The Dulles Regional Chamber supported a number of initiatives this session in the tax and regulatory arenas with a focus on providing tax relief, reducing regulatory burdens on businesses, increasing flexibility and streamlining processes. The following provides more detail on some of the specific initiatives we supported:

• HB 1587 (Iaquinto) – Local license taxes. This legislation will permit any county, city or town to provide relief from license taxes to any business locating in such county, city or town for the first time, for the first two years after such location. It has passed both the House and Senate, and is headed to the Governor for his consideration. This is among the priorities the Dulles Regional Chamber supported in order to provide an option to local governments to help entrepreneurs in the early stages of their business development by providing some important tax relief. (Updated 03/11)

• HB 2183 (Cline) – Local Sales Tax Registration. The Dulles Regional Chamber decided to weigh in on this bill, which allows commissioners of the revenue to assist businesses, the Department of Taxation and localities through a local registration option for State Sales/Local Tax. This bill is focused on those smaller businesses in the Commonwealth, which often have significant demands on their time and resources. The bill will enable business taxpayers to contact one local office for Sales Tax registration and Business License issuance. This cooperative effort will enhance state and local registration and collection efforts, reduce the misallocation of local Sales Tax revenues due to account miscoding, and provide a valuable service to small businesses throughout the Commonwealth. We had worked with the commissioners of revenue to add an amendment to this bill to ensure they communicate with the State Tax Department within a reasonable period of time to ensure businesses aren’t caught between the state and local officials; however, our amendment became unnecessary when the Tax Department indicated that the local commissioners of revenue would actually be using their portal to register the businesses, making the process seamless without the need to report through other means. The amended version of the bill was successfully passed by both houses. (Updated 03/11)

• HB 2006 (LeMunyon)/SB 1070 (Edwards) – Regulatory flexibility for small businesses; periodic review. This legislation clarifies the process for the notice of completion of the small business impact statement and review of existing regulations to minimize the economic impact of regulations on small businesses. The bill (i) changes the periodic review requirement from five years to four years to conform to the procedures for regulatory review adopted by each Governor under §§ 2.2-4013 and 2.2-4017, (ii) adds a requirement to publish a notice of the review and report of the findings in the Virginia Register of Regulations and post the notice on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall, and (iii) provides for a 21-day public comment period after publication of the notice. The bill was recommended by the Virginia Code Commission based on a report of the Administrative Law Advisory Committee. Given the positive impact these changes will have on small business, the Dulles Regional Chamber supported this legislation, which easily passed in the House and Senate this session. (Updated 03/11)

• HB 2319 (Byron)/SB 1382 (Stanley) – State agency mandates on localities. This legislation provides that the assessment of mandates imposed on local government currently required include a detailed cost-benefit analysis and utilization of performance-based metrics to determine the value of the mandate in relation to the required or intended output or desired result. This legislation, which was also among our Chamber priorities, advanced through both houses this session relatively easily. (Updated 03/11)

• HB 1956 (Rust)/SB 1179 (Marsden) – Regulation of trespassing vehicles; localities. The Dulles Regional Chamber added this bill to our list of priorities at the mid-point of the session. It would have provided that, when a local governing body regulates towing by ordinance, such ordinance could not limit the ability to remove a trespassing vehicle from one locality and store or release it in another, as long as the stored or released location is within five miles of the actual tow. The Senate version of this bill was left in the Senate Transportation Committee before Crossover. We worked actively with the Apartment and Office Building Association, as well as other advocated of this effort, however, the bill failed to advance when it reached the Senate Transportation Committee. A letter was sent to the Board of Towing and Recovery Operators, where the issue will be further considered in the off-session. (Updated 03/11)