Latest news with #General Assembly
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill limiting use of sales tax passes
GUILFORD COUNTY — Voters will be asked again to approve a sales tax increase of 0.25% of a penny for every $1 of sales, but this time legislation dictates how the revenue must be spent if the increase is approved. House Bill 305 was amended by Sen. Phil Berger Sr., R-Rockingham and Senate president pro tem, to set parameters on how the revenue, estimated at $28.7 million a year, would be allocated, with most of it going for teacher pay. The bill passed the General Assembly this week. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously in mid-June to place the sales tax referendum issue on the November 2026 general election ballot. A little more than a week after the commissioners' action, Berger amended House Bill 305 to address the sales tax proposal. Berger, whose legislative district includes Guilford County and some precincts in High Point, has said he placed directives on allocating the tax revenue to assure Guilford County voters on how the money would be spent. Although the county commissioners have pledged that all revenue raised by the proposed sales tax increase would go to teacher pay, there was no provision in state law preventing the money from being directed to other purposes. 'House Bill 305 now provides them with information so they can make an educated decision,' Berger previously said. If the proposed tax increase is approved by voters and raises $28.7 million, this is how the money would have to be allocated, according to the new legislation: • Teacher pay supplements in Guilford County Schools, $19.2 million. • Guilford County Fire and Rescue Council for equipment purposes and capital expenditures, $5.5 million. • Guilford Technical Community College capital projects, $2.7 million. • Allocations for Whitsett, Summerfield, Stokesdale, Pleasant Garden and Oak Ridge, $1.3 million. Berger's allocation approach apparently was the first time that has been applied in North Carolina to a sales tax referendum. Whether it will change how Guilford County voters view the proposal is uncertain. Voters have rejected the same proposed sales tax increase six times in the past 20 years, most recently in the November 2024 general election. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Joint subcommittee studying even-year elections meets for first time
RICHMOND — A joint legislative subcommittee is studying what it would mean to move all of Virginia's elections to even years. The subcommittee met at the General Assembly building Tuesday for the first of four discussions this summer and fall. It's largely by historical fluke that Virginia has an election every year, according to legislative services senior attorney Brooks Braun. In 1868, Virginia, then under U.S. military control, enacted a new constitution that abolished slavery, provided for universal male suffrage and established a uniform November date for general elections. But arguments over provisions that would disenfranchise former Confederates delayed the ratification election, planned for later that year. Then-President Ulysses Grant ordered an election in 1869. The constitution — excluding the Confederate disenfranchisement clauses — was ratified by referendum, and Virginia also elected its first Reconstruction-era governor and legislature. The commonwealth has held odd-year elections ever since. Arguments in favor of election consolidation to even years cite reduced costs and that voter turnout for state and local elections would be drastically improved. 'If turnout is your only consideration, or your major consideration, you stuff everything into a presidential year,' said political analyst Bob Holsworth during Tuesday's presentations. You can think of Virginia as having four separate electorates, presenters said. The first group votes in presidential elections, over the past 15 years, consistently accounts for 70 to 75% of the population. The second group, voting in presidential midterm elections, has seen improved turnout since 2014 and includes between 40 and 60% of the population. The third group votes in Virginia's gubernatorial and House of Delegates elections every four years the year after the presidential election and is made up of around 40 to 55% of the population. The last group, voting in midterm gubernatorial elections, which includes House of Delegates and state Senate elections, has the worst voter turnout, with between 29 and 42% of the vote. Consolidating elections does result in better turnout, but it also means that local candidates must compete with federal or state candidates for attention and dollars. In Hampton Roads, following a 2021 law that meant local elections that historically held in May were moved to November, local candidates said it was hard to be heard over the noise of the presidential race, if voters knew there was a back half of the ballot at all. 2024 is first time some Hampton Roads elections are in November. Is it helping or hurting? 'I have 17 incorporated towns (in my district) on the Eastern Shore, so you're talking about 200 to 500 people, you're talking about posters, just meeting your neighbor and asking them to vote,' Del. Rob Bloxom, R-Mappsville, said. 'They should be talking about the potholes, the tree trimming, the ditch maintenance, not national issues, not immigration, not pro-life. They'll never vote on any of that.' Changing Virginia's elections to occur solely in even years would not be a simple process, Braun, the legislative services attorney, said. Virginia's constitution does not mandate odd year elections for state office, but it does specify term lengths and when they start. To get on an even-year schedule, the governor, for example would need to serve either a three or five-year term. The constitution would need to be amended to allow for one-time shortened or lengthened terms for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, House of Delegates members, state senators and other constitutional officers like sheriffs and commonwealth's attorneys. To make the change, a constitutional amendment would have to be proposed by the subcommittee in the next legislative session and then subsequently pass the lengthy ratification process. Braun modeled a timeline in which the first election for statewide offices and the entire legislature would be serving a regular term would be in 2034. That's assuming that the governor's term was temporarily reduced to three years instead of five. After 12 election cycles, in 2041, the city clerk of court position would finally be back to its regularly-scheduled eight-year term and consolidation would be complete. The joint subcommittee will meet again this Thursday to discuss how campaign finance would be affected. Kate Seltzer, (757)713-7881 Solve the daily Crossword
