---
type: "Bill"
title: "County food and beverage tax; referendum."
description: "Prohibits a county from holding a new referendum on the levy of a food and beverage tax in the three calendar years subsequent to its electoral defeat, but only if such referendum is initiated by a resolution of the board of supervisors. The bill also requires the ballot for any such referendum to state the total tax, as a percentage, that would be imposed on food and beverage if the referendum were to pass, based upon a four percent food and beverage tax and any other ad valorem taxes applicable to the purchase of prepared food and beverage in the county."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1296"
citation: "Virginia SB 1296 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Counties", "Cities and Towns", "Elections", "Taxation"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jill Holtzman Vogel"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 21
vote_count: 11
first_action: "2017-01-10"
last_action: "2017-04-26"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0af9938e-474d-4b98-b17d-f537338fd7e2"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1296"
source_hash: "bd30f15109f3953a1b43a56cdf0ff38e48b77223d73a9506ca0eca281ab08ccf"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1296 (2017) — County food and beverage tax; referendum.

Prohibits a county from holding a new referendum on the levy of a food and beverage tax in the three calendar years subsequent to its electoral defeat, but only if such referendum is initiated by a resolution of the board of supervisors. The bill also requires the ballot for any such referendum to state the total tax, as a percentage, that would be imposed on food and beverage if the referendum were to pass, based upon a four percent food and beverage tax and any other ad valorem taxes applicable to the purchase of prepared food and beverage in the county.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0833)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0833)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1296ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1296ER)
3. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103024D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1296)

## Votes

- Reported from Finance with amendment — **16–6** (pass) · legislature
- Reconsideration of passage agreed to by Senate — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Senate rejected Governor's recommendation #3 — **17–23** (fail) · legislature
- House amendment agreed to by Senate — **32–8** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **32–7** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House with amendment — **67–31** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Finance — **15–1** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed Senate — **31–8** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment — **8–1** (pass) · legislature
- Senate rejected Governor's recommendations #'s 1-2 — **14–26** (fail) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Jill Holtzman Vogel — primary (person)
- David R. Suetterlein — cosponsor (person)
- Timothy D. Hugo — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-10** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103024D `introduction`
- **2017-01-10** Referred to Committee on Finance `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-26** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-01-31** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-01-31** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-31** Referred to Committee on Finance `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-03** Assigned Finance sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2017-02-15** Engrossed by House as amended
- **2017-02-15** Passed House with amendment (67-Y 31-N 1-A) `passage`
- **2017-02-22** Enrolled
- **2017-02-22** Signed by President
- **2017-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-23** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/23/17
- **2017-02-23** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-24** Governor's recommendation received by Senate
- **2017-04-05** Communicated to Governor
- **2017-04-05** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, May 5, 2017
- **2017-04-26** Approved by Governor-Chapter 833 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0af9938e-474d-4b98-b17d-f537338fd7e2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).