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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.
2017 SESSION
Co-Chair: Thomas K. Norment, Jr. - Co-Chair: Emmett W. Hanger, Jr.
Clerk: Patty Lung, Wesley Bland
Staff: Lisa Wallmeyerr
Date of Meeting: February 1, 2017
Time and Place: 9:00 AM Senate Room B
Patron: Chase
Fees for concealed handgun permits. Makes the $10 fee that the clerk of court is now required to charge for processing a concealed handgun permit application or issuing a concealed handgun permit discretionary with the clerk.
Patron: Favola
Food stamp program; categorical eligibility. Requires the State Board of Social Services to establish broad-based categorical eligibility for the food stamp program, exempting families that already qualify for certain public assistance programs from an additional financial eligibility determination for food stamp benefits.
Patron: Sturtevant
Community work in lieu of payment of fines and court costs. Extends to non-jailed defendants a program allowing community service in lieu of payment of fines and court costs.
Patron: Stanley
Department of Social Services; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Scholarship Pilot Program. Directs the Department of Social Services (the Department)to establish and administer a three-year Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Scholarship Pilot Program (the Program) for the purpose of providing access to postsecondary educational opportunities to students living in poverty. The Program would provide prepaid scholarships to select community colleges in the amount of $2,000 per year, to be applied toward the costs of tuition and books, to 50 to 75 selected students who meet TANF eligibility requirements. The Program would be funded by the unexpended balance in federal TANF block grant funds. The bill directs the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services to report to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December 1 of each year regarding the effectiveness of and other information about the Program.
Patron: Chase
Third-party registration groups; registration, disclosure, and recordkeeping requirements; compensation prohibition. Requires any individual or organization that will be distributing and collecting voter registration applications to register as a third-party registration group with the Department of Elections (the Department) prior to engaging in any voter registration activities. The bill requires volunteers and employees of third-party registration groups to register with the Department. The Department is required to issue a unique identification number to each third-party registration group, and each group shall assign its volunteers and employees a separate identification number. The bill requires these identification numbers to be included on voter registration applications collected by the third-party registration group. The bill also requires third-party registration groups to maintain a record containing information about all volunteers and employees engaging in voter registration activities on behalf of the group, each of whom is required to receive training and to maintain a log of his registration activities to be submitted with all completed applications collected. The bill prohibits the compensation of volunteers and employees on a per-application basis.
Patron: Spruill
Virginia Retirement System (VRS); receipt of retirement allowance while employed in a covered position. Permits a person who has attained the age of 62 to receive a retirement allowance from VRS and be employed in a VRS covered position. The years of service and the compensation earned during such employment do not affect the amount of the retirement allowance during or after such employment.
Patron: Edwards
Office of the Children's Ombudsman. Creates the Office of the Children's Ombudsman to provide ombudsman services, including investigation of complaints, advocacy, and information for children, parents, and citizens involved with child-serving agencies, defined in the bill. The bill also provides for the Office of the Governor to conduct a needs assessment with the Department of General Services to provide for office space needs of the Office of the Children's Ombudsman.
Patron: Lucas
Line of Duty Act; death benefit eligibility; Department of Military Affairs employees. Confers eligibility for death benefits under the Line of Duty Act to all employees of the Department of Military Affairs not currently eligible for such benefits whose death is the direct or proximate result of the performance of official duties of the agency when those duties are related to a major disaster or emergency.
Patron: Hanger
Land preservation tax credit; per taxpayer limitation. Extends to taxable year 2017 the $20,000 limit on the amount that a taxpayer may claim per year under the land preservation tax credit. The bill retains the $50,000 limit for each subsequent taxable year.
Patron: Lucas
Community services boards; preadmission screening; regional jail inmates. Provides that the duties of a community services board include providing preadmission screening services to inmates incarcerated in a regional jail where the locality served by the community services board is a participant in such jail. The bill allows for one or more of the community services boards that serve such localities to enter into a joint agreement regarding the provision of such services. In the absence of an agreement, each community services board is responsible for providing services to inmates convicted in the locality served by the community services board.
