Conservation tax credits are back in the news. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says that legislators should not “grievously wound” Virginia’s land conservation program as the price for repealing the inheritance tax on the estates of multimillionaires.
Kaine supports the repeal of the Death Tax, but he also sees conservation tax credits as essential to his goal of preserving an additional 400,000 acres of open space from development by the end of his term. However, estimating that the death tax would drain some $100 million a year from state revenues, the General Assembly imposed a $50 million cap on the amount of conservation tax credits that could be granted in any one year. As the popularity of the program increased in recent years, lawmakers in the state Senate worried that it would create an open-ended loss state revenue.
Here’s the rub: The Death Tax/Tax Credit trade-off was a critical compromise that enabled the Senate and House of Delegates to come to a budget deal only days before the start of a new fiscal year. There just isn’t time to re-open the issue.
Oh, well, maybe next year.
Bob Lewis with the Associated Press has the story here.