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2014 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Finance

Chairman: Walter A. Stosch

Clerk: Patty Lung, Wesley Bland
Staff: Nicole Brenner, Mark Vucci
Date of Meeting: January 29, 2014
Time and Place: 9:00 a.m. - Senate Room B

S.B. 25

Patron: Reeves

Offshore natural gas and oil royalties; establishment of Virginia Offshore Energy Emergency Response Fund and Community College Energy Exploration and Development Fund. Sets out the recipients, proportions, and payment order for the distribution of royalties received by the Commonwealth as a result of offshore natural gas and oil drilling and exploration. The bill establishes the Virginia Offshore Energy Emergency Response Fund and directs to it the first $50 million in royalties, requiring that additional royalties maintain the fund at $50 million if moneys are withdrawn from it. Of the subsequent royalties, the bill directs 20 percent to the Transportation Trust Fund; 10 percent to the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium; 10 percent to the Community College Energy Exploration and Development Fund, a fund established by the bill; 20 percent to the Department of Environmental Quality; and 40 percent to the general fund, with an amount to be determined applied toward commerce and infrastructure in the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone.

S.B. 32

Patron: Stanley

Animal Cruelty Registry established. Requires the Superintendent of State Police to establish and maintain an Animal Cruelty Registry for public access on the website of the Department of State Police. The Registry shall include the names of persons convicted of certain felony animal cruelty offenses. The bill provides that a person on the Registry may request removal of his name after 15 years, provided that he has no additional felony convictions of an animal cruelty offense.

S.B. 84

Patron: Ruff

Sales and use tax; direct payment to the Department of Taxation. Adds providers of television satellite services to the types of businesses that may apply to the Tax Commissioner to pay sales and use tax directly to the Department of Taxation, rather than to the dealers from whom they purchase goods.

S.B. 101

Patron: Ruff

Life insurance for retired state employees. Provides that retired state employees be offered optional group life insurance coverage with premiums to be paid by the retirees.

S.B. 102

Patron: Ruff

Life insurance for retired state employees. Provides that the basic life insurance coverage for retired state employees with 15 or more years of creditable service shall not be reduced to less than $8,000, indexed to the amount of any general salary increases for state employees.

S.B. 103

Patron: Ruff

Retired state employees; health insurance credit. Increases the amount of the monthly health insurance credit for retired state employees from $4 per year of creditable service to $5 per year of creditable service.

S.B. 109

Patron: Stanley

Virginia Retirement System; health insurance credit. Increases the monthly health insurance credit for retired local government employees, local officers, general registrars, employees of a general registrar, and employees of local social services boards from $1.50 per year of creditable service with a cap of $45, to $4 per year of creditable service, with no cap.

S.B. 206

Patron: Carrico

Department of State Police; appointment of supervisory officers. Establishes a career progression program that is based on years of service. The program provides for promotion to the rank of Senior Trooper after 10 years of service and promotion to the rank of Master Trooper after 20 years of service, provided in each case that there are no pending disciplinary actions involving a candidate.

S.B. 214

Patron: Carrico

Entitlement to certain sales and use tax revenues; City of Bristol and Washington County. Expands the payments of sales and use tax revenue generated on the premises of a public facility located in the City of Bristol used to pay bonds issued to construct the public facility to include a public facility located in a portion of Washington County, if the two localities agree.

S.B. 227

Patron: Petersen

Virginia - Korea Advisory Board. Establishes the Virginia - Korea Advisory Board to advise the Governor on ways to improve mutually beneficial trade relationships between the Commonwealth and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

S.B. 252

Patron: McEachin

Insurance; employees of public institutions of higher education or localities. Requires the state health plan, for employees of higher education, to provide means for coverage of any other class of persons as may mutually be agreed upon by the institution and the employee to be purchased. The bill also expands the list of people who may be provided certain types of insurance by a locality, adding the dependents of officers and employees of a locality, as well as the dependents of those employed by commissions and other entities controlled by or working closely with a locality, to the list of people to whom a locality may provide accident and health insurance. The bill expands the potential eligibility for health insurance programs to include the dependents of eligible members of volunteer fire or rescue companies and the dependents of retired officers and employees. The bill requires any locality providing insurance to dependents of employees to provide the same programs to dependents of constitutional officers in some cases.

