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2014 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Finance

Co-Chair: Charles J. Colgan - Co-Chair: Walter A. Stosch

Clerk: Patty Lung, Wesley Bland
Staff: Nicole Brenner, Mark Vucci
Date of Meeting: February 5, 2014
Time and Place: 9:00 a.m. - Senate Room B
Revised to correct meeting time (9:00 a.m.)

S.B. 19

Patron: Lucas

Virginia Casino Gaming Commission; regulation of casino gaming; penalties. Creates the Virginia Casino Gaming Commission as the licensing body for casino gaming. The bill sets up the licensing scheme for casino gaming and provides penalties for violations of the casino gaming law. Under the bill, casino gambling shall be limited to localities in which at least 40 percent of the land area is exempt from local real property taxation pursuant to federal law or Article X, Sections 6 and 6-A of the Constitution of Virginia. The bill requires proceeds of the gross receipts tax and admission tax imposed on casino gaming operators to be paid as follows: (i) 10 percent to the locality in which the casino gaming operation is located and (ii) 90 percent into the Toll Mitigation Fund, which shall be used to mitigate the tolls established to support construction and maintenance of the Dominion Boulevard Bridge and Roadway Improvement Project and the Downtown Tunnel/Midtown Tunnel/Martin Luther King Freeway Extension Project.

S.B. 107

Patron: Stanley

Tax credits for donations to science, technology, engineering, or math educational programs at qualified schools. Establishes a tax credit beginning in taxable year 2014 through taxable year 2018 for donations made to STEM organizations. The tax-credit-derived funds must be used by the STEM organization to support STEM education at public schools in the Commonwealth that (i) have an individual school performance grade of C or below assigned by the Board of Education or (ii) are located in a locality with a population of 200,000 or less. The credit would equal 65 percent of the donation made by the taxpayer and may be carried forward for five years. The program would have a cap of $25 million per year. The Department of Education would administer the program.

S.B. 168

Patron: Stanley

Teacher relocation income tax credit. Provides a tax credit of $5,000 to teachers who relocate to schools with a performance grade of C or below or to a locality with a population of 200,000 or less. The bill provides that tax credits shall not exceed $1 million, directs the Department of Education to publish a list of qualified schools, and directs the Department of Taxation to establish guidelines.

S.B. 267

Patron: Stanley

Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority; certified industrial parks. Provides that the Authority shall develop a program by which local industrial parks may become certified by the Commonwealth. In developing such a program, the Authority shall consider factors such as planning, zoning, engineering, title ownership, and general development readiness. The program shall also certify developments in various categories of industry.

S.B. 378

Patron: Reeves

Notary public; application for recommission. Allows persons already commissioned as notaries public or electronic notaries public to submit applications for recommission to the Secretary of the Commonwealth in person, by first-class mail, or online, provided that online applications are accompanied by an electronic signature authorized by the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. Under current law, the Secretary of the Commonwealth is allowed but not required to accept online applications containing electronic signatures.

S.B. 412

Patron: Hanger

Deferred compensation plan for Medicaid program independent contractors. Authorizes the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System to develop policies and procedures to allow certain independent contractors performing services for the Commonwealth's Medicaid program to participate in the deferred compensation plan for employees of the Commonwealth and authorizes the Director of the Department of Medical Assistance Services to provide payments or transfers to and to participate in any deferred compensation plan for independent contractors providing services for the Commonwealth's Medicaid program established by the Board.

S.B. 422

Patron: Watkins

Hybrid retirement program; local deferred compensation and cash match plans. Allows political subdivisions the option of establishing and administering their own deferred compensation and cash match plans if they elect not to participate in those plans administered by the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System for the hybrid retirement program. The bill also states that state or local entities are not liable for loss.

S.B. 443

Patron: Norment

Number of circuit and district court judges. Increases and decreases the number of circuit, general district, and juvenile court judges authorized for each judicial circuit and district in accordance with a study report issued by the National Center for State Courts. These adjustments are recommended by the Judicial Council and by the Committee on District Courts.

S.B. 611

Patron: Saslaw

Automated sales suppression device; penalties. Makes it a Class 6 felony to willfully and knowingly sell, purchase, install, transfer, or possess an automated sales suppression device. An automated sales suppression device is an electronic means of falsifying records of cash registers and other point-of-sale systems. A guilty party is also subject to a $10,000 civil penalty and revocation of any registration, license, or bond issued pursuant to the tax laws of the Commonwealth.

S.B. 627

Patron: Newman

Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; training center residents; quality of care; disclosure. Requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to, before transferring any training center resident to another training center or to community-based care, provide written certification to the training center resident or his legally authorized representative that the receiving facility provides quality of care equal to or higher than that provided in the resident's current training center and that all permissible placement options have been disclosed.

S.B. 653

Patron: Norment

Renewable energy property tax credits. Establishes, beginning with taxable year 2014, tax credits for placing into service renewable energy property. The credit would equal 40 percent of the costs paid or incurred to place the renewable energy property into service, not to exceed $2.5 million for any individual piece of renewable energy property. The bill provides that credits in excess of $250,000 would be allowed in three equal taxable year installments. The amount of tax credits otherwise allowed would be proportionally reduced to reflect any public grants, bonds, or other public moneys used in funding the renewable energy property. The bill defines renewable energy as energy derived from sunlight, wind, falling water, biomass, waste, landfill gas, municipal solid waste, wave motion, tides, or geothermal power, but not including energy derived from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power.

The Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy would administer the tax credit program. The Department would be authorized to issue up to $10 million in renewable energy property tax credits each fiscal year.

The bill would allow the tax credits to be carried forward for five taxable years or to be transferred or assigned to other persons for use.

S.B. 656

Patron: Garrett

Local economic development. Provides that the Virginia income tax net revenue and sales and use tax generated by certain corporations or limited liability companies within a qualified locality shall be transferred to the qualified locality under certain conditions. A qualified locality is one that (i) has made application to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority for a Major Employment and Investment Project Site Planning Grant pursuant to § 2.2-2240.2 and has been rejected for such grant and (ii) has expended local funds for the economic development purposes specified in § 2.2-2240.2. The total amount eligible to be returned to a qualified locality shall not exceed $5 million for any single economic development project.

S.B. 658

Patron: Black

Inventory of physical evidence recovery kits. Requires the Department of Forensic Science to create and maintain an inventory of all physical evidence recovery kits that have not been submitted to the Department for analysis prior to July 1, 2014. The bill requires the Department to make arrangements with law-enforcement agencies to submit such physical evidence recovery kits by January 1, 2015. The bill also requires the Department to submit a report of its inventory to the General Assembly prior to the 2015 Session, and to include in its report a plan for analyzing all untested physical evidence recovery kits.

S.B. 666

Patron: Petersen

Eminent domain; costs; attorney fees. Requires the court, in certain condemnation proceedings, to award costs, including reasonable attorney fees, to the owner of property taken by condemnation. Under current law, awarding costs is discretionary and such costs exclude attorney fees.