Va. Senate committee approves road bill with indexed gas tax

Sen. Frank Wagner knows his overhauled transportation funding bill barely addresses Virginia’s shortage of road funds and is unlikely to find favor in the House of Delegates.

Even so, the Virginia Beach Republican hopes his legislation that passed the Senate Finance Committee Thursday evening will be a starting point for negotiations on how to replenish Virginia transportation accounts.

“If this is just a finger in the dike, then I say ‘by god, let’s do it,’” Wagner said Thursday during hearing on his SB 639, which would annually index the state gas tax to rise with the rate of inflation on highway construction materials, among other provisions.

Virginia’s 17.5 cent gas tax hasn’t increased since 1986, despite Senate Democrats' efforts to use that approach to raise new money for roads. The current state fuel tax, they say, is lower than that in any of Virginia’s neighboring states.

The gas tax index idea is almost certain to be rejected by the House where a similar proposal has already met resistance.

Many Republicans are unwilling to support any proposal that can be interpreted as raising taxes and they’ve rejected past efforts to increase the gas tax.

In its current form, Wagner’s bill is a significant rewrite of the omnibus transportation bill filed on behalf of Gov. Bob McDonnell, who also opposes tax increases.

Removed from it are McDonnell's proposals to broadly expand Virginia’s tolling power though the creation of a new state authority, and to incrementally shift some sales tax revenue into road maintenance.

Tolling authority language has also been removed from the House transportation bill, though it retains the governor’s idea to put additional sales tax revenue into transportation.

Democrats oppose that idea, arguing that revenue flows to the state’s general fund to support public education and other basic government services.

-- Julian Walker

Va. legislative special session anticipated in summer

Many proposed tax credit bills this year are being routed by General Assembly committees to a common destination: a tax reform commission.

References to the commission have been common in the legislature this year even though its purpose, membership and mission were unclear until Sen. Walter Stosch shed some light on the mysterious panel during a public hearing Wednesday.

Speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Stosch, R-Henrico County, said the work of the yet to be impaneled body is likely to be the subject of a General Assembly special session this summer, or perhaps an appointed study commission.

Those comments seem to confirm buzz about a special session that's been heard in the legislatures halls this winter.

However, details about the specific timing and subject of that possible session remain unclear.

-- Julian Walker

UPDATED: Amazon, Va. in talks over collecting state sales tax

Even as Virginia merchants push for tax parity with internet retailers such as Amazon.com, the local sponsor of a bill to provide it said the governor's office is in talks on a tax deal with the online retailer.

That revelation came from Virginia Beach Sen. Frank Wagner (R) Tuesday as he testified on his SB 597, legislation to close a tax loophole that now allows Amazon to avoid collecting Virginia's 5 percent sales tax and sending it to the state.

Virginia retail industry groups have long maintained that online sellers like Amazon should be held to the same state tax rules as merchants with bricks-and-mortar stores.

Wagner's bill would create a legal presumption that internet retailers with warehouses or other facilities in Virginia are subject to collect sales and use tax and forward it to the state.

Amazon has a warehouse in Sterling and a data center at an undisclosed location but has been exempt from paying sales tax on purchases made in the state due to a 2007 state Tax Department ruling.

In December, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced a deal with the company to bring 1,350 jobs and two distribution centers to the state. Virginia pledged more than $4.3 million in financial aid and other incentives but didn't require the company to collect taxes.

McDonnell has said the recent Amazon deal was about economic development, calling the sales tax issue a discussion for another time.

Wagner Tuesday said the administration and Amazon are in talks about a tax arrangement.

Asked about such discussions, a spokesman for the governor said the administration has "met with all parties involved" and is monitoring legislative developments.

UPDATE: Amazon officials don't want to collect state sales tax until January 2014, giving them a reprieve for two more Christmas shopping seasons, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

McDonnell's office declined further comment on the subject.

