[va-richmond-general] Land Conservation funding - VA General Assembly
- From: Larry R Lynch <birder6@xxxxxxxx>
- To: VA-Richmond-General@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 06:38:06 -0500
Hey everyone,
Here is a summary of the bills related to land conservation funding that
came
out of the General Assembly.
Larry Lynch birder6@xxxxxxxx
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Nicole Rovner" <nrovner@xxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 23:44:46 -0500
Subject: conservation land coalition: session wrap-up
As expected, budget issues dominated the 2002 session of the General
Assembly. Here are the results on bills having to do with land
conservation
funding:
1. Delegate Albo's dedicated funding source bill was carried over.
2 The bond bills that were proposed by Senator Chichester and Delegate
Callahan passed the General Assembly with only minor differences from the
way they were introduced. They await action by the Governor. Under one
bill, the Virginia Public Building Authority would issue bonds for many
different purposes, including $20 million for DCR land acquisition. The
other bill would authorize the issuance of a $119 million general
obligation
bond if approved by the voters in November. $30 million of this money is
for land acquisition for state park and natural areas.
3. The bond bills that had been proposed by the Commission on the Future
of
Virginia's Environment did not receive consideration.
4. Under House and Senate Joint Resolutions, the Secretary of Natural
Resources has been requested to examine options for providing a stable
source of funding for conservation of open space.
5. The surprise of the session was that the General Assembly's
amendments
to the budget include a two dollar fee that would be added to motor
vehicle
registrations, and some of the money generated by the fee would go to the
Virginia Land Conservation Foundation. This is an "opt-out" fee, which
means that you would pay it unless you check the box on the registration
form that says you don't want to. The first $5 million generated by the
fee
would go towards a special license plate program and other marketing for
the
Jamestown 2007 Anniversary. Any money above $5 million would go to the
VLCF. According to House Appropriations staff, if everyone pays the fee,
$15 million total dollars will be generated. This fee is one of a number
of
new fees that are included in the budget, but it is the only one that is
not
mandatory. Like other bills, the budget bill is awaiting the Governor's
action.
Nikki Rovner
Director of Government Relations
The Nature Conservancy of Virginia
490 Westfield Road, Charlottesville VA 22901
434/295-6106 (fax 979-0370), nrovner@xxxxxxx
You are subscribed to VA-Richmond-General. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-richmond-general-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject
field. To adjust other settings (vacation, digest, etc.) please visit,
//www.freelists.org/list/va-richmond-general.
Other related posts:
- » [va-richmond-general] Land Conservation funding - VA General Assembly