Spanberger faces budget choices on utility refunds, Oak Hill (copy)
With a state budget deal finally in hand, Gov. Abigail Spanberger still faces significant policy choices on eligibility for refunds of greenhouse gas tax proceeds, a possible state park at the 19th-century estate of former President James Monroe and the amount of time Virginians will have to comment on the proposed merger of the state's largest public utility into a Florida-based energy company.
Spanberger said this week that she expects to propose amendments to the budget by Friday night, primarily for technical changes that the General Assembly would consider when it returns Monday, a day before the current state operating budget will expire.
But some of the possible changes to the budget could be more than technical.
Spanberger is expected to tweak a new provision inserted into the budget compromise that the General Assembly approved this week to require a portion of money collected from Virginia utility customers for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to be returned to customers of the state's two large investor-owned electric utilities — Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power Co.
Update: General Assembly approves budget deal
The provision does not currently apply to customers of Virginia's rural electric cooperatives or large business customers. It applies to residential customers, small and medium businesses, and religious institutions.
Spanberger spokesperson Libby Wiet confirmed that the governor's office is "looking at options" for rebates of some of the money that the greenhouse gas initiative, known as RGGI, collects from utilities based on their emissions of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants linked to global warming and climate change. RGGI currently returns that money to the state for energy efficiency improvements for low and medium-income families, flood control and other investments for adapting to the effects of climate change.
"That is definitely front of mind right now," Wiet said Wednesday.
It's also front of mind for Brian Mosier, president and CEO of the Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives. The association represents 13 Virginia electric cooperatives, as well as two in Maryland and one in Delaware.
“Virginia’s electric cooperatives members should not be excluded as the Commonwealth moves to provide affordability measures for its ratepayers," Mosier said in a statement on Wednesday. "We would support a technical amendment to ensure that electric cooperative member owners are eligible for any rebates the General Assembly and the governor decide are warranted."
House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, made a similar point in a speech before the House of Delegates voted 71-22 to adopt the proposed budget on Monday.
Oak Hill
Spanberger is also coming under mounting pressure from business and preservation groups to add language to the budget to accept Oak Hill, the 1,250-acre Loudoun County estate of former President James Monroe, as a new state park.
The Senate has blocked the project in the budget for two consecutive years, citing concerns about long-term maintenance and operating costs, However, The Conservation Fund, which used $22 million from Loudoun to purchase the property from the DeLashmutt family last fall, says it has assembled an operating endowment of more than $21 million from private donors and public conservation funds that could be at risk if the state does not accept the property as a park this year.
"We're not asking for any money or any change to the bottom line of the budget," said Heather Richards, Virginia state director for the fund, which is based in Arlington County.
The Garden Club of Virginia and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are urging Spanberger to include Oak Hill in the budget, as is the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, which considers the proposed park an economic attraction.
"How often will you have the opportunity to acquire a significant recreational property to benefit generations of Virginians with zero outlay of General Fund dollars?" asked Jennifer Kelley and Elizabeth Myers, state garden club president and chairman, respectively, in a letter to Spanberger.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, a member of the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee who helped negotiate the budget compromise, said "cost concerns remain" about the project but added that the Senate was willing to agree to the project if the House would approve the second phase of the Center for Leadership and Ethics. The assembly dropped the VMI project from the budget last year after members of the institute's board of visitors — whom then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, had appointed — voted not to extend the contract of Superintendent Cedric Wins, the first Black superintendent at VMI.
Spanberger, a Democrat, appointed five new members to the VMI board the day she was inaugurated in January. "The board of visitors there is going in the right direction," said Deeds, who argued that the VMI center has long been part of the state's capital outlay plans.
House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, the first Black speaker of the House of Delegates, said he wasn't involved in the budget discussion, but said his concerns about VMI go beyond Wins' departure.
"We need to continue to monitor the treatment of African American students," he said in an interview. "General Wins is gone, but those students still have to be in that environment."
Scott also suggested that if the state doesn't accept Oak Hill as a state park, Loudoun could maintain a park there with nearly $1 billion in tax revenue the county collected from data centers last year. "Loudoun County has lots of money," he said.
Dominion merger
Deeds is also among legislators concerned about the proposed merger of Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy, which will come before the State Corporation Commission for approval. He said he had advocated in budget negotiations that the SCC extend public comment on the proposal to six months. The SCC hasn't received an application for the merger, but under law could order a public comment period ranging from 60 to 180 days.
"This is a big decision, and I don't think we ought to be rushing into it," he said. "It might be a good thing or it might not."
Return to RGGI to bring higher electric bills, SCC filing says
Michael Martz (804) 649-6964
