An attempt to double the tax credit Virginia gives to wineries failed in a House of Delegates com82mittee Wednesday as legislators worried about its effect on revenues.
But the bill’s sponsor said he’ll bring the bill back, possibly as early as next week.
Del. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg, said Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed a budget amendment to cover the $500,000 tax credit.
Garrett said he hoped the governor’s office would help persuade members of the House Finance Committee to reconsider their decision to table HB 1194.
Garrett said the assembly approved a $250,000 tax credit last years for wineries investing in new production, and it helped encourage wineries and vineyards to put $4 million into their operations.
Todd Haymore, state secretary of agriculture and forestry, told the committee “Virginia’s wine industry is in a boom cycle right now,” and its economic activity doubled in the past five years.
“We have learned from looking at other states that have gone through similar boom cycles that the cycle lasts anywhere from three to 10 years.
“Virginia is in its fourth or fifth year of this cycle, and we want to do everything we can to maximize it, because we know it is not going to last,” Haymore told the committee.
But Del. Harry Purkey, R-Virginia Beach and chairman of the Finance Committee, said this isn’t a good year for new tax credits.
After the committee tabled Garrett’s bill on a voice vote, Purkey explained “the cumulative effect of tax bills this year have a great deal to do with the action that was just taken.”
Purkey also said state budget cuts “are having more effect than we would like them to have” on the state’s revenues.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement