Author: Steve Haner
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20th Century Tax Meets 21st Century Economy
Both chambers of the General Assembly are on the verge of passing bills expanding the duty to collect state sales tax to internet retailers selling into Virginia, a once controversial idea that is generating far less heat than before but is still hitting resistance. Senate Bill 1083 and House Bill 1722 still have a few…
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RVA Affirms Bike Lanes, Opens City to Scooters
The sidewalk scooter fad now coming to Richmond was in full swing in San Antonio during a visit over the holidays, providing a good preview of Things to Come. Downtown Richmond is not now and probably never will be as packed as downtown San Antonio during the Alamo Bowl, and it was clear from their…
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A Rack Of Increases Coming To Your Electric Bill
Here they go again, using your electric bill to pay for government spending programs and blurring the distinction between utility costs and taxes. Everybody heard Thursday about that new coal ash management program adding to the pantheon of rate adjustment clauses (RACs) driving up electricity bills. Later in the day, with far less notice, a…
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M&T Fix: A Chance To Win at Whack-A-Mole
Everybody knows (and hates) the car tax, right? Imagine you bought a six-year-old used car, but when the county sent you the tax bill it based the tax on the brand-new-off-the-lot price paid by the original owner. Imagine if the Tax Man then smiled and said, this is your annual assessment for the rest of…
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SCC Authority Over ACP Costs Reinforced In Bill
Sit down for this shocking news, but for the first time in recent memory a key energy subcommittee at the General Assembly has voted for the ratepayers, for the authority of the State Corporation Commission, and against protecting the stockholders of Dominion Energy Virginia. The energy subcommittee of House Commerce and Labor Committee has approved…
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One Hour in Senate Finance Is An Education
Concealed handguns. Corporate economic development cash payments of $110 million. Confirming voter identities by checking Social Security numbers. A new tax subtraction for taxable gains on property taken by eminent domain. Those are just some of the issues considered in the first hour of Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Finance Committee, and it was a…
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Bill Slams Exits Used for Electricity Competition
Legislation that effectively eliminates two avenues for electricity customer choice in Virginia gets its first public hearing in a House subcommittee Thursday afternoon. House Bill 2477, introduced by House Commerce and Labor Committee Chairman Terry Kilgore, prohibits additional customer choice if a utility’s overall demand is not growing more than two percent annually. That describes…
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Rage, Ruin, And You Pay The Bill In Full
I hear hurricanes a blowin’ And I know the end is coming soon I fear rivers overflowing I hear the voice for rage and ruin Bad Moon Rising, Credence Clearwater Revival The acronym we all must learn for the 2019 General Assembly session is “CCR,” but it doesn’t stand for Credence Clearwater Revival. Coal combustion…
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Love The Middle Class? Index Virginia’s Taxes
Virginia’s most effective tax collector is inflation. Virginia’s long refusal to adjust any element of its income tax for slow but constant inflation means that each year, a slightly higher percentage of your growing income is taxed, and the rising costs of living shrink the value of the standard deduction and push more of your…
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The Exact Moment Virginia Changed Forever
For veteran observers of the Virginia General Assembly, a brief oral exchange between an Amazon executive and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday was a bright flash of insight into Virginia’s new political landscape. You do not see people, especially not people seeking a major expenditure of state funds, get that cavalier…
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GILTI And Other Tax Provisions Of Great Interest
In proposals which would further distance Virginia from the tax reforms of President Donald Trump, the General Assembly is being asked to let Virginia corporations keep two major deductions no longer allowed at the federal level. If the General Assembly agrees, the chance for a general corporate income tax rate reduction probably goes away. The…
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SCC Rejects Most of Dominion Grid Proposal
The State Corporation Commission Thursday rejected in large part the highly-touted Dominion Energy Virginia proposal to rebuild its transmission grid, approving only the elements improving cyber and physical security. Those were the least expensive and least controversial pieces of its application. The 2018 legislation that stated major grid investments were in the public interest also…
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Finally, The SCC Is Full Strength
Former Chief Deputy Attorney General and Circuit Court Judge Patricia West is heading to the State Corporation Commission and the only question it raises is, why did the Republicans feel compelled to ram her election through with such speed? Was the coalition that fragile? West apparently has not practiced law in front of the Commission…
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Uh, Why Does JLARC Scare AG Herring?
Just what does Mark Herring have to hide? One of my goals during four years as director of administration for Attorney Generals Mark Earley and Randy Beales was to keep the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission busy somewhere else. Having JLARC combing through your office asking inconvenient questions is no fun. But had JLARC…
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Transportation Revenue Focus of Concern Again
In the middle of a booming economy, with many state revenue sources surging, flat transportation revenues were the focus of warnings Monday in presentations by Virginia Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne and Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine. “I think we are heading for a cliff,” Layne told the House Appropriations Committee. “For the first time…