The House of Delegates Finance Committee voted yesterday to put the brakes on Gov. Mark R. Warner's tax reform plan.
The committee voted 13 to 7 with two abstentions to pass by the bill indefinitely, which leaves it stranded in committee for the rest of the session.
Both supporters and opponents of Warner's plan agreed the vote was only the first step in a long, protracted struggle that would eventually determine what tax changes would be passed into law by the General Assembly.
Entering the meeting, delegates expected that the bill would be defeated.
"This was something the House leadership had telegraphed for several weeks now, that this was how they would handle the issue," Warner spokesperson Ellen Qualls said.
The defeat, however, did not spell the end of Warner's tax plan in the House, University Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato said.
"In Richmond, as in Washington, a session is never over until it adjourns [for good]," Sabato said. "There are a hundred ways that a governor can obtain reconsideration of his priorities."
House delegates said they were preparing for protracted negotiations.
"Everything can be reopened -- this is just the first battle in what is going to be in a long war," said Gary Frink, legislative aide to Del. Allen L. Louderback, R-Shenandoah.
Proponents of the tax plan, including Minority Leader Franklin P. Hall, D-Richmond, kept pushing for its passage, claiming it is necessary to keep Virginia fiscally healthy.
"I think we're going to have to pass it, and the reason we're going to have to is the state's AAA bond rating is in jeopardy," Hall said.
The plan's opponents, however, continued to raise objections, according to Finance Committee Chair Del. Harry J. Parrish, R-Manassas.
"The real negative question was should we raise any taxes at this time, with the economy being what it is," said Parrish, who sponsored the bill. "And some of the members just will not vote for any tax increase."
The debate over the bill has been intense. Frink said Del. Louderback and others were firm in their determination to keep tax increases outside of the tax reform process. On the other side, Del. Vivian A. Watts, D-Fairfax, said that many delegates felt that state program needs would not be met if the tax code is not adjusted.
Further debate in the House could be affected by the actions of the Senate. More than half of the 40-member body is co-sponsoring the tax plan of Sen. John H. Chichester, R-Stafford, which Qualls described as "more aggressive" than Warner's plan. Louderback has sponsored his own tax plan, which could serve as a Republican alternative to the governor's plan, Frink said. Qualls and Hall both said that provisions from the plan might reappear in negotiations over the state budget bill.
Currently, however, it is impossible to predict how the legislative process will play out , according to Sabato.
"We simply don't know what will happen," Sabato said. "People are holding their cards very close to the chest at this early moment. This is just the start of a long and very difficult legislative session"
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