-- Julian Walker

Politics behind abortion ultrasound bill reveals Dem divisions

Perhaps lost in the focus on the Republican-run Virginia Senate's passage of a bill requiring women to get an ultrasound before an abortion is the amount of fight oppositional Democrats offered.

An excerpt from Thursday's Pilot story (see below) on the legislation's approval suggest Democrats were internally divided on how to proceed.

According to a party source, those who favored Norfolk Sen. Ralph Northam's amendment to make ultrasounds optional, not mandatory, were overruled by caucus leaders who prefered to let it pass unchanged.

The thinking was the House of Delegates and Gov. Bob McDonnell wouldn't be receptive to a weakened bill. So Democrats decided it might be to their advantage to use the ultrasound bill in political fights to come.

Action on the bill was delayed Tuesday as Democrats crafted an amendment that would have made the ultrasound optional, but Republicans denied a request for a second postponement the following day.

When asked whether politics influenced strategy on the bill, caucus Chairman Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico County, rejected that notion. He said many caucus members simply opposed voting for legislation requiring an ultrasound, even if it was softened.

-- Julian Walker

Va. investigating Gingrich claims of petition fraud

At the request of state election officials, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's office has initiated a probe into alleged irregularities on petitions submitted on behalf Newt Gingrich in his failed bid to qualify for the state's March 6 presidential primary.

A spokesman for Cuccinelli confirmed the investigation Tuesday, but didn't elaborate.

Only former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas Congressman Ron Paul met the filing requirements of 10,000 valid voter signatures by the December deadline, prompting several Republican presidential hopefuls to sue over state ballot rules.

Two contenders involved in that unsuccessful litigation, Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also submitted Virginia petitions, but the state Republican Party said they didn't qualify for the contest.

As frustration about candidate disqualification mounted, Cuccinelli entered the fray when he called for emergency legislation to allow more Republican presidential candidates on Virginia’s primary ballot.

He reversed himself a day later, saying he wouldn't support efforts to change the law for this year's presidential election.

Around the same time, Gingrich reportedly told an Iowa voter that his Virginia petition-gathering effort was undermined by a worker who submitted 1,500 false signatures. That alleged fraud formed the basis for the State Board of Elections request for a probe.

As for Gingrich, the former U.S. House Speaker remains in the GOP presidential field that's shrunk since the petition brouhaha grabbed Virginia headlines in late December.

-- Julian Walker

Big Sky governor to headline Va. Dems gala

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is the featured guest at Virginia Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, a $200 per plate party event scheduled next month in Richmond.

Other luminaries on the party fundraiser marquee are U.S. Sen. Jim Webb and the man seeking to replace him, former Gov. Tim Kaine; U.S. Sen. Mark Warner; and U.S. Reps. Jim Moran, Bobby Scott, and Gerry Connolly.

Schweitzer is known as a folksy two-term Democratic governor in a traditionally Republican state. Virginia votes may recall that he made a campaign stop in the state for Terry McAuliffe during the 2009 gubernatorial primary race.

In a statement about the upcoming event, Virginia Democratic Party chairman Brian Moran called Schweitzer "one of the most successful governors in the country and one of the most exciting and engaging public speakers in our party."

"Don't miss your chance to hear from him and all of our outstanding Virginia Democratic leaders, and to spend an evening with more than 1,000 fellow Democrats from all over the Commonwealth," Moran added.

-- Julian Walker

Former Sen. Quayle picked for Va. Parole Board

It turns out Fred Quayle’s separation from state government service will be short-lived.

Gov. Bob McDonnell has named the former state senator from Suffolk to the Virginia Parole Board, an appointment with a four-year term and a $52,000 annual salary.

Quayle’s 20-year career in the Senate recently ended after he declined to seek re-election last November. He made that decision after he and a fellow Republican senator, Chesapeake’s Harry Blevins, were drawn together in Democrats’ redistricting plan.

Quayle, 75, is the newest addition to the five-member Parole Board, which can grant, deny or revoke parole and detain parole violators. It also has the power to give early release to geriatric inmates.

