Quick look at bills of local legislators

Here’s a quick look at a few bills from legislators in Hampton Roads: HB570 related to real estate assessments, HB207 related to rules for lineups and SB185 related to menhaden fishing. More below the fold.

HB 570 – Del. Sal Iaquinto (R-84th) – This bill changes the burden of proof for real estate assessments from the taxpayer to the assessor when the taxpayer appeals their assessment. The bill has passed the House and has been sent to the Senate. At first glance, my sense was that this was a fairly dramatic change to the way a taxing process works – typically, the burden of proof is always on the taxpayer. In a press release last Friday, as well as in a conversation with Iaquinto, I’ve come to realize the genesis of this bill: that some assessors’ offices, unlike Norfolk’s, simply weren’t doing what the law required of them.  From the press release:

Iaquinto’s bill would lift that burden off the taxpayer by simply requiring the government official to demonstrate how the assessment was calculated.  At the same time, it requires little more of the assessor than does current law, since assessors are already required to maintain current property appraisal cards or sheets for all parcels of real estate in their jurisdictions.  Common sense dictates that since the appraiser already has the assessment information at hand, it is the assessor, and not the taxpayer, who should be expected to present such information at an appeals hearing.

Having served on the Board of Review for Real Estate Assessments (Equalization Board) in Norfolk for four years, I know that those records were available. If other localities are not keeping those records, shame on them.

HB 207 – Del. Kenny Alexander (D-89th) – This bill establishes a uniform procedure to be used by all law enforcement agencies in conducting lineups. The purpose is, by establishing such procedures, to reduce the errors which lead to faulty identifications – and ultimately costing the taxpayers when a person is convicted on bad evidence. The case that comes to mind here is that of Arthur Whitfield, whose conviction – based on witness identification – was overturned when DNA proved he did not commit the crimes. According to The Daily Press, Alexander’s bill faced opposition from the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police.

Dana Schrad, the group’s executive director, said many of the proposed changes are based on “good, solid research about best practices” and are good ideas. Still, she said, police should be free to develop their own policies rather than having a new mandate foisted upon them from Richmond.

So let me get this straight: the proposals are good but they don’t want to be told to use them? Um, how about you adopt the proposals and then there would be no need for such a bill?

Alexander has tabled the bill.

SB 185 – Sen. Ralph Northam (D-6th) – This bill would transfer the management of the menhaden fishing industry from the General Assembly to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. As I understand it, the menhaden are critical to the health of the Chesapeake Bay.  In an editorial published in Tuesday’s Virginian-Pilot (not available online), Northam makes a strong case for such a transfer, saying that it would “reduce the politicization of the decision-making process,” that VMRC can be “more responsive” in dealing with the issue should an emergency arise, and that it is “is in the long-term interest of all users of the resource.” Northam concludes:

To ensure the economic and environmental sustainability of all marine resource-based industries, management authority over menhaden needs to reside with the body that the General Assembly created to do that for all other species.

The bill has been tabled.