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2018 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Finance

Co-Chair: Thomas K. Norment, Jr. - Co-Chair: Emmett W. Hanger, Jr.

Clerk: John Garrett
Staff: Lisa Wallmeyer
Date of Meeting: January 24, 2018
Time and Place: 9:00 am Committee Room B Ground Floor Pocahontas Building

S.B. 28

Patron: Stanley

Medical research on dogs and cats; prohibition on use of state funds; civil penalty. Prohibits appropriating or expending state funds for or to any organization, whether public or private, to carry out any medically unnecessary scientific or medical research that causes significant pain or distress to a dog or cat. The bill defines "significant pain or distress" to include any procedure or condition classified under pain and distress category E by the Department of Agriculture. In addition to any other applicable penalty, any person violating the prohibition on expending state funds for such research will be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $50,000 per incident.

S.B. 32

Patron: Stanley

Animal Cruelty Conviction List established. Requires the Superintendent of State Police to establish and maintain by 2020 an Animal Cruelty Conviction List that shall be available to the public on the website of the Department of State Police. The list shall include the names of persons convicted of certain felony animal cruelty offenses on or after July 1, 2018. The bill requires persons convicted of any such offense to pay a fee of $50 per conviction to fund the maintenance of the list. The bill requires the State Police to remove a person from the list 15 years after his information is listed if he has no additional felony conviction of a relevant animal cruelty offense.

S.B. 37

Patron: Stanley

Virginia Grocery Investment Program and Fund. Creates the Virginia Grocery Investment Program and Fund to provide funding for the construction, rehabilitation, equipment upgrades, or expansion of grocery stores, small food retailers, and innovative food retail projects, defined in the bill, in underserved communities.

S.B. 247

Patron: Dance

Industrial hemp research programs. Authorizes the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services to undertake research through the establishment of (i) a higher education industrial hemp research program, to be managed by institutions of higher education, and (ii) a Virginia industrial hemp research program. The bill classifies all participants in any research program as either growers or processors and replaces the current licensing requirement, which requires a police background check, with a registration requirement.

S.B. 265

Patron: Lewis

Secretary of Coastal Protection and Flooding Adaptation. Creates the executive branch position of Secretary of Coastal Protection and Flooding Adaptation (the Secretary). The Secretary shall be responsible for consolidating into a single office the resources for protection against coastal flooding threats and flooding adaptation. The Secretary also shall be the lead in developing and in providing direction and ensuring accountability for a statewide coastal flooding adaptation strategy. The bill requires the Secretary, in cooperation with the Secretary of Natural Resources, to identify sources of funding for implementation of strategies for coastal protection and flooding adaptation.

S.B. 342

Patron: Peake

Compensation of local jails for costs of incarceration. Provides that a jail be compensated for the housing of a convicted felon based on the actual costs of incarceration and that a felon not be moved to a jail until an agreement to pay actual costs has been reached between the Department of Corrections and the locality or regional authority. Current law requires that jails be compensated as provided for in the general appropriation act.

S.B. 374

Patron: Chafin

Cattle Industry Board; assessment from sale of cattle. Renames the Beef Industry Council as the Cattle Industry Board (the Board) and renames the Virginia Beef Industry Fund as the Virginia Cattle Industry Fund (the Fund). The bill simplifies the definition of the term "cattle," reduces the size of the Board from 15 to seven members, and allows the Board to elect officers who are not members of the Board. The bill increases the amount of the assessment from the sale of cattle from $0.25 per head to $1 per head; the assessment continues to be deposited in the Fund to support Board activities. The bill allows producers who are dissatisfied with the assessment and the Board's use of it to receive a refund. Finally, the bill distinguishes the National Beef Checkoff from the assessment-supported Fund.

