise vacated properties.

Perhaps more notable were the items supervisors refrained from bringing to the General Assembly — at least for now.

One would have allowed counties to tax cigarettes, meals and admissions — the price of the ticket or entrance fee for certain events — while the second in the form of developing legislation would have given local officials the ability to tax residential properties at a different rate than commercial. Current law is that commercial and residential tax rates must be the same.

Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at-large, opposed both measures.

“I can’t support this one,” he said of the taxing authority for cigarettes, meals and admissions. Towns and cities, but not counties, in Virginia are already allowed this ability. “But no matter how you look at it the message is going to be, this board supports those taxes. And I don’t think this board does … so why ask for the authority?”

Supervisor Mike May, R-Occoquan, saw the issue as one of local control, rather than taxation, and said that while he personally “wouldn’t support some of these taxes … we should have enough authority to do our jobs.”

Still, Stewart said, there were risks: The General Assembly could justify funding reductions or refusals by claiming the county could raise its own money with the new taxing powers.

In the end, supervisors agreed to remove this taxation authority from its legislative wish list until the county’s director of legislative affairs, Dana Fenton, obtained more information.

And on the matter of the bifurcated real estate tax structure, the board delayed the issuance of any formal show of support until the actual legislation was written and ready for review.

“We put this thing out there, [the General Assembly] is going to [justify less funding] and say, ‘We did something for you this year,’ when the core issue is really the money,” and the failure of the state to fully fund the localities, Stewart said.

The legislation that’s being written includes restrictions, Fenton said. For instance, the opportunity to tax at different rates could only be used in jurisdictions that saw a drop in real estate value of 20 percent or more in one year’s time, and the bifurcated structure could only stay in place for a set period, so far discussed at three years, he explained.

Supervisor Wally Covington, R-Brentsville, expressed concern with this deadline requirement, however.

“Somebody’s going to get a real jack-up in their taxes the next year,” he said. “I think we need to get to a bifurcated tax, but I think we need to put some restrictions on it.”

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.