Out of the roughly 30,500 Virginia prison inmates, about 4,800 remain eligible for parole because they were incarcerated before the state abolished it in 1995.

McDonnell named four other board members last February; Quayle’s term begins next month.

Reached Friday, Quayle said he he’s looking forward to the position after years in the legislature dealing with laws involving parole and punishment.

He sponsored a 2004 law to give financial restitution to people wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for serious crimes and has been an advocate for legislation to relax punishment for technical parole violators.

One of his more recent legislative accomplishments was a 2010 law to exempt Virginians from individual insurance mandates, a cornerstone of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s challenge to the federal health care act widely despised by Republicans.

While that was a red meat bill to the GOP base, the moderate Quayle last spring lamented what he sees as an increasingly partisan atmosphere in politics as he looked back at his legislative career.

An attorney by trade, Quayle hasn’t practiced law in several years. He's taught government and political courses over the years at Old Dominion University, but said he isn’t teaching this semester.

-- Julian Walker

Obama team to open Va. campaign hub

Another piece of President Barack Obama's Virginia re-election infrastructure will go live Saturday when his campaign opens its state headquarters in downtown Richmond.

The plan for a third Virginia office opening in the past two months -- locations in Newport News and Fairfax County went operational last month, with another in Petersburg coming soon -- is a clear sign team Obama thinks the state will again be a presidential election battleground.

Newport News U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott and Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones, both Democrats, are scheduled to attend the Richmond opening Saturday. It's set for 11:30 that morning at 408 E. Main St.

Obama's Organizing for America has been active in Virginia since 2009, and has reached out to more than 300,000 Virginia so far this cycle, according to the campaign, which already has paid staff in the state Obama carried in 2008 en route to victory.

Presumptive Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney hasn't opened offices in Virginia, though supporters of another GOP contender, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, recently launched his state campaign headquarters in Norfolk.

Only Romney and Paul qualified for Virginia's March 6 primary. Several other Republican hopefuls unsuccessfully sued to get on the ballot.

-- Julian Walker

Senate approves bill to reduce third grade testing subjects

Third grade students' standardized test load would effectively be cut in half if a bill approved by the Senate Tuesday becomes law.

Legislation submitted by Newport News Sen. John Miller would eliminate required history and science testing in the third grade to place greater emphasis on math and reading standardized tests.

The Democrat said improving third graders' reading scores is critical because their performance at that age is a key predictor of future educational success, or failure.

He said the history and science elements would be part of the tests students take later in their educational careers.

Miller's bill -- the Senate approved it on a 33-7 vote Tuesday -- follows a report by Virginia's legislative watchdog agency on strategies to improve the third grade reading performance.

Released in September, the study noted that while third grade pass rates on the reading test have increased in the past decade, Virginia still falls short of its statewide goal of a 95 percent pass rate.

-- Julian Walker

Group says poll results reflect support for conservative agenda

The socially conservative Family Foundation Tuesday touted new polls results they say show Virginians support their legislative priorities to limit abortion, restrict adoptions by gays and promote school choice measures.

Among the bills the group is backing this winter are measures to codify the rights of faith-based agencies to deny child placement to would-be gay parents.

Gay rights advocates oppose those bills, saying the state shouldn't sanction discrimination by organizations with state contracts to place children.

Statewide, the Mason-Dixon poll sponsored by the group found 54 percent of registered voters oppose forcing faith-based groups to adopt children to prospective parents in violation of their beliefs.

Also sampled in the survey were public attitudes on requiring clinics to offer an ultrasound image to women before abortions, something abortion rights groups oppose.

On education, poll respondents were asked whether home school students should be allowed to participate in public school athletics, and about their feelings on a proposed state tax credit for companies that contribute towards private school scholarships for needy kids.

The Mason-Dixon poll of 625 registered voters was conducted Jan. 16-18. It has a 4 percent margin of error. The results and crosstabs are below.

-- Julian Walker

2012-1-20 VA Fam Found Polling Results