Lawmaker makes fun of Sen. Hanger, Staunton 'blight' with public quip

RICHMOND — One Senate panel member made an offhand remark making fun of Staunton on Wednesday before the panel advanced legislation to enact an extra real-estate tax on blighted properties. Staunton was not one of the three cities affected by the bill.

During Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee debate on Del. Lashrecse D. Aird’s bill, Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta County, asked if any of the blighted properties in Petersburg were inhabited. When told they were not, Hanger replied, “That’s good because I grew up in a house that was probably this derelict.”

“He just described Staunton,” Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, immediately quipped. Staunton is in Hanger’s district.

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That created an awkward moment in the committee room, drawing nervous laughter and some groans. Saslaw immediately apologized.

“I probably shouldn’t have said that,” he said.

House Bill 755 would allow Virginia localities with a Fiscal Stress Index score of 107 or higher to levy a tax of 5-10% above their normal real-estate tax rate on properties deemed blighted or derelict by the locality’s real-estate assessor. The bill would also allow the locality to sell that property after six months to recover abatement costs the locality incurred to make the property safer.

The bill would affect Petersburg, Emporia and Hopewell.

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News Leader reporter Claire Mitzel contributed to this report.