Legislative Priorities Proposal Tabled

A draft proposal of legislative priorities for the 2023 session of the Virginia House and Senate was kicked back to the drawing board after the Board of Supervisors reviewed it at the Tuesday, November 22, 2022 meeting at the Botetourt County Administration Building at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield.

The proposal was based off a list the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO) had created and included a request for a 1 percent additional sales tax in the county with the proceeds to be used for capital outlays for the school system.

Blue Ridge District Supervisor Billie Martin and Amsterdam District Supervisor Steve Clinton both nixed the proposed tax increase. “We’ve got enough taxes as it is,” Martin said.

Clinton said the entire document seemed like a “rubber stamp of VACO,” and suggested that the county administration should go back and look for priorities that suited Botetourt, not the rest of the state.

The proposal was tabled and the Supervisors will review a revised version at a later date.

— Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee