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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 25, 2014
Time and Place: 9:00 a.m. - Senate Room B
Revised to add HBs 29, 30, 232, 235, 567, 708, 972, 976 & 1251

H.B. 29

Patron: Jones


Budget Bill. Amending Chapter 806, 2013 Acts of Assembly.

H.B. 30

Patron: Jones


Budget Bill.  Appropriations of the Budget submitted by the Governor of Virginia providing a portion of revenues for the two years ending respectively on the thirtieth day of June, 2015, and the thirtieth day of June, 2016.

H.B. 46

Patron: Ramadan

Constitutional amendment (voter referendum); property tax; exemption for surviving spouse of soldiers killed in action. Provides for a referendum at the November 4, 2014, election to approve or reject an amendment to allow the General Assembly to exempt from taxation the real property of the surviving spouse of a soldier killed in action.

H.B. 86

Patron: Stolle

Inpatient psychiatric hospital admission from local correctional facility; criteria. Repeals the second enactment of the 2012 act that amended the criteria for the psychiatric admission of inmates from local correctional facilities to add mentally ill inmates for whom there exists a substantial likelihood that they will suffer serious harm due to their lack of capacity to protect themselves from harm. The second enactment provides that the use of this additional criterion shall expire on July 1, 2014.

H.B. 133

Patron: Cole

Two-Year College Transfer Grant Program; eligibility criteria. Permits a student to enroll in a four-year institution by the spring following the award of an associate's degree and remain eligible for a grant under the program. Current law requires a student to enroll in a four-year institution by the following fall to be eligible.

H.B. 232

Patron: Bell, Robert B.

Immediate sanction probation program; expansion. Extends the sunset provision on the establishment of immediate sanction probation programs, which provides for expedited proceedings for probation violations for certain nonviolent offenders, until July 1, 2016, and allows for the establishment of up to four programs. The authority to establish such programs was originally to expire on July 1, 2012, and was limited to two locations; however, provisions in the 2013 State Budget extended the sunset provision until July 1, 2014, and increased the maximum number of locations to four.

H.B. 235

Patron: Bell, Robert B.

Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry Act; solicitation of prostitution; pandering; minors. Amends the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry Act to add solicitation of prostitution from a minor and pandering involving a minor. The bill also provides that a person who engages in pandering involving a minor is guilty of a Class 4 felony.

H.B. 272

Patron: Loupassi

Judicial performance evaluation program. Requires the judicial performance evaluation program, which provides a self-improvement mechanism for judges and a source of information for the reelection process, established by the Supreme Court of Virginia to submit evaluation reports on justices and judges whose terms expire during the next session of the General Assembly to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice by December 1 of each year. Such reports to the General Assembly are public records, but all other records created or maintained by or on behalf of the program are confidential.

H.B. 331

Patron: Greason

First-time home buyer savings plans. Establishes first-time home buyer savings accounts that are to be used for saving funds for the purchase of homes by first-time home buyers. Moneys in the account are required to be used solely for the down payment and closing costs for the purchase of a home by a first-time home buyer. The bill establishes an individual income tax subtraction for income earned on contributions to the account. However, if moneys are withdrawn from the account for purposes other than to pay eligible costs, any income previously subtracted would be subject to recapture by the Commonwealth and a five percent penalty would be imposed. There would be no recapture and addition to taxable income if the amounts withdrawn were (i) withdrawn because of the death or disability of the account beneficiary, (ii) a disbursement of assets pursuant to a filing for protection under federal bankruptcy laws, or (iii) transferred to another first-time home buyer savings account.

The bill limits the amount of principal that can be contributed to any account to $50,000 and limits the total amount that can be retained in an account at any time to $150,000. Persons would be allowed to contribute only cash or marketable securities to a first-time home buyer savings account.

This is a Virginia Housing Commission bill.

