Legislators to City: Don't Expect Much State Funding

By Amber Lester Kennedy Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Legislators told Williamsburg City Council not to expect much money from the state next year during a work session Monday.

Sen. Tommy Norment, whose district will no longer include the city in January, recommended the city leaders focus on asking the state to “do no harm.” “I would be hunkering down into a defensive posture,” he said.

City Council and staff met Monday with Norment and the city’s new representatives: Sen. John Miller, D-1, and Delegate-elect Mike Watson, R-93. Each year, localities prepare legislative agendas that detail how the state could help them; once the legislative agenda is approved, leaders meet with their representatives to articulate why the items are important.

This year, the city’s agenda included requests to push more funding toward tourism marketing and partnerships and transportation needs on the Peninsula. The city also asked the legislators to push the General Assembly to require Internet travel companies, like Travelocity or Orbitz, to collect occupancy tax based on gross sales, not net sales.

They also noted they’d like the legislators to oppose previously introduced proposals that would limit local revenue options, such as caps on tax rates or elimination of the Business, Professional and Occupational License (BPOL) tax. Read more about the legislative agenda here.

In his campaign, Watson supported the elimination of the BPOL tax. On Monday, he said he was “not a fan,” but does not intend to introduce any bill to eliminate the tax. “I do believe it is not set up as an incentive,” he said.

Mayor Clyde Haulman highlighted some of the items at the top of the city’s wish list, beginning with money for tourism promotion. “The more money you give [the Virginia Tourism Corporation] the better, because we will help them spend it, to our benefit and to Virginia’s benefit,” he said.

Money for transportation improvements, such as widening Interstate 64 between Richmond and Newport News, would also boost business, he said. To highlight the importance of the issue, council member Judy Knudson shared that she recently met a New Jersey family visiting Williamsburg who said they would never return because the journey had been such a hassle.

City Manager Jack Tuttle detailed how the city has rising costs, with decreased funding from the state. The city has received less funding for education, transportation, public safety, the regional jail, human services and mandated officials. He suggested perhaps some of the state’s surplus could go back to localities to begin restoring the lost funding.

Miller told the city leaders most of the surplus, by law, is already allocated, and shared that the Senate Finance Committee is estimating a deficit of between $600 million and $1 billion. If the federal health care bill carries, it will be expensive for the state, he said.

He also said their legislative goals for transportation will be a tough sell, because Gov. Bob McDonnell has made it a priority to rebuild U.S. 460 between Suffolk and Petersburg. “I don’t hold much hope, realistically,” he said.

Norment agreed with Miller’s statements, adding that he has spoken with McDonnell recently about his priorities for his biennium budget, to be released Dec. 19. He said McDonnell wants to make additional deposits to the Virginia Retirement System beyond what is already required, and also will have to make up for the money lost when he pushed to phase out accelerated sales tax collection a year earlier than planned. He added that McDonnell wants to give more money to higher education, in exchange for performance benchmarks.

In the face of those budget constraints, along with the 2012 re-benchmarking of the Standards of Quality that determine how K-12 education will be funded, Norment gave the leaders a grim forecast. “I would not hold out a whole lot of aspirations for more funding to localities,” he said.