Thursday, February 11, 2010
General Assembly notebook: Panel advances online sales tax bill
General Assembly 2011
Among the major issues: The state's continuing efforts to provide services with fewer dollars and Gov. McDonnell's plan to privatize liquor stores. Session ends Feb. 26.
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RICHMOND -- A Virginia Senate panel clicked "send" on legislation that would require Internet retailers to collect sales tax on in-state transactions by affiliated online merchants.
The so-called "Amazon bill" from Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta County, would clarify language in the state tax code to make it clear that certain online businesses cannot avoid paying Virginia's sales and use tax as they currently do.
Several merchants told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that large Internet retailers such as Amazon.com have a competitive advantage because they don't charge Virginia's 5 percent sales tax to online shoppers.
-- The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot
Bills to ease guns laws survive committee votes
RICHMOND -- A state Senate committee advanced legislation Wednesday to ease restrictions on concealed firearms in bars and cars, and it quietly extinguished a proposal to expand criminal background checks at gun shows.
With backing from pro-gun Democrats, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee advanced two firearms measures that were vetoed in previous years by former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine. Supporters expect the bills to get a friendlier reception this year from Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Senate Bill 334 would allow gun owners with concealed-carry permits to have concealed firearms in restaurants that serve alcohol. A gun-carrying patron would be prohibited from consuming alcohol and could face a jail sentence of up to one year if he or she becomes intoxicated. A similar bill is moving through the House of Delegates.
The measure cleared the committee by a vote of 8-7 with the help of four pro-gun Democrats: Creigh Deeds of Bath County, John Edwards of Roanoke, Roscoe Reynolds of Henry County and Chap Petersen of Fairfax.
By another 8-7 vote, the committee also advanced Senate Bill 408, which would allow gun owners without concealed-carry permits to store a handgun in a locked vehicle compartment.
Supporters of a bill that would expand background checks at gun shows asked the committee to shelve the bill for this year, effectively ending legislative efforts to close the so-called "gun show loophole." A similar bill already had been killed in the House.
-- Michael Sluss, The Roanoke Times
House gives early OK to halt health care penalty
The House of Delegates gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that seeks to undo the effects of a federal health care overhaul measure if one should pass Congress.
Del. Bob Marshall's Health Care Freedom Act, House Bill 10, would prohibit the adoption of any law that imposes a penalty on someone who declines to enter into a contract for health care coverage.
Mandatory coverage is a key component of the overhaul effort now working its way through Congress.
"In 220 years, Congress has never tried to compel people to purchase any good or service," Marshall told his colleagues. "You are the sentinels of the lives, liberty and property of your constituents. I urge you to protect them against the usurpers in Washington, D.C."
The House overrode the objections of critics such as Del. Joseph Morrissey, D-Henrico County, who brought up "the teensy-weensy problem called the supremacy clause" -- the constitutional provision according federal laws supremacy over state statutes.
-- The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot
Highway 'move over' law could be expanded
Virginia's "move over" law is on its way to being expanded.
The current law, enacted in 2002, requires motorists to move left -- if it can be done safely -- into another lane of a multiple-lane highway when approaching a police, fire or rescue vehicle on the side of the road with flashing red or blue lights.
Del. Glenn Oder's bill, House Bill 403, would require the same maneuver when approaching tow trucks and highway maintenance or construction vehicles with flashing amber lights. The bill was approved Wednesday in a House subcommittee.
-- The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot
Delegate pushes against U.N. child-rights treaty
Del. Brenda Pogge wants no part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
"If this treaty is ratified, all our parental rights will be usurped," Pogge, R-Yorktown, told a House subcommittee Wednesday.
The panel agreed and endorsed Pogge's resolution, House Joint Resolution 193, urging Congress to pass a "parental rights amendment" to the U.S. Constitution ensuring "the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children."
Every country in the world has ratified the treaty except the United States and Somalia.
-- The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot
