Virginia General Assembly Current Activity

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce is part of the Northern Virginia Partnership, a consortium of three local chambers.  Together, we hire a lobbyist each year to represent our members’ issues at General Assembly.  The Partnership is the largest business consortium from Northern Virginia weighing in with state legislators.

The issues we choose to support have a number of bills moving through the legislative process during General Assembly session.  These bills are listed for your viewing as they come forward.

The Dulles Regional Chamber is proud to be serving the business interests of the Dulles Region through efforts such as our monitoring of state affairs.

MARCH 2011 OVERVIEW

In terms of an overview, the Partnership was particularly successful in a number of areas, both on the policy front, and in strengthening the Partnership’s brand as a leading northern Virginia business voice on critical issues impacting the business community.  Through our active advocacy communications on the range of bills and budget initiatives we identified as priorities, as well as through the direct outreach from representatives from the chambers in our Partnership during your visits and other communications this session, awareness of the Northern Virginia Chamber Partnership continued to grow significantly during the 2011 session.

From a policy standpoint, the Chamber’s primary successes were in the following areas:

• Advancement of important additional economic development tools focused primarily on supporting emerging technology businesses, those engaged in research and development, and support for Virginia’s wine and tourism industries, as well as more than $40 million in funding for these tools, to support continued growth and development across Virginia;

• The most significant investment in higher education we have seen in Virginia in decades, providing an important step forward to increase the number of undergraduate degrees in Virginia, emphasizing the importance of highly competitive STEM degree programs, and increasing access and affordability for more in-state students interested in attending Virginia’s colleges and universities;

• Passage of the Governor’s “Get Moving Virginia” transportation initiative, which, while it does not address our long-term transportation needs, does create a framework to invest $4 billion over the next three years into road, rail and transit projects throughout Virginia;

• Early phase-out of the accelerated sales tax for 80% of retailers and other dealers across Virginia, which is critical from a cash flow standpoint, particularly for small and mid-sized businesses;

• Passage of a range of tax and regulatory measures that will provide tax relief, improve flexibility, simplify processes, and minimize tax and regulatory burdens for businesses in Virginia;

• Development of a framework to provide a voice for businesses as Virginia proceeds to create a health benefits exchange (as required under Federal healthcare reform legislation); and

• Work to minimize the impact of legislation requiring use of the E-Verify system by Virginia businesses to the extent possible, ensuring that only those larger employers who contract with the state would be subject to these new requirements and delaying the effective date to December 1, 2013.

The following links provide additional details on these and related efforts.

Economic Development

Education

Taxes and Regulation

Tourism

Transportation

Workforce

BUDGET SUMMARY

As you are well aware, budget negotiations this session where extremely tenuous, with stark differences between the budgets passed by the House and Senate at the mid-point of the session. While the House budget focused on addressing the structural deficit by dedicating resources to one‐time actions, the Senate budget focused more on providing additional funding for on‐going programs. That being said, the conferees were able to reach a compromise agreement that was approved unanimously by each house, and is now before the Governor for his consideration.

In the areas of Economic Development and Tourism, the budget provides $38.2 million for the “Opportunity at Work” economic development initiatives, including:

• $10.0 million in FY 2012 for research and development pursuant to the provisions of House Bill 2324 (described later in this report); and
• $4.0 million which will be deposited into the CIT Gap Funds and $6.0 million for the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund, of which $2.0 million will be dedicated to Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants.

The budget includes $10.3 million in FY 2012 to reflect three new tax incentives adopted this session:

• A research and development tax credit capped at $5.0 million (supported by the Dulles Regional Chamber);
• $5.0 million for Virginia Port tax incentives; and
• $250,000 for a vineyard and wineries tax credit (supported by the Dulles Regional Chamber.)

The spending amendments for the “Opportunity at Work” initiative also include the following:

• $5.0 million in FY 2012 to recapitalize the loan programs at the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority (VSBFA);
• $3.0 million for industrial site revitalization through the existing Derelict Structures Fund managed by the Department of Housing and Community Development and $1.0 million for the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund ($2.0 million in GF and $2.0 million from the sale of surplus property);
• $2.5 million in FY 2012 to supplement grant funding available through the Enterprise Zone Program;
• $1.0 million in FY 2012 to expand the Virginia Tourism Authority’s Marketing Grant Program;
• $500,000 in FY 2012 to expand funding for the Motion Picture Opportunity Fund (MPOF); and
• $200,000 to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) to promote regional collaboration

Finally, the budget also includes $3.0 million (in higher education) in funding for non‐credit training classes at community colleges, which the Dulles Regional Chamber supported.

In the area of Higher Education, the final budget includes a net increase of $100.7 million GF for higher education. This includes new seats at high‐demand institutions, funding for the STEM initiative the Dulles Regional Chamber supported, additional research, and funding for operating and maintenance, and enrollment growth to moderate tuition increases.

Specifically, higher education general fund operating increases included the following:

• $16.0 million GF for increased operating costs due to enrollment growth;
• $12.3 million in targeted STEM initiatives;
• $2.6 million GF for 351 more in‐state undergraduate seats at the University of Virginia, College of Mary Washington, James Madison University and Virginia Tech as part of a multi‐year phase‐in of 1,725 new seats;
• $11.5 million to improve the number of full‐time faculty at key colleges and universities;
• $13.6 million for operating costs of new buildings; and
• $13.3 million GF for in‐state undergraduate financial aid.

In the Transportation area, the budget provides $32.7 million from the FY 2010 GF surplus to help capitalize the transportation infrastructure bank (this amount is required under provisions of HB 3202, passed during the 2007 session).

The largest amendment in the transportation area reflects the adjustments to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund forecast update, totaling $104.3 million in FY 2011 and $408.5 million in FY 2012.

The budget conference report reflects the provisions of House Bill 2527 related to the Virginia Transportation Infrastructure Bank (VTIB) and the Revenue Sharing Program, including $287.7 million as an initial capitalization for this bank which will be used to provide grants to local governmental entities and loans to private entities that have entered into public‐private transportation act agreements. This funding is comprised of $32.7 million from the FY 2010 GF surplus and $250.0 million of the existing VDOT NGF revenues identified in the audit completed this fall. The budget also reflects the increase in the revenue sharing program from a maximum of $50 million per year to $200 million each year.

The amendments retain the Governor’s proposed FY 2012 spending priorities within VDOT, including:

• Dedicating $50.0 million to the Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund;
• Increasing the funding allocated for Transportation Research by $10.0 million; and
• Authorizing allocations to “state‐only” construction projects selected by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

Switching to other areas of the budget, you may recall that as part of last year’s budget action, the General Assembly approved language to subject those retailers and other dealers that have over $1 million in yearly taxable sales to make accelerated sales tax (AST) payments. Typically, a retailer remits the retail sales tax they collect in the month following its collection. Therefore, last year, instead of paying June’s sales tax in July, retailers were required to pay in June – a month earlier than normal. Also, included in the budget was language to begin phasing out the AST payments in 2013. Last year’s action impacted 8,762 dealers across the Commonwealth. The Dulles Regional Chamber actively urged budget conferees this session to support efforts to reduce this burden on as many businesses, as quickly as possible. We were very pleased that the approved budget dedicates $45.7 million to eliminate AST for 80% of dealers that were subject to it in FY 2010. The threshold was set at $5.4 million or greater in annual sales, leaving only 1,736 large retailers subject to AST.

And finally, with regard to the Rainy Day Fund, the budget includes an additional $64 million deposit into the Rainy Day Fund Reserve, providing a total of $114 million, and ensuring that 50% of the amounts due in FY 2012‐2014 biennium are set aside. (Updated 03/2011)