Saturday, February 10, 2007
Panels approve wineries bills
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roanoke.com/politics
RICHMOND -- Panels in the House and Senate approved legislation this week to restore a measure of self-distribution to small Virginia wineries.
A House of Delegates subcommittee and state Senate committee each approved legislation by unanimous voice votes to establish a nonprofit, nonstock corporation within the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to serve as a wholesale distributor for small farm wineries.
Senate Bill 1413 and House Bill 2450 were filed in response to a 2005 federal court ruling that the more than 2-decade-old practice of self-distribution by wineries was unconstitutional.
The court said self-distribution gave in-state wineries an unfair advantage because out-of-state vintners didn't have the same right.
A number of other bills with different approaches to the court ruling also were filed, but SB 1413 and HB 2450 represent a compromise that would give farm wineries the right to cart their products directly to market but also preserve the state's time-honored three-tier alcohol distribution system.
The legislation brings the state into the process, allowing it to serve as the wholesale distributor for small wineries with a lower markup than private-sector distributors.
Wineries could distribute up to 3,000 cases of wine annually through the state. Anything above that would require a winery to use a commercial wholesaler.
HB 2450 now goes to the full Senate, while SB 1413 will go to the House General Laws Committee.
-- Mason Adams
House committee kills rail projects measures
Legislation that would give localities greater ability to reject state-funded rail projects died before the procedural midpoint of the General Assembly session.
But the sponsor of the bills hopes his efforts cause the state to listen longer and harder to Montgomery County's concerns about a proposed Norfolk Southern intermodal rail yard that could be built in Elliston.
Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, sponsored bills that would require local government approval and partial local government funding of projects that receive money from the state's rail enhancement fund.
Neither of the measures (House Bills 2232 and 2233) escaped the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.
But Nutter said the legislation helped get the attention of state officials. Last week, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation postponed a decision on where to locate the rail yard and agreed to meet with local governments representing 10 potential sites for the facility.
"If they're willing to do that and we can look at alternative sites to see what works, I think that's good," Nutter said Thursday.
The Senate passed a budget bill Thursday that partly addresses the rail yard controversy.
The bill contains language requiring "that the selection of an intermodal rail facility ... takes into consideration the interest of all affected parties."
-- Michael Sluss