S.B. 256

Patron: Deeds

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; conservation officers. Adds conservation officers of the Department of Conservation and Recreation as members of the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System. Conservation officers would accrue retirement benefits under the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System only for creditable service on or after July 1, 2014.

S.B. 451

Patron: Norment

Definition of law-enforcement officer; municipal park rangers. Adds sworn municipal park rangers who are conservators of the peace to the definition of law-enforcement officers.

S.B. 524

Patron: Carrico

Revenues from local fines and penalties. Provides for a portion of the revenues from local fines and penalties to be segregated and deposited in a special fund in those counties or cities in which the local fines and penalties collected exceed a threshold amount. If the local fines and penalties collected by a county's or city's district courts during the fiscal year exceed 65 percent of the total of all fines and penalties collected by such courts, then the requirement to segregate and deposit the local fines and penalties in a special fund is triggered. One-half of the local fines and penalties exceeding such 65 percent would be deposited into the local special fund. Local fines and penalties deposited into the special fund could be used for any purpose including the funding or financing of the operations or administration of police or sheriff's departments. The bill intends to create a mechanism to track local government appropriations of local fines and penalties in certain counties and cities.

S.B. 563

Patron: Stosch

Neighborhood Assistance Act Tax Credit Program. Increases by $500,000 in each of fiscal years 2015 and 2016 the amount of tax credits that may be issued under the tax credit program for both donations supporting education programs and donations supporting other than education programs. After the phase-in is completed, each fiscal year $9 million in tax credits could be issued for donations supporting education programs and $8 million in tax credits could be issued for donations supporting other than education programs.

S.B. 566

Patron: Colgan

Virginia Retirement System benefits. Provides for an increase, beginning July 1, 2014, of the monthly retirement allowance payable to any person who retired with at least 15 years of creditable service before January 1, 1990, under the Virginia Retirement System or the State Police Officers' Retirement System (or predecessor retirement systems).

S.B. 571

Patron: Wagner

Virginia Beach arena. Provides that the City of Virginia Beach may use its Arena Financing Fund to collect sales and use tax revenues and remit such revenues to the private facility owner as a contribution toward the cost of the facility if the City has contributed infrastructure or real property to the owner. The bill also makes technical amendments to the existing sunset provisions.

S.B. 573

Patron: Deeds

Transient occupancy tax; Highland County. Adds Highland County to the list of counties that may impose the transient occupancy tax at a rate up to five percent, with any amount over two percent designated for tourism and travel marketing or initiatives that attract travelers and increase tourism revenues in the county.

S.B. 579

Patron: Stuart

Sales and use tax; revenues from certain baseball facilities. Adds to the definition of "public facility," for the purpose of entitlement to certain sales tax revenues, a sports complex consisting of a minor league baseball stadium and related tournament, training, and parking facilities, a part of which is owned by the City of Fredericksburg.

S.B. 591

Patron: Barker

Proposals for neighborhood assistance tax credits; emergency. Allows neighborhood organizations to submit the required financial audit, review, or compilation within the 30-day period immediately following any deadline established for the submission of neighborhood organization proposals for tax credits. So long as the proposal was otherwise complete by the deadline, the proposal would be timely filed if the audit, review, or compilation is submitted within such 30-day period.

The bill contains an emergency clause.

EMERGENCY

S.B. 606

Patron: Watkins

Withdrawal from secondary highway system. Allows lane-mile payments of $12,529 for a county with a charter that borders four cities, which elects to withdraw from the secondary system after June 30, 2014. The bill also allows the Commissioner of Highways to enter into agreements with such counties that withdraw for traffic control.

S.J.R. 25

Patron: Edwards

Study; SCHEV; Pay It Forward, Pay It Back; report. Directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to study the feasibility of implementing a "Pay It Forward, Pay It Back" higher education tuition financing model to increase access to educational opportunities and to decrease the debt burden on students in the Commonwealth.

S.J.R. 56

Patron: Edwards

Study; JLARC; Virginia Preschool Initiative; report. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study and identify policy and funding options to expand the Virginia Preschool Initiative.

S.J.R. 81

Patron: Black

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Constitutional amendment (second resolution); real property tax exemption for spouses of soldiers killed in action. Provides that the General Assembly may provide a real property tax exemption for the primary residence of surviving spouses of members of the military who are killed in action. Such tax exemption may not be claimed by a surviving spouse who has remarried.