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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
- Summaries: Since 1994
Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2004 SESSION
Chairman: Charles R. Hawkins
Date of Meeting: January 26, 2004
Time and Place: 9:00 a.m., Senate Room B
Patron: Devolites
Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. Requires the Attorney General to defend a locality in a private legal action resulting from the locality's adoption or implementation of the criteria developed by the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Board to regulate the use and development of land and to protect water quality. The criteria are to be used by local governments (i) to determine the ecological and geographic extent of Chesapeake Bay Preservation Areas and (ii) in granting, denying, or modifying requests to rezone, subdivide, or to use and develop land in these areas.
Patron: Williams
Submerged land permit exemption. Exempts a water supply project that has received a Virginia Water Protection Permit from the State Water Control Board from having to receive a separate permit from Virginia Marine Resources Commission for use of state-owned bottomland. However, the Virginia Water Protection Permit would not be issued until the State Water Control Board has consulted with the Commission and considered any of its written recommendations. The Commission's written recommendations are to include an analysis of all applicable statutory and regulatory responsibilities of the Commission as they relate to the activity for which the Water Protection Permit is being sought. The issuance of the permit by the State Water Control Board would constitute the final state action on the project.
Patron: Williams
Water supply plan regulations. Delays the effective date of water supply plan regulations one year. Under the bill passed in 2003, the State Water Control Board was prohibited from finalizing the water supply plan regulations prior to July 1, 2004. Because the Technical Advisory Committee has not completed its drafting of these regulations, the date on which the regulations can become effective has been delayed until after July 1, 2005.
Patron: Stolle
Sunday hunting. Allows persons to hunt on Sunday between noon and one-half hour after sunset.
Patron: Reynolds
Bear damage stamp. Requires any person licensed to hunt bear to also obtain a $4 bear damage stamp. The moneys collected from the stamp will be deposited into the newly created Bear Damage Stamp Fund. The Fund will be used to compensate landowners for damages to their property caused by bears. Under a newly established Bear Damage Stamp program, a property owner will file a claim for damages with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The report will include three estimates of the damages. The Department's game wardens or wildlife biologists will investigate the claim and the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries will make the decision regarding whether the claim is valid and the amount of compensation that will be awarded to the property owner.
Patron: Reynolds
Damage stamp program. Extends coverage under the damage stamp program to beekeepers to collect for damages to their bee colonies and beekeeping equipment caused by bear, deer, elk or big game hunters.
Patron: Reynolds
Beekeeper assistance. Mandates that the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services establish a beekeeper assistance program that would assist Virginia beekeepers in maintaining healthy, productive bee colonies. The program would provide beekeepers with miticides for protecting their hives, establish a queen bee production program, and assist beekeepers in establishing a cooperative organization.
Patron: Deeds
Waterfowl blinds. Repeals a 1928 and a 1942 Act of Assembly that prohibited hunting from floating blinds in the Counties of Caroline, King George, Essex, Westmoreland and Richmond, and in several segments of the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers.
Patron: Hawkins
Use of drugs on wildlife. Prohibits persons from administering drugs to any vertebrate wildlife except as allowed under a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries permit or regulation. The penalty for violation of this prohibition is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Patron: Hawkins
Milk Commission. Merges the Milk Commission with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, as directed by Item 127 of Chapter 1042 of the 2003 Acts of Assembly (budget bill).
Patron: Hawkins
The Virginia Wine Board. Establishes the Virginia Wine Board and the Virginia Wine Promotion Fund. The Board is composed of the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services and nine gubernatorial-appointed citizens who represent grape growers and owners or operators of wineries or farm wineries. Among its powers and duties, the Board can contract for research services to improve viticultural and enological practices in Virginia, enter into contracts with private and public entities to market, advertise and promote the industry, and engage in revenue-producing activities. The activities of the Board are exempted from the Virginia Public Procurement Act. The Fund consists of general fund appropriations, six percent of the moneys generated annually from the wine liter tax, fees from services rendered, and payments received for products, equipment or goods supplied. The bill repeals the Virginia Winegrowers Advisory Board and the Winegrowers Productivity Fund and transfers any moneys remaining in the Winegrowers Productivity Fund to the new Virginia Wine Promotion Fund.
Patron: Stolle
Recovery of damages to the Commonwealth's natural resources. Allows the Attorney General to employ special counsel if he decides that it is impracticable or uneconomical for the Attorney General's office to render the required legal services for cases involving the recovery of damages to natural resources.
Patron: Norment
Air emissions trading. Prohibits the Commonwealth from selling, by auction or other manner, the set asides allocated to new sources of air emissions.
Patron: Quayle
Compensation for livestock and poultry killed by dogs. Decreases the amount of money a locality must compensate a person if that person's livestock or poultry is killed or injured by a dog when the owner of the dog is not known from $400 to $200 per animal and from $10 to $5 per fowl.
Patron: Wagner
Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. Expands the boundaries of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act to include the entire watershed of the Chesapeake Bay, not just Tidewater.
Patron: Wagner
Bottomlands permit. Prohibits any person from reapplying for a Virginia Marine Resources' bottomlands permit within a year of the denial of the original permit if it is for the same or substantially similar use of the bottomlands.
Patron: Wagner
Property and casualty insurance; Virginia Property Insurance Association; windstorm and windstorm and hail coverage. Authorizes the issuance of windstorm as well as windstorm and hail insurance policies by the Virginia Property Insurance Association ("VPIA"). The VPIA provides a residual market for basic property insurance. A coordinate provision in the bill authorizes property insurers underwriting in the voluntary market of Virginia's coastal areas to exclude (in new policies only and not renewals) coverage on owner-occupied dwellings for losses resulting from windstorm or windstorm and hail. The Virginia coastal area is defined as that part of the Commonwealth lying east of 76 degrees, 30 minutes west longitude. The exclusion is authorized on the condition that insurers desiring to do so (i) issue premium credits for such exclusions and (ii) furnish written disclosures to insureds describing the exclusions and informing insureds that coverage for windstorm or windstorm and hail can be obtained through the VPIA.
Patron: Whipple
Ozone nonattainment fees. Authorizes the Department of Environmental Quality to collect penalty fees from stationary sources of air emissions if severe nonattainment areas in which these facilities are located do not attain air quality standards by deadlines established by the federal Clean Air Act. The bill establishes the formula for calculating the fee amounts owed as a penalty. The fees would be deposited into the newly created Virginia Natural and Historic Resources Fund. This permanent, nonreverting fund will also consist of moneys appropriated to it by the General Assembly and any other public or private moneys. The moneys in the Fund will be allocated by the Secretary of Natural Resources to the Virginia Land Conservation Fund and the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund. The bill also establishes the seven-member Virginia Natural and Historic Resources Fund Commission, which is to provide recommendations to the Secretary regarding the allocation of moneys in the Fund. The Secretary is the chairman of the Commission. The six citizen members will be individuals who have experience or expertise in the areas of natural and historic resource conservation and protection.
Patron: Obenshain
Agricultural Enterprise Zone Act. Allows the Governor to establish agricultural enterprise zones upon application by localities with established agricultural or forestal districts, or purchase of development rights programs. "Qualified farm businesses" located in such zones may apply to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for certain state business tax credits and sales tax exemptions. "Qualified farm businesses" are businesses establishing agricultural or forestal operations and making a net investment of at least $250,000 and creating at least 5 new full-time jobs, or such operations already established if they have increased the number of full-time employees by at least 10 percent over the preceding 2 years.
Patron: Hanger
Watershed Coordination Program. Directs the Department of Conservation and Recreation to create the Watershed Coordination Program to engage stakeholders within each of the Commonwealth's major watersheds to develop comprehensive strategic plans to mitigate and prevent nonpoint source water pollution.
Patron: Hanger
Land and Water Conservation Trust Fund. Establishes the Land and Water Conservation Trust Fund. The Fund will be capitalized from revenue generated from a fee imposed on waterworks owners of $2 per water connection, a $10 fee for each instrument recorded in deed books and upon each judgment docketed in the judgment lien docket book, general fund appropriations, and any other moneys available from public and private sources. The moneys in the Fund will then be allocated quarterly, with at least 47 percent going to the Virginia Land Conservation Fund, at least 47 percent going to the Water Quality Improvement Fund, and up to six percent expended for the management and administration of these two funds.
Patron: Puckett
Big Sandy River. Allows localities located within the Big Sandy River watershed to adopt an ordinance requiring a permit for the construction or placement of any bridge, culvert, drainpipe, or any other structure across the banks or into the channels of the Big Sandy River or any of its tributaries. The locality may charge a reasonable fee for such permit. Violation of such an ordinance shall constitute a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Patron: Lucas
Personal flotation devices required for children; civil penalty. Requires all children 12 years of age or younger to wear a Type I, II, III, or Type V U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device on recreational vehicles under 21 feet in length. The Director of Game and Inland Fisheries shall assess any recreational vessel operator who violates or permits the violation of this provision a civil penalty of up to $250. However, this penalty may be waived if the person subsequently completes an approved boating safety education course. All penalties collected are to be paid to the Motorboat and Water Safety Fund of the Game Protection Fund. The bill does not apply to a recreational vessel that is moored or anchored, or to children below deck or in an enclosed cabin. The bill defines "recreational vessel" as a vessel manufactured or operated for leisure or recreational purposes, or a vessel leased, rented or chartered for noncommercial use. "Recreational vessel" includes motorboats, sailboats, canoes, kayaks, rowboats, and any other vessel capable of being used for transportation on water, when the vessel is being used for other than commercial purposes. This bill contains a delayed enactment clause until January 1, 2005.
Patron: Deeds
Virginia Natural and Historic Resources Fund. Creates the Virginia Natural and Historic Resources Fund. This permanent, nonreverting fund will consist of moneys appropriated to it by the General Assembly and any other public or private moneys. The moneys in the Fund will be allocated by the Secretary of Natural Resources to the Virginia Land Conservation Fund and the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund. The bill establishes the seven-member Virginia Natural and Historic Resources Fund Commission, which is to provide recommendations to the Secretary regarding the allocation of moneys in the Fund. The Secretary is the chairman of the Commission. The six citizen members will be individuals who have experience or expertise in the areas of natural and historic resource conservation and protection. Under the legislation, a $10 fee is assessed on various deeds for which the state recordation tax is collected and on the recordation of a certificate of satisfaction.
Patron: Puckett
Powers of the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries. Allows the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries to grant easements and rights of way over lands and waters acquired for game and fish refuges and preserves.
Patron: Deeds
Open-space easements. Amends the Open-Space Land Act (Act) to ensure that any perpetual interest in real estate acquired by a public body pursuant to the Act will be consistent with the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service Code for tax-deductible conservation contributions.