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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.
2015 SESSION
Co-Chair: Walter A. Stosch - Co-Chair: Charles J. Colgan
Clerk: Patty Lung
Staff: Lisa Wallmeyer, Nicole Brenner
Date of Meeting: January 27, 2015
Time and Place: 9:00 a.m. Senate Room B
Revised to add SBs 1431 & 1432
Patron: Puller
Northern Virginia Veterans Care Center project. Provides for funding of the Northern Virginia Veterans Care Center project through an allocation of the proceeds of $300 million of Virginia Public Building Authority bonds, which were authorized pursuant to Chapter 1 of the Acts of Assembly of 2014, Special Session I. The bill provides that none of the proceeds of the $300 million of authorized bonds may be used for any purpose until the state share of the funding requirements of the Northern Virginia Veterans Care Center project and the Hampton Roads Veterans Care Center project have been met in full through an allocation of the proceeds of such bonds. The bill also appropriates $59.9 million in federal funds to the project.
Patrons: Puller, Lucas
Hampton Roads Veterans Care Center project. Provides for funding of the Hampton Roads Veterans Care Center project through an allocation of the proceeds of $300 million of Virginia Public Building Authority bonds, which were authorized pursuant to Chapter 1 of the Acts of Assembly of 2014, Special Session I. The bill provides that none of the proceeds of the $300 million of authorized bonds may be used for any purpose until the state share of the funding requirements of the Hampton Roads Veterans Care Center project and the Northern Virginia Veterans Care Center project have been met in full through an allocation of the proceeds of such bonds. The bill also appropriates $59.9 million in federal funds to the project.
Patron: Marsden
Virginia Retirement System; average final compensation. Provides that if an employee receives increases in compensation related to a promotion or new position in the last four years of service that exceed 400 percent of the employee's average annual compensation during the preceding three years, then the employee's service retirement allowance shall be based upon average annual compensation during the employee's final ten years of service. The provision would not apply to an employee who returns to service after at least a one year gap in service, who receives a judicial appointment, or who is elected Governor or Attorney General.
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, 2015.
Patron: Carrico
Mandatory restitution; damage to Capitol Square or any building, monument, etc., in Capitol Square. Requires payment of restitution to the Commonwealth for any damage to Capitol Square or any building, monument, statuary, artwork, or other state property in Capitol Square when a person is convicted of damaging such public buildings or convicted of participating in a riot, remaining at the place of a riot or unlawful assembly, or conspiracy or incitement to produce a riot during which such damage was caused.
Patron: Stanley
Grants for donations to science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) programs at qualified schools. Establishes a grant program administered by the Board of Education beginning in 2015 for donations made by STEM organizations to qualified schools. The donations must be used by qualified schools to support STEM programs. The bill defines qualified schools as those public elementary and secondary schools at which at least 40 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Grants are capped at $50,000 per organization per year.
Patron: Stanley
Building Revitalization Grant Fund. Establishes the Building Revitalization Grant Fund, administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, to award grants of up to $100,000 to businesses that make a capital investment of at least $1 million in revitalizing or retrofitting an existing building in the Commonwealth to serve as a new place of business. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Housing Commission.
Patron: Watkins
Virginia Retirement System; technical amendments. Makes technical amendments to the programs administered by the Virginia Retirement System.
Patron: Stanley
Community colleges; enrollment policies. Requires the State Board for Community Colleges to develop policies directing community colleges to offer any open seat in any career or technical education course that is not at full capacity to (i) students enrolled in public high schools that are located in the region served by the community college and (ii) individuals who (a) reside in the region served by the community college, (b) are unemployed at the time of enrollment or have an annual household income that does not exceed 100 percent of the federal poverty level, and (c) have registered for job services with the Virginia Workforce Connection.
Patron: Lucas
Virginia Small Business Financing Authority; Small, Women-owned and Minority-owned Business Loan Fund. Abolishes the Capital Access Fund for Disadvantaged Businesses, which provides loan guarantees, loan loss reserves, and interest rate write downs for disadvantaged businesses, and replaces it with the Small, Women-owned and Minority-owned Business Loan Fund. The new fund will provide direct loans to eligible small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses. The bill also includes technical amendments.
Patron: Chafin
Health insurance for local school board employees. Allows local school boards to elect to have all their employees and retirees, as well as the dependents of employees and retirees, eligible to participate in the state employee health insurance plan in lieu of the current state-administered local health insurance plan. The local school board shall be responsible for whatever portion of the cost of such insurance is not paid by the employee, except any portion that the General Assembly elects to pay.
Patrons: Puller, Reeves
Problem-Solving Courts; established. Establishes the Problem-Solving Court Act (the Act). The bill allows the establishment of problem-solving courts as specialized court dockets within the existing structure of Virginia's court system, offering judicial monitoring of intensive treatment and supervision of offenders who have special conditions and needs based on military service, mental illness, or societal re-entry. The bill establishes a state problem-solving court docket advisory committee and requires localities intending to establish such courts to establish local advisory committees. The Supreme Court of Virginia is given administrative oversight for the implementation of the Act. The Act is modeled on the Drug Treatment Court Act (§ 18.2-254.1).
Patron: McDougle
Income tax subtraction; long-term capital gain from qualified investments. Authorizes qualified investments to be made through June 30, 2017, in order to be eligible for the long-term capital gains income tax subtraction. Under current laws, qualified investments may be made through June 30, 2015.
Patron: Ruff
Tourism zones; tax revenues for tourism projects. Decreases from 80 percent to 70 percent the share of the total cost of a tourism project that the project must have in place before being eligible to receive a percentage of the state and local sales tax revenues generated on the premises of the project, to be used towards debt service to bridge the gap between available debt and equity and the expected costs of the project.
Patron: Dance
Virginia Tourism Growth Incentive Fund. Establishes the Virginia Tourism Growth Incentive Fund to attract new tourism and hospitality projects and expand existing tourism and hospitality projects in the Commonwealth.
Patron: Stuart
Deeds of trust or mortgages; maximum tax. Clarifies the calculation of the tax on supplemental or modified deeds of trust or mortgages, such that the tax is based on the difference between the maximum obligation secured, regardless of whether such amount is actually owed or outstanding, and the maximum amount of debt secured at the time the original instrument was recorded.
Patron: Watkins
Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Grant Fund and Program. Allows a qualified company to receive a second grant from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Grant Fund if the company locates or expands an additional facility within the Commonwealth, creates at least 300 new permanent full-time positions at the additional facility, and increases cargo volumes through the Port of Virginia by at least five percent.
Patron: Colgan
Virginia Retirement System benefits. Provides for an increase, beginning July 1, 2015, 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).
Patron: Hanger
License tax; businesses ceasing operations. Allows a person, firm, or corporation that ceases business in one year, but attempts to settle existing, outstanding accounts in the next year, to pay a license tax based on the estimate of the current year's gross receipts instead of the previous year's gross receipts. At the time all accounts are closed, the amount paid shall be adjusted for actual gross receipts. Penalties would apply if the person, firm, or corporation provides an unreasonable estimate, or if the person, firm, or corporation engages in any new business during such a year.
Patrons: Stosch, Colgan
Capital outlay plan. Revises the six-year capital outlay plan for projects to be funded entirely or partially from general fund-supported resources.
Patrons: Stosch, Colgan
Bonds for institutions of higher education. Authorizes issuance of bonds in an amount up to $67,500,000 for revenue-producing capital projects at institutions of higher education.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Lewis
Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority; dedicated revenues. Extends through fiscal year 2016 the dedication of certain income tax revenues to the Authority. Current law dedicates the income tax revenues attributable to the sale of commercial human spaceflights or commercial spaceflight training, or incidental to the sale of commercial human spaceflights, to the Authority through fiscal year 2015. The bill extends the dedication through fiscal year 2016.
Patron: McDougle
Supplement to the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry. Requires the Superintendent of State Police to establish a supplement to the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry that would include information on persons who were convicted of certain sexual offenses on or after July 1, 1980, and before July 1, 1994, who are not currently on the registry. The supplement will be available to the public on the State Police website.
Patron: Vogel
State health plan; participation by local school divisions. Provides for the participation by employees of a school division in the state employee health plan. After a period of three plan years, the local school board shall be required to make an irrevocable election whether to participate in the state employee health plan. The total cost of participation shall be borne by the local school board and the employee of the school division.