Patrons: Hanger, Deeds
Community services boards and behavioral health authorities; services to be provided. Provides that the core of services provided by community services boards and behavioral health authorities shall include, effective July 1, 2018, (i) same-day access to mental health screening services and (ii) outpatient primary care screening and monitoring services for physical health indicators and health risks and follow-up services for individuals identified as being in need of assistance with overcoming barriers to accessing primary health services. The bill provides that the core of services provided by community services boards and behavioral health authorities shall additionally include, effective July 1, 2021, crisis services for individuals with mental health or substance use disorders; outpatient mental health and substance abuse services; psychiatric rehabilitation services; peer support and family support services; mental health services for certain members of the armed forces and veterans; care coordination services; and case management services, including targeted mental health case management services. The bill also requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to report annually regarding progress in the implementation of this act.
Patron: Barker
Temporary exemption periods from retail sales and use taxes for qualifying items; sunset dates. Extends from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2022, the sunset dates for the sales tax holiday periods for school supplies and clothing, Energy Star and WaterSense products, and hurricane preparedness products.
Patron: Howell
Historic rehabilitation tax credit. Limits the amount of historic rehabilitation tax credits that may be claimed by each taxpayer to $5 million per year, including any amounts carried over from prior taxable years. The limit is in effect for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2017.
Patron: Howell
Student loan servicers; student loan ombudsman. Prohibits any person from acting as a student loan servicer without first obtaining a license from the State Corporation Commission (SCC) and establishes procedures pertaining to such licenses. Banks and credit unions are exempt from the licensing provisions. The servicing of a student loan encompasses (i) receiving any scheduled periodic payments from a student loan borrower pursuant to the terms of a student education loan; (ii) applying the payments of principal and interest and such other payments with respect to the amounts received from a student loan borrower, as may be required pursuant to the terms of a student education loan; and (iii) performing other administrative services with respect to a student education loan. Student loan servicers are prohibited from, among other things, (a) misrepresenting the amount, nature, or terms of any fee or payment due or claimed to be due on a student loan, the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, or the borrower's obligations under the loan; (b) knowingly misapplying or recklessly applying student loan payments to the outstanding balance of a student loan; and (c) failing to report both the favorable and unfavorable payment history of the borrower to a nationally recognized consumer credit bureau at least annually if the loan servicer regularly reports information to such a credit bureau. The measure also establishes the Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman within the SCC's Bureau of Financial Institutions. The Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman is required to provide timely assistance to any student loan borrower of any student education loan in the Commonwealth. The Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman is further required to establish and maintain a student loan borrower education course, which shall cover key loan terms, documentation requirements, monthly payment obligations, income-based repayment options, loan forgiveness, and disclosure requirements. Violations are subject to a civil penalty not exceeding $2,500. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2019.
Patron: Deeds
State Board of Corrections; membership; powers and duties; inmate death investigations. Requires the State Board of Corrections (Board) to develop and implement policies and procedures for the investigation of the death of any inmate that occurs in any local, regional, or community correctional facility. The bill requires that the State Department of Health and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner assist the Board in developing and implementing these policies and procedures and with any death investigation undertaken by the Board. The bill also specifies requisite qualifications for individuals appointed to the Board.
Patron: Wexton
In utero exposure to a controlled substance. Requires local departments of social services to collect information during a family assessment to determine whether the mother of a child who was exposed in utero to a controlled substance sought substance abuse counseling or treatment prior to the child's birth. The bill requires mandated reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect to make a report if they have reason to believe that a child was exposed in utero to a controlled substance or affected by such exposure. Under current law, mandated reporters are required to report such suspicions only if the controlled substance was not prescribed to the mother by a physician.
Patron: Saslaw
Certain tax credits; elimination of state-level charitable contribution deductions when such credits are claimed. Prohibits a taxpayer from claiming a charitable contribution deduction in calculating Virginia taxable income if a neighborhood assistance tax credit or an education improvement scholarships tax credit is claimed for the same donation. The prohibition is effective for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2017.
Patron: McPike
Department of State Police; development, management, and operation of information technology. Exempts the development, management, and operation of information technology by the Department of State Police from oversight by the Virginia Information Technology Agency.
Patron: Favola
Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare; transitional support services; time limit. Extends from 12 months to 24 months the amount of time a Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare participant whose Temporary Assistance for Needy Families financial assistance has been terminated can receive transitional support services, provided the participant is enrolled in an accredited public institution of higher education or other postsecondary school licensed or certified by the Board of Education or the State Council of Higher Education and is taking courses as part of a curriculum that leads to a postsecondary credential, such as a degree or an industry-recognized credential, certification, or license. The bill provides that such transitional support services shall terminate when the participant completes his curriculum at such institution or school or is otherwise no longer enrolled in such institution or school, or at the end of 24 months, whichever comes first. The bill directs the Board of Social Services to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of the bill.