S.B. 414

Patron: McDougle

Micro Market Act; penalty. Provides for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to issue permits for the operation of a micro market, which is defined in the bill as an unattended, self-checkout retail food establishment located in the interior of a building that is accessible to a defined population, such as the employees of a particular employer or occupants of the building in which the micro market is located, and is not accessible to the general public. The bill establishes minimum standards for the operation of a micro market and provides that any person who operates a micro market without the required permit or violates a condition of such permit is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

S.B. 445

Patron: Wexton

Advisory Board on Philanthropy and Social Innovation. Establishes the Advisory Board on Philanthropy and Social Innovation as an advisory board in the executive branch of state government for the purpose of advising the Governor and Cabinet Secretaries on matters related to the promotion and development of funding partnerships between the Commonwealth and philanthropic foundations. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2021.

S.B. 471

Patron: Reeves

Virginia Public Building Authority; Military Mission Improvement and Expansion projects. Authorizes the Virginia Public Building Authority to finance or assist in the financing of certain activities connected with Military Mission Improvement and Expansion projects (MMIE projects), defined by the bill as a project or projects recommended by the Commission on Military Installations and Defense Activities and approved by the Governor that are designed to improve, expand, develop, or redevelop a federal or state military installation in order to enhance such installation's military value.

S.B. 485

Patron: Cosgrove

Certain property deemed exempt from taxation. Deems certain property owned by the Norfolk Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America to have been exempt from taxation pursuant to the 1902 Constitution of Virginia. The current Constitution provides that property exempt from taxation on the effective date of the constitutional revisions shall continue to be exempt until otherwise provided by the General Assembly.

S.B. 523

Patron: Obenshain

Voter identification; electronic pollbooks to contain photographs of voters. Requires electronic pollbooks to contain 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 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. The bill prohibits lists of voters furnished pursuant to current law from containing any voter's photograph. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2019.

S.B. 571

Patron: DeSteph

Releasing agencies; notice of dangerous animal; civil penalty. Requires a representative of a releasing agency, animal control officer, law-enforcement officer, or humane investigator, upon taking custody of any companion animal from a person in the course of his official duties, to obtain a signed statement from such person indicating whether, if known, the companion animal has bitten a person or other animal and the circumstances and date of such bite. The bill requires any representative of a releasing agency, animal control officer, law-enforcement officer, or humane investigator, upon release of a companion animal for (i) adoption, (ii) return to a rightful owner, or (iii) transfer to another agency, to disclose, if known, that a companion animal has bitten a person or other animal and the circumstances and date of such bite. Willful failure to disclose such information is punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000. The bill makes technical amendments with regard to use of the definition of "releasing agency."

S.B. 693

Patron: Lewis

Virginia Waterway Maintenance Fund; Grant Program. Establishes the Virginia Waterway Maintenance Grant Program and Fund, administered by the Virginia Port Authority (the Authority), to provide grants, from funds transferred to the Fund from Commonwealth Port Fund, to local governing bodies that propose certain dredging projects and related activities. The bill directs the Authority to manage the Grant Program by developing guidelines and procedures for the application process and for the awarding of annual grants.

S.B. 716

Patron: Chase

Department of State Police; recommend options to expedite the process of performing background checks; report. Requests that the Department of State Police (the Department) identify, analyze, and recommend options to expedite and improve the efficiency of its process for performing requested background checks. The bill requires the Department to report its findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services by November 1, 2018.

S.B. 894

Patron: Wagner


Virginia Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund. Creates the Virginia Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund to provide no-interest loans to any locality, school division, or public institution of higher education for energy conservation or efficiency projects, funded by 40 percent of the annual revenue over $325 million of certain state recordation taxes and other funds given to the Fund.

S.B. 902

Patron: Lucas

Property tax exemption for solar energy equipment and facilities. Amends the property tax exemption for solar equipment and facilities owned and operated by a business to apply to (i) certain projects at public and private colleges, (ii) certain projects equaling five megawatts or less, and (iii) 80 percent of the value of all other projects equaling 100 megawatts or less.