Botetourt County officials weigh in on legislative issues
Do you ever wonder what the county officials have on their mind? A legislative program for 2022 that the Board of Supervisors approved at its November 23, 2021 meeting offers clues. The program would be given to the Virginia Association of Counties and the county’s elected representatives in the Virginia General Assembly for the 2022 legislative session.
The document would also serve as a guide to county staff. Basically, it comes down to keeping as much local control over land use and development as possible and asking the state to stop sending down unfunded mandates.
Number one on the list is broadband expansion. The county in its document urges the state to provide “adequate financial assistance to counties to build the necessary telecommunications infrastructure” that communities need.
The county also supports economic development policies and programs that bolster local and regional development efforts and ask for state funding for such projects. The county supports additional state funding to incentivize and support local site development and readiness. It also supports Workforce Development that targets high demand career path training and efforts to create remote work localities.
Additionally, the county would like to maintain and expand local authority to plan and regulate land use in its boundaries. It opposes any legislation that weakens these local responsibilities. It also supports legislation that grants localities additional tools to adequately meet the needs for public services driven by new development “without burdening current residents with the cost of new growth through increased taxes.” The county suggests a “broad impact fee authority for all counties, and adequate public facilities provisions.”
Other concerns include workforce housing for localities for employees such as teachers and first responders, opposition of legislation that limits or restricts local authority to regulate home-based businesses, “full state funding for public education,” and additional funding for elections.
The county also supports equitable cost-sharing between the state and localities for costs involved in the placements of children in residential treatment facilities for non-educational reasons. The county opposes any effort limit state funding in this matter and suggests the state needs to provide more funding for the Office of Children’s Services, not less, to support local initiatives.
The county also wants the authority to address impacts associated with utility-scale installations of all forms of power generation and energy storage facilities. It also opposes state-mandated tax exemption on local property taxes for solar equipment.
Additionally, the county has asked the state to study and address declining growth in transportation revenues. The county is particularly concerned about secondary road systems and the lack of funding available for those roads.
Lastly, the county wants continued funding for Interstate 81 improvements from Exit 150 north to the Rockbridge County line and beyond. County officials are especially concerned about the “ultra-dangerous areas” between mile markers 166 and 169.
– Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee
