Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003091761
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The measure cleared the House of Delegates 61-35 with several important differences from the Senate version, including extension of the solid-waste tax to service businesses and removal of a $10,000 cap.
"This is a bill presented to the people of the commonwealth from the land that we have abused," said Del. Charles Hawkins, R-Chatham. "When I was a boy, my mother told me when you make a mess, clean it up. This cleans up our mess."
Sen. William Fears, D-Accomack, introduced the measure to create a special solid-waste fund to help localities pay for the explosive costs of landfills and other solid-waste needs. It imposes a tax of 0.01 percent on businesses with gross receipts or income of $100,000.
The House accepted an amendment during floor debate Thursday that removed a proposed cap of $10,000 on the business tax. Minority Leader Raymond R. "Andy" Guest of Front Royal argued that fewer than 50 businesses in the state have gross receipts above $100 million and would be required to pay more than $10,000.
The House also added service industries to those businesses that would be taxed. A move to strip service businesses from the tax by Del. George F. Allen, R-Charlottesville, was defeated.
Del. Warren Stambaugh, D-Arlington, said the tax was made as broad as possible to force every business "to the table" to deal with solid waste. He said service businesses such as law offices produce paper waste. He also argued that newspapers are classified as a service industry and produce as much paper waste as any other business.
"What we have here is an attempt to deal with a solid-waste problem that threatens to bury us all in garbage if we don't do something about it," Stambaugh said.
The measure would repeal taxes on large litter producers and soft-drink and beer bottlers. Those industries, which pay as much as $50,000 now, would be frozen at their current tax rate.
The bill, which would impose the trash tax starting July 1, 1991, now goes to the Senate for action on the House amendments.
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