Vote Due Friday in Richmond To Hike Sales Tax Revenues

A special full session of the Virginia State Legislature will convene in Richmond on Friday morning to vote, up or down, on a new compromise budget proposal to increase the state sales tax, with a fraction returned to local school districts based on a combination of average daily attendance and a local composite poverty index.

"This will be a mixed result for the Falls Church and most of Northern Virginia," State Del. Jim Scott, whose 51st District includes the City of Falls Church, told the News-Press last night. "There will definitely be additional money for the schools, but not as much as if the dollars were distributed on a `point of sale' basis."

Still, Del. Scott said, the imminent agreement is "extraordinary, something no one three months ago, or even a month ago, would have predicted. Overall, it is much better than anyone expected."

The pending solution is being driven by a turn-around of Senate Republicans and moderates in the House of Delegates on the issue of increasing revenue, he said. But, he added, credit for forcing the issue of putting the Commonwealth's fiscal house in order goes to Gov. Mark Warner and the resolve of fellow Democrats in the legislature to stick with him.

The outcome, if approved Friday, "will definitely save the state's bond rating and fix some structural financial problems," Scott said. "It will be beneficial to average citizens in a number of ways.'

The GOP'ers in the Senate, among other things, took the lead in eliminating a phase out of the estate tax, saving the state over $100 million. They were willing to do it, Scott said, because the tax break would have benefited only 2,000 people.

Higher education and public education, in general, will do better than even the governor proposed when he launched his aggressive campaign to put the commonwealth's fiscal house in order last November with a series of meeting throughout the state, including in Falls Church.

Scott said it that going into Friday's special full session is remains unclear the exact breakdown of the distribution of the new sales tax revenues proposed.