Patron: Hanger
Tangible personal property; miscellaneous and incidental property. Declares miscellaneous and incidental property with an original cost of less than $250 as a separate classification of tangible personal property. The bill clarifies that when reporting such property, a taxpayer may provide an aggregate estimate of the total value of such property instead of an itemized list. The bill also authorizes a locality to tax such property at a separate rate of taxation not to exceed the rate imposed on general tangible personal property.
Patron: Garrett
Adoption leave benefit. Creates a new classification of paid leave for a state employee who adopts an infant. The amount of leave would be equivalent to the amount of paid leave awarded to an employee pursuant to short-term disability for a birth without medical complications. The Department of Human Resource Management is directed to develop guidelines and policies for implementing the adoption leave benefit.
Patron: McDougle
Sales and use tax exemption; computer equipment and software used in certain data centers. Removes the June 30, 2020, sunset date for the sales and use tax exemption for computer equipment and software used in certain data centers. The bill also increases from $150 million to $500 million the minimum amount of new capital investment a data center must make to be eligible for the sales and use tax exemption, effective June 30, 2020.
Patron: Carrico
Entitlement to certain sales tax revenues; developments of regional impact. Allows an existing development of regional impact to be expanded into an adjoining county that has a portion of Interstate 81 within its boundaries and that has an agreement with the city in which the existing development is located. The expanded area may not exceed 84 acres and must be within three miles of the existing development. The county and city would not be entitled to any sales tax revenues generated by retail establishments operating on July 1, 2015, in the expanded portion of the development.
Patron: Carrico
Short-term rental property tax. Permits localities to impose a short-term rental property tax on bicycles at the rate of $1 per rental or at the rate permitted under current law, which is a rate not to exceed one and one-half percent of the price of the rental.
Patron: Norment
Commissioners of the revenue; production of documents by taxpayer. Authorizes a commissioner of the revenue to require a taxpayer to produce documents related to his tax liability. Current law authorizes a treasurer to summon a taxpayer and require the production of documents, but authorizes a commissioner of the revenue only to summon a taxpayer.
Patron: Stuart
Admissions tax in Stafford County; expiration. Extends the expiration of the admissions tax in Stafford County from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2019.
Patron: Reeves
Tangible personal property tax relief; autocycles. Adds autocycles to those motor vehicles that qualify for tangible personal property tax relief. Beginning in 2016, certain localities would be required to apply tangible personal property tax relief to autocycles used for nonbusiness purposes.
Patron: Reeves
Real estate with delinquent taxes or liens; appointment of special commissioner; City of Fredericksburg. Adds Fredericksburg to the list of cities with heightened requirements for the appointment of a special commissioner to execute the necessary deed to convey property with delinquent taxes or liens to the locality in lieu of a sale at public auction.
Patron: Deeds
Tangible personal property; miscellaneous and incidental property. Declares miscellaneous and incidental property with an original cost of less than $250 as a separate classification of tangible personal property. The bill clarifies that when reporting such property, a taxpayer may provide an aggregate estimate of the total value of such property instead of an itemized list. The bill also authorizes a locality to tax such property at a separate rate of taxation not to exceed the rate imposed on general tangible personal property.
Patron: Wagner
Sales and use tax exemption; bullion. Exempts from sales and use tax legal tender and gold, silver, and platinum bullion. The provisions of the bill exempting gold, silver, and platinum bullion expire July 1, 2020.
Patron: Norment
Entitlement to tax revenues; tourism project of regional impact. Entitles a tourism project of regional significance that meets certain heightened criteria to the revenues generated by a 1.75 percent state sales and use tax on transactions taking place on its premises, to be used for debt service on gap financing for the project. Current law allows certain tourism projects to qualify for revenues generated by a one percent state sales and use tax. A project would be eligible for the increased revenues if it involves new private, capital investment of at least $100 million and supports increased hotel occupancy, job creation, and out-of-state visitors.
Patron: Carrico
Commonwealth Space Flight Fund. Removes the 2016-2017 fiscal year sunset on the $9.5 million transferred from the Transportation Trust Fund to the Commonwealth Space Flight Fund in each fiscal year.
Patron: Carrico
Corporate income tax; commercial spaceflight entities. Continues the transfer to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority of income tax revenue generated by certain companies that is attributable to the sale of commercial human spaceflights or spaceflight training. Under current law, this transfer would take place only through fiscal year 2015.