Patron: Reeves
Providing material support or resources to a designated terrorist organization; exemptions; penalty. Provides that any person who provides material support or resources to an organization that has been designated by the U.S. Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organization is guilty of a Class 3 felony. If such material support results in the death of any person, the penalty is increased to a Class 2 felony. The bill provides an exemption to those persons who provide such material support with the approval of the U.S. Secretary of State and U.S. Attorney General. The bill provides that its provisions do not preclude prosecution under any other statute.
Patron: Hanger
Child day programs; exemptions from licensure. Removes certain programs from the list of child day programs exempt from licensure and clarifies that such programs are not considered child day programs and therefore are not subject to licensure. The bill also modifies the terms of certain child day programs that remain listed as exempt from licensure and requires that such programs (i) file with the Commissioner of Social Services (the Commissioner), prior to beginning operation of a child day program and annually thereafter, a statement indicating the intent to operate a child day program, identifying the Code provision relied upon for exemption from licensure, and certifying that the child day program has disclosed to the parents of children in the program the fact that it is exempt from licensure; (ii) report to the Commissioner all incidents involving serious injury or death to children attending the child day program; (iii) have a person trained and certified in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) present at the child day program; (iv) comply with background check requirements established by regulations of the Board of Social Services (the Board); (v) maintain daily attendance records; (vi) have an emergency preparedness plan in place; (vii) comply with all applicable laws and regulations governing transportation of children; (viii) comply with all safe sleep practices for infants established by regulations of the Board; and (ix) post in a visible location notice that the program is not licensed by the Department of Social Services and only certifies basic health and safety requirements. The bill also modifies staffing ratios for religious-exempt child day centers. The bill directs (a) the Board to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of the bill and (b) the Commissioner to establish a process to inspect child day programs exempt from licensure and a process to gather and track aggregate data regarding child injuries and deaths that occur at such child day programs. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2018.
Patron: Dunnavant
Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts established. Permits the parent of a public preschool, elementary, or secondary school student who meets certain criteria to apply to the school division in which the student resides for a one-year, renewable Parental Choice Education Savings Account that consists of an amount that is equivalent to a certain percentage of all applicable annual Standards of Quality per pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes and apportioned to the resident school division in which the student resides, including the per pupil share of state sales tax funding in basic aid and any state per pupil share of special education funding to which the student is eligible. The bill permits the parent to use the moneys in such account for certain education-related expenses of the student, including tuition, deposits, fees, and required textbooks at a private, sectarian or nonsectarian elementary or secondary school or preschool that is located in the Commonwealth and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The bill also contains provisions relating to auditing, rescinding, and reviewing expenses made from such accounts.
Patron: Obenshain
Voter identification; photograph contained in electronic pollbook; challenge of voter. Grants to the localities the option to include in their electronic pollbooks the photographs of registered voters that are obtained by the general registrars in the production of voter photo identification cards or contained in a voter's Department of Motor Vehicles record. The bill provides that the Department of Elections receives such photographs and is required to make them available, upon request, to the general registrars for download in accordance with the procedures set by the State Board of Elections. The bill prohibits lists of voters furnished pursuant to current law from containing any voter's photograph. The bill also provides that if the electronic pollbook contains the voter's photograph, the officer of election is required to access that photograph and the voter is not required to present one of the statutorily required forms of identification. However, the bill requires the officer of election to challenge the voter's vote if the voter does not appear to be the same person depicted in the photograph or in the pollbook. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2018.
Patron: McDougle
Discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints; possession of child pornography. Raises the midpoint of the recommended sentencing range for possession of child pornography by (i) 100 percent in cases in which the defendant has no previous conviction of a violent felony offense; (ii) 200 percent in cases in which the defendant has previously been convicted of a violent felony offense punishable by a maximum punishment of less than 40 years; and (iii) 400 percent in cases in which the defendant has previously been convicted of a violent felony offense punishable by a maximum punishment of 40 years or more. The bill also requires a court that imposes a sentence that is less than the midpoint of the sentencing guidelines to review all child pornography possessed by the defendant.
Patron: Obenshain
Restitution; supervised probation. Provides that for any offense that occurs on or after July 1, 2017, if restitution is ordered at the time of sentencing, the court shall place the defendant on an indefinite term of supervised probation until all ordered restitution is paid in full; however, the term of supervised probation shall not exceed the period of a suspended sentence fixed by the court, or if no period of suspension was fixed, then the term of supervised probation shall not exceed the maximum period for which the defendant might originally have been sentenced. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia State Crime Commission.
Patron: Obenshain
Land preservation tax credits; withholding tax of nonresident owners. Allows a pass-through entity to claim a land preservation tax credit against the taxes withheld on the Virginia source income of a nonresident owner of the entity. The use of such credit against the withholding tax by the pass-through entity would not be subject to the two percent transfer fee.
Patron: McDougle
Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Authority. Changes the effective date for the creation of the ABC Authority from July 1, 2018, to January 15, 2018. The bill creates a transition period from January 15, 2018, until December 31, 2018, during which time the current Department will coexist with the ABC Authority to facilitate an orderly and efficient transition and to ensure the continuation of operations during the transition. The bill provides that during the transition period the current ABC Board will be the Board of Directors of the ABC Authority. The bill grants to the ABC Authority the authority to implement and maintain independent payroll and nonpayroll disbursement systems, which are subject to review and approval by the State Comptroller and which include travel reimbursements, revenue refunds, disbursements for vendor payments, petty cash, and interagency payments. The bill also (i) streamlines the suspension and revocation process to encourage settlement of cases before reaching the appeal level to the Board of Directors, (ii) exempts the Authority from mandatory procurement provisions, and (iii) authorizes the Board of Directors to delegate or assign to any officer or employee of the Authority any duties or tasks required to be performed by the Authority, but provides that the Board remains responsible for the performance of any such duties or tasks. The bill contains numerous technical amendments.
Patron: Carrico
Enterprise zone grants and tax credits; qualified real property improvement expenditures. Provides that an expenditure for an improvement to real property may qualify for a grant or tax credit regardless of whether it is capitalized or deducted as a business expense under federal Treasury Regulations.
Patron: DeSteph
Higher education; members of governing boards; duties. Provides that the primary duty of any member of a governing board of a public institution of higher education is to the Commonwealth. The bill requires that the educational programs for the governing boards of public institutions of higher education, developed by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, shall include presentations on such primary duty.
Patron: Carrico
Food donation tax credit. Allows restaurants that donate prepared food or meals to a nonprofit food bank to claim the food donation tax credit. Under current law, only farmers that donate food crops to a nonprofit food bank are eligible for the credit. Current law allows a maximum of $5,000 in credits to be issued per taxpayer per year and an aggregate maximum of $250,000 in credits to be issued by the Tax Commissioner per fiscal year.
Patron: DeSteph
Alcoholic beverage control; new license for certain commercial lifestyle centers. Defines "commercial lifestyle center" and creates a new nonretail license for commercial lifestyle centers. The bill sets out the privileges of the license and imposes a $300 annual state tax and a $60 annual local tax on the license. The bill contains technical amendments.
Patron: Suetterlein
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 maternity leave. The Department of Human Resource Management is directed to develop guidelines and policies for implementing the adoption leave benefit.
Patron: Newman
Investment of Public Funds Act; investment of funds in the Virginia Investment Pool Trust Fund. Authorizes public officers, municipal corporations, and other political subdivisions to invest any or all of the moneys belonging to them or within their control, other than sinking funds, in the Virginia Investment Pool Trust Fund administered by the Virginia Local Government Finance Corporation, provided that such investments comply with the requirements of the Investment of Public Funds Act (§ 2.2-4500 et seq.) applicable to municipal corporations and other political subdivisions.
Patron: Black
Concealed handgun permits. Allows any person who is otherwise eligible to obtain a concealed handgun permit to carry a concealed handgun without a permit anywhere he may lawfully carry a handgun openly within the Commonwealth.
Patron: Sturtevant
Expiration of certain tax credits. Adds a sunset date of January 1, 2022, to all existing tax credits that do not currently have a sunset date.
Patron: Obenshain
Income-producing realty; income data. Authorizes the owner of certain income-producing realty to submit documents other than statements of income and expenses to a real estate assessor, board of assessors, or department of real estate assessments for purposes of valuation of the property. The bill specifies that such other documents include appraisals, tax returns that demonstrate the income generated by the property, or other documents relevant to the valuation of the property.
Patron: Saslaw
Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program; eligibility; renewal; amount of grants. Changes the student eligibility criteria for Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program grants by removing the requirement that the recipient be a dependent and by requiring the recipient to be enrolled full time. The bill places the following conditions on renewal of Program grants: (i) no recipient shall receive a subsequent grant until he has satisfied the requirements to advance to the next class level, as defined in the bill; (ii) no recipient shall receive more than one year of support per class level for a maximum total of two years of support at an associate-degree-granting public institution of higher education or more than one year of support per class level for a maximum total of four years of support at a baccalaureate public institution of higher education; and (iii) no recipient shall receive more than a combined lifetime total of four years of support. The bill permits public institutions of higher education to use Program funds to provide larger awards to students in a higher class level or to students who enroll in 15 or more credit hours per semester. The provisions of the bill become effective beginning with the first-time entering freshman class of the fall 2018 academic year.
Patron: Norment
County food and beverage tax; York County. Authorizes York County to impose a food and beverage tax at a rate of up to eight percent. The Board of Supervisors would be required to hold a public hearing and adopt an ordinance implementing the tax by a unanimous vote, but would not be required to hold a referendum.
Patron: Vogel
Individual income tax credit; return of budget surplus. Requires several actions relating to Virginia taxable income if a general fund surplus is recorded in a fiscal year.
First, the bill establishes a refundable individual income tax credit that is a portion of the general fund surplus for the corresponding fiscal year. If $50 million or more in general fund surplus remains after assignments of the surplus for the Revenue Stabilization Fund, the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund, the Transportation Trust Fund, and other mandatory assignments, then a refundable income tax credit would be allowed for the corresponding taxable year equal to the remaining surplus divided by the number of individual income tax returns filed for the most recent taxable year. If less than $50 million in general fund surplus remains after such mandatory assignments, no tax credit would be available and the remaining surplus would be assigned by the Comptroller for nonrecurring expenditures. The credit could be claimed only by those individuals who were required under Virginia law to file an individual income tax return and filed such return.
Second, if actual general fund revenues exceed the official general fund forecast by at least $500 million in a fiscal year, the income tax rate for Virginia taxable income in excess of $17,000 shall be lowered by one-quarter of one percent for the subsequent taxable year, until all income in excess of $5,000 is taxed at a rate of five percent.
Finally, if actual general fund revenues exceed the official general fund forecast by at least $50 million in a fiscal year, the corporate income tax rate shall be lowered by one percent for the subsequent taxable year.
Patron: Newman
Closure of the Central Virginia Training Center prohibited. Provides that the Central Virginia Training Center shall not be closed and shall remain open until July 1, 2029 and continue to accept new admissions of individuals with intellectual disability for whom treatment in a training center is appropriate.
Patron: Dunnavant
Medicaid Supplemental Rate Fund. Creates the Medicaid Supplemental Rate Fund (the Fund) as a subfund of the Virginia Health Care Fund. Moneys in the Fund will be used to raise base Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospitals and health care providers in the Commonwealth. The bill will require nonprofit hospitals with over $300 million in annual revenues to pay state and local sales and use taxes, and such sales tax revenues will be deposited into the Fund. Nonprofit hospitals are currently exempt from paying state and local sales and use tax.
Patron: Wagner
Public institutions of higher education; tuition increases. Prohibits any percentage increase in in-state tuition or instructional fees for undergraduate students at Virginia's public institutions of higher education that exceeds the state-mandated salary percentage increase for state employees of the immediately preceding year.
Patron: Hanger
Tax credits for worker retraining and telework expenses. Extends from taxable years prior to January 1, 2018, to taxable years prior to January 1, 2022, the sunset date for the worker retraining tax credit and from taxable years prior to January 1, 2017, to taxable years prior to January 1, 2022, the sunset date for the telework expenses tax credit.
Patron: Carrico
Economic Development Access Program; bonded projects. Imposes a 36-month moratorium on the repayment of funds allocated to a locality for a bonded project pursuant to the Economic Development Access Program.