Constitutional amendment; property tax exemption for certain veterans. (HB149)
Introduced By
Del. John O'Bannon (R-Richmond) with support from 25 copatrons, whose average partisan position is:
Progress
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Introduced |
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Passed Committee |
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Passed House |
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Passed Senate |
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Signed by Governor |
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Became Law |
Description
Constitutional amendment (voter referendum); property tax exemptions. Provides for a referendum at the November 2, 2010, election to approve or reject an amendment requiring the General Assembly to provide a real property tax exemption for the principal residence of a veteran, or his or her surviving spouse, if the veteran has a 100 percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability. View Full Text »
Outcome
Bill Has Passed
View Bill's History
Comments
I'm confused. This is a bill. If the bill passes, then it will put something on the ballot for people to vote on. If that passes, then it will require the legislature to vote on something. And if that passes, then the legislature will prohibit localities from collecting taxes from disabled veterans?
This seems like a really, really convoluted system to establish a simple thing. Do localities currently have the power to do this? If not, why not just give them the power and skip this whole referendum business? If they do, then they can go ahead and waive property taxes for disabled veterans if they want to, right? Why does the legislature have anything to do with this?
Waldo - This isn't just a bill, it is a constitional amendment. The system of getting this passed is, admittedly, more convoluted than the passage of a bill, but it makes the passage much more "permanent" if you will. Localities still have the option of exempting 100% service connected veterans from paying property tax, if they so chose.
Well, sure, you could put any bill in the constitution and it would be more permanent, but that just makes the constitution a dumping ground for things like this. Just pass a bill giving localities the power to cut property taxes for veterans if they want to and be done with it. Instead, this process will take years with that process adding no benefit whatsoever.
And, really, who's going to be the legislator who will introduce the bill in a few years that requires localities to increase property taxes for disabled veterans?