May 2000

By James Lawlor

Washington: Tax cap headaches. A state trial court judge ruled in mid-March that I 695, an initiative passed by voters last November, was unconstitutional, reports legislative cochair Paul Stewart, AICP. The measure would have capped the state automobile excise tax at $30 per year and given voters the power to disapprove proposed increases in state and local taxes and fees.

As of late March, the legislature was still mired in a special session called because the two houses could not agree on a budget that would accommodate the $750 million revenue loss caused by the excise tax cap. On March 22, the house of representatives did manage to pass a bipartisan budget proposal. But the bipartisanship may be little more than a fig leaf, according to state senator Valoria Loveland (D-Pasco).

Loveland was quoted as saying that the ink was barely dry on the house’s budget proposal before members began lobbying to save their pet projects. Loveland and other senate Democrats are unhappy that the house plan uses more than $40 million in sales tax revenues from the general fund to pay for transportation projects. They would prefer to take money from the state’s $1.3 billion reserve fund.

The state supreme court is scheduled to hear an appeal of the I 695 ruling in June. But legislators say they are committed to keeping the excise tax cap, no matter how the court rules. There is considerably less sentiment for saving the voter approval proviso for new taxes and fees, however.

New Mexico: The fun isn’t over. The state constitution limits the length of the legislative session in even-numbered years to 30 days. That restriction has resulted in many special sessions. This year is no exception. Following his veto of the budget bill, Gov. Gary Johnson called a special session to begin in late March.

In addition to the budget bill, lawmakers in the special session are expected once again to consider the religious freedom restoration act, which failed to pass during the regular session. Similar legislation has been used in other states, to attack local regulations governing location of religious buildings.

During the regular session, chapter vice-president Lora Lucero reports, the chapter and its allies managed to get a resolution passed urging the state transportation department to consider aesthetic elements when building or upgrading state highways. The chapter also helped to kill companion takings bills, a measure that would have weakened the subdivision law, and two bills that would have affected municipalities’ extraterritorial planning authority.

The subdivision bill would have made it easier to create two-parcel subdivisions easier and barred local governments from merging subdivided lots without an owner’s consent. The two takings bills would have required landowners to be compensated for any government action that reduced the value of land by 25 percent or more.

The planning bills would have granted extraterritorial residents the right to vote in municipal elections, and would have barred municipal governments from engaging in extraterritorial planning unless they had a comprehensive plan in place.

New York Metro: Zoning reform in the works. The chapter's zoning committee, chaired by Carol Rosenthal, is studying a proposal for a major zoning revision. The proposal is expected to reach the city council by the end of the summer, says chapter president Mitchell Silver, AICP.

Among other things, the proposed revision would affect the assembly of land by preventing floor area from being transferred across zoning district boundaries. It would also limit building height and require that towers cover a minimum of one-third of the lot. Some planners have questioned whether these restrictions would result in unduly "blocky" buildings, Silver says.

Questions have also been raised about criteria for granting special permits to project that demonstrate "design excellence," and about the extent of the proposed rules for medium-density residential districts, he says.