GOVERNOR'S VETO

Pursuant to § 6 of Article V of the Constitution of Virginia, I am returning without my signature House Bill 1711.

This legislation, while intended to assist a locality in collecting a fee for a service it provides to its citizens, sets a poor precedent for the Commonwealth. Requiring a utility to provide its customer list to a local government - especially to enable that local government to collect a fee - raises grave privacy issues. In fact, this legislation could affect how names and addresses are protected under electric utility restructuring. Even though the fee to be collected is for a service provided by the locality to its citizens, I do not believe the locality's need for addresses outweighs the privacy issues implicated by such legislation. There are other options.

I therefore veto House Bill 1711.