Category: taxes

Looks like Dave Albo has some competition now, from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Authority for transit projects sought:

A Richmond delegate and business leaders are getting ready to push for a regional authority that could raise $105 million annually for transportation projects in central Virginia.

The money would be generated through an additional 2 percent tax on gas, as well as new or increased fees on car registrations, inspections and repairs. The taxes and fees could apply to much of the Richmond and Petersburg area.

As envisioned, the money would support the sale of long-term bonds that would fund roads and other projects to “deal with the transportation issue in central Virginia before it becomes a crisis,” said Del. Franklin P. Hall, D-Richmond, who plans to introduce legislation on the authority to the 2008 General Assembly, which convenes Wednesday.

“We see the issue as important enough that the leaders need to at least give it some thought,” said James W. Dunn, president of the Greater Richmond Chamber.

Hall’s bill would be enabling legislation. The Central Virginia Regional Authority would be subject to the approval of local governments, and it would spread over nine localities: the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, Petersburg and Hopewell, and the counties of Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Hanover, Henrico and Prince George.

The authority could impose the taxes and fees if the governing bodies of at least five of the nine localities approve. The five approving localities would have to represent at least 51 percent of the area’s population, and they would have to include at least two of the three most populous localities, which are Chesterfield, Henrico and Richmond. Amelia, Caroline, Charles City, Goochland, Cumberland, New Kent, Powhatan and Sussex counties could opt in.

As drafted, the bill would require the localities to act by the end of this year, and it could potentially set up the authority — and the higher taxes and fees — in localities even if they oppose it.

[…]

The central Virginia authority is modeled after similar ones approved by the General Assembly last year for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. The authorities haven’t been without controversy.

On Tuesday, the Virginia Supreme Court will hear arguments in a challenge to a circuit court decision upholding the creation of the authority for Northern Virginia.

“We have been assured by the attorney general . . . that it meets the test and those statutes are valid,” Hall said.

It never stops…

From WTOP: Va. Developers Consider New Ways to Compensate Localities:

Virginia home builders may ask state legislators to change the way they help defray the costs of municipal services required by new development.

Currently, developers offer cash and land for roads, schools or parks. Those voluntary commitments, called proffers, are usually negotiated with city or county leaders.

In recent years, however, some localities have made proffers an informal requirement for approval of a project.

The Home Builders Association of Virginia has distributed a position paper suggesting that proffers be replaced with an impact fee on new homes that could be set by state lawmakers. The proposal also includes a new tax on the sale of existing homes, although it is unclear whether buyers or sellers would pay the tax.

And where do sellers get money from, idiot?

The buyers! Duh.

Sellers don’t have an invisible pile of money around to pay for taxes…

Cash proffers have become “an unbridled tax on new housing in virtually every modest growth area of the Commonwealth,” according to the document from the builders’ lobbying group.

Discussion of an automatic impact fee is a departure for the home building lobby, which has opposed the concept in the past.

Some developers argue that cash proffers are to blame for the current slump in the housing market because the cost is passed on to buyers in the purchase price.

Del. Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach, who was recently briefed on the plan, said she would be reluctant to support anything that would further tax home sales.

“Our housing market is really stressed right now,” said Suit, a mortgage loan officer. “We need people to start buying homes, so increasing the cost of buying a home is not a good thing.”

The builders association argues that its proposal would increase affordable housing options by spreading infrastructure costs among more property transactions.

Del. Franklin Hall, D-Richmond, supports revamping a proffer system that he said “is exacerbating urban sprawl.”

The Virginia Association of Counties opposes any plan that would deprive local governments of the power to ask developers to help pay infrastructure costs, spokesman Ted McCormack said.

“We’d be reluctant to give up cash proffers unless we feel like the impact fee system would offer flexibility,” he said. “A one-size-fits-all approach is probably not something that’s going to work across 95 counties.”

The General Assembly convenes Jan. 9.