More bills before the General Assembly that could change your life, Part 2

This is the second in a two-part series listing some of the more important bills in the 2005 Virginia General Assembly session.

SJ 408 Limits the state budget to what was spent in the previous year plus a percentage increase equal to the rate of inflation, plus a factor for population increases. If excess state revenues are greater than 0.5 percent of the spending limit, much of that excess would be returned to individual taxpayers.

The General Assembly may spend more than the limit, but it must have a supermajority (60 percent or more) in each house to do it.

This is a good start for limiting the size of government. The one problem is that it never reduces government, it just expands government at the rate of inflation plus population growth. If there is wasteful spending, those programs may be shut down, but that money can then be used by the legislature for other programs.

That’s why we need to get the following bills passed, too:

HB 973 – Makes state agencies accountable by creating performance measurements; requires the budget bill to declare each state agency's mission, goals, and objectives; and to create objective ways to measure each agency’s performance. It would also require that the state budget show the total detailed budget requested by each agency.

In addition, the bill establishes the Office of the State Inspector General to examine the management and operation of state agencies and non-state agencies that receive state funds, conduct independent evaluations of the programs and activities of those agencies, and investigate complaints of fraud, waste, abuse or corruption.

Finally, some accountability!

And along with HB 973 comes …

HB 459 – A joint commission would be created to reduce wasteful state spending. The commission would review the operations of state agencies and state-funded programs with the intent of reducing nonessential programs and spending.

A few more bills for your consideration:

SB 872 – Elimination of the SCAM prepayment of sales taxes by businesses:  When you pay sales tax to a business for items you buy, that business is required to pass that tax money on to the department of taxation by the 20th of the following month.

In June 2002, as a fraudulent way to try to balance the budget that year (the budget year ends June 30th), the state government required businesses to make double payments of their sales tax – the payment normally due in June, plus an early payment of the money due for July.

Boy, it sure would be nice if you could go to your boss and get your next month’s paycheck a month early so you could balance your own budget. But things don’t work that way, unless you’re the state government and you can force businesses to send the money early. The state government loved this idea so much that the General Assembly passed a law in 2003 making this prepayment an annual event.

This bill would eliminate this ridiculous prepayment scheme.

HB 826, HB 1821 – Limits how the state can take your land away from you using eminent domain: Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property for public uses such as schools and roadways. Increasingly, local governments are taking people's homes and businesses and handing them over to private developers who can build more expensive homes or businesses on the property, and therefore create more tax revenues for the local governments.

These proposed bills require the courts to put eminent domain proceedings at the top of the docket over other civil trials when setting the schedule of cases. It also penalizes the state agency that is taking the property if the court determines the agency’s initial price offer to the landowner was considerably lower than it should have been.

HB 1806 prohibits local governments from using eminent domain to take property that they intend to give to private entities for private purposes, such as for building expensive condos.

The problem with HB1806 is that it allows for the taking of property and handing it over to private entities if “any benefits that will accrue to the private entity … are merely incidental when compared to the benefits that will accrue to the public.” That is too wishy-washy, as you could still argue that a Wal-Mart that wants to build where your house is, will bring additional taxes to your town that are a “benefit that will accrue to the public.”

Now, what can you do to make sure some of these good laws pass and the stinkers get relegated to the trash can? To show your support or opposition for any bill, contact your legislators (all of them!) Remember that they don’t just make laws for their districts – we all have to follow the laws they pass – so every Senator and delegate is your legislator. You can find a listing and contact information at http://legis.state.va.us/, or you can call the Capitol directly at 1 (800) 889-0229.

One note: There are thousands of bills in front of this session of the General Assembly, and many legislators sponsor similar ones with similar language. So if one bill goes to defeat in one committee or gets wrapped up into another bill, its intent may not be dead, because similar language might exist in another bill. So don’t get wrapped up in the bill numbers as much as the concepts when talking to your legislators.