H.B. 460

Patron: Kilgore

Income tax; motion picture production credit. Changes the motion picture production income tax credit by (i) increasing the total biennium cap for all such credits from $5 million to $25 million ($12.5 million annually), and (iii) having the credit expire on December 31, 2018. The bill also requires the Department to publish information regarding the credit regardless if it does not prevent the identification of the taxpayer claiming the credit.

H.B. 477

Patron: Villanueva

Electronic summons system; fees. Allows counties and cities to assess a fee not to exceed $5 as part of the costs in each criminal or traffic case in district or circuit court to be used for the implementation and maintenance of an electronic summons system.

H.B. 567

Patron: Watts

Sexual battery by touching a person's intimate parts; penalty. Provides that a person is guilty of sexual battery (punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor) if, within a two-year period, such person sexually abuses against the will of the victim more than one victim or sexually abuses one victim on more than one occasion.

H.B. 576

Patron: Stolle

Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program; residency requirements. Deems certain surviving spouses and dependents of military service eligible for the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program if the service member through whom they claim eligibility (i) has had a physical presence in Virginia for at least five years immediately prior to the date on which the admission application to the public institution of higher education was submitted; (ii) had a physical presence in Virginia on the date of his death and for at least five years immediately prior to his death; (iii) is deceased and the surviving parent of the qualifying child has had a physical presence in Virginia for at least five years immediately prior to the date on which the admission application to the public institution of higher education was submitted; and (iv) is deceased and the surviving spouse has had a physical presence in Virginia for at least five years prior to the date on which the admission application was submitted by the qualified spouse. Current law requires bona fide domiciliary status in Virginia in these circumstances.

H.B. 606

Patron: Miller

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 based on needs identified in a study report issued by the National Center for State Courts. 

H.B. 672

Patron: Poindexter

Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Grant Program. Expands the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone into a statewide grant program. The bill incorporates HB 871.

H.B. 708

Patron: Gilbert

Assault and battery against a family or household member. Adds unlawful wounding in violation of § 18.2-51 and strangulation in violation of § 18.2-51.6 to the list of offenses that, if a person has been previously convicted of two such offenses within a 20-year period and such offenses occurred on different dates, enhance the penalty of assault and battery against a family or household member from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony.

H.B. 873

Patron: Jones

Ports tax credits. Changes Virginia's ports-related tax credits by increasing the annual amount of international trade facility tax credits that may be issued from $250,000 to $1.25 million, decreasing the annual amount of barge and rail usage tax credits that may be issued from $1.5 million to $500,000, and allowing a taxpayer to be eligible for the port volume increase tax credit and the barge and rail usage tax credit if the taxpayer meets the criteria for both. The bill reduces from 10 percent to five percent the minimum annual increase in cargo transported through a maritime port that is a condition of eligibility for the international trade facility tax credit. The bill also makes roll-on/roll-off cargo eligible for the international trade facility, port volume increase, and barge and rail usage tax credits.

The provisions of the bill would become effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014.

H.B. 972

Patron: Cline

Protective orders; companion animals. Provides that a court may include in a protective order provisions granting to the petitioner possession of a companion animal if the petitioner is the owner of the animal.

H.B. 976

Patron: Cline

Accessories after the fact to certain homicides. Provides that an accessory after the fact to a homicide offense that is punishable by death or as a Class 2 felony is guilty of a Class 6 felony. Currently, accessories after the fact to any felony are guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

H.B. 1099

Patron: Farrell

Local meals tax and food and beverage tax. Exempts nonprofit entities from collecting meals tax or food and beverage tax on the first $100,000 of otherwise taxable fundraising sales.

H.B. 1251

Patron: Ramadan

Sex offenders; reregistration; name change. Provides that a person required to register with the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry must reregister in person with the local law-enforcement agency within three days following a change of the person's name and that a person who is incarcerated or civilly committed must notify the Registry within three days following a name change. Currently, there is no time specified for when such person has to reregister. The bill also requires that the information contained in the Registry must include any former name of a person required to register if he has lawfully changed his name during the period for which he is required to register.

H.J.R. 8

Patron: Ramadan

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.