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By JILL PALERMO,
Prince William Times
Data centers in Prince William County would get hit with higher tax bills this year, while homeowners will see an average tax bill increase of just $26 if county supervisors approve their budget plan next week.
On Tuesday, the supervisors moved to advance a 70% increase in the tax rate that data centers pay on their computer equipment while cutting the real estate tax rate to 92 cents per $100 in assessed value. The latter cuts the tax bill increase on a home valued at about $500,000 to $26 from the initially proposed $243, according to Nikki Brown, a Prince William County spokeswoman.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By BILL ATKINSON,
Progress Index
(Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)
It will now be up to Petersburg’s voters to decide if their city will become Virginia’s fifth casino home.
On votes of 32-8 in the state Senate and 80-19 in the House of Delegates Wednesday, the General Assembly has agreed to move the question of a Petersburg casino to a November referendum. Senate Bill 628 cleared the legislature earlier this year with a House-generated amendment calling for a second legislative vote, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin sent the bill back to lawmakers with a suggestion to strike the re-enactment.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By JESS KIRBY,
Loudoun Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Echoing concerns from county residents and activist groups, county supervisors unanimously passed a resolution April 16 calling for NextEra Energy’s proposed transmission lines to be routed on existing transmission corridors rather than building a new path through western Loudoun.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
There’s a timeless quip among Jews: If two of us are discussing a topic, expect to hear three opinions.
This doesn’t mean we aren’t of one mind on the survival of Israel. It means there are multiple views on how to ensure that. That debate — along with related issues of Jewish identity, Jewish life, Jewish intellect, Jewish faith — is at full boil at a venue where diversity of opinion is supposed to be the rule, though some, particularly on the right, believe that it’s been crushed by left-leaning intellectual intolerance: the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, an exemplar of free speech as foundational to democracy.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By JANET ROACH,
WVEC-TV
Vernell Woods is one of the latest Portsmouth city officials to be let go. He worked as deputy city manager for seven months and was fired by interim city manager, Dr. Lydia Pettis-Patton.
“I really thought I was coming to Portsmouth to improve it, “ Woods said.
With more than 30 years of city government experience, he reluctantly left a city job in Newport News after being encouraged by then-Portsmouth interim city manager Mimi Terry to take the leap.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By SABRINA MORENO,
Axios
Harrison Roday, a first-time candidate vying for Richmond mayor, has raised more money than any other person running for local office in Virginia this year.
That’s according to an Axios analysis of campaign finance reports out this week, which show him raising nearly six times as much as Andreas Addison and 6.5 times more than Michelle Mosby — two other Richmond mayoral candidates.
More than half of Roday’s $365,822 comes from 10 of his former colleagues at a New York-based private equity firm, where he worked until 2022.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By JAHD KHALIL,
VPM
The Virginia General Assembly aims to finish and pass a budget by mid-May, after Democratic leadership agreed with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to extend and restart the negotiating process.
The extension of budget negotiations avoids the prospect of a gubernatorial veto — at least for the moment, amid an increasingly tense political atmosphere — that could put a dent in Virginia’s financial reputation. It also provides time for policymakers to gain a clearer picture of a predicted revenue surplus.
The Virginia House of Delegates took a pair of votes Wednesday that put the Legislature on a path to restart the budget process.
House Speaker Don Scott told VPM News the motion looks “drastic,” but reflected an agreement on how to move forward.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By MARKUS SCHMIDT,
Cardinal News
The state Senate on Wednesday soundly rejected Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s far-reaching slate of amendments to legislation that would legalize so-called skill games in Virginia and create a regulatory framework and tax structure for the electronic devices.
By a 34-6 bipartisan vote, the body sent SB 212, sponsored by Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, and Sen. Timmy French, R-Frederick County, among others, back to Youngkin’s desk for a signature or a veto. The bill had passed in the Senate by 32-8 in February and in the House by 51-45.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By MARKUS SCHMIDT,
Cardinal News
Just hours before lawmakers returned to Richmond for the General Assembly’s reconvened session Wednesday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and key Democrats put their irreconcilable differences over the state’s biennial budget aside and agreed to start over with a clean slate.
Using a procedural maneuver, the House of Delegates by a unanimous vote essentially killed the $64 billion spending plan for fiscal years 2024-26, which the Democratic-controlled legislature sent to the governor’s desk last month.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By SUSAN CAMERON,
Cardinal News
Changes made by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to bills that would allow two electric utilities to seek approval to charge customers for early development costs for small modular nuclear reactors were approved Wednesday by the House of Delegates and Senate.
The governor’s amendments to HB 1491, which apply only to Appalachian Power, were approved by the House in a 64-34 vote with one abstention, while the vote in the Senate was 26-14.
VaNews April 18, 2024
