The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) held its first meeting of 2026 on May 5 and reviewed its plan of work for the remainder of the year. Planned studies include several items of interest to local governments:
- Virginia’s Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program: This study is being undertaken at JLARC’s direction and will review the program’s administration, to include funding levels and allocations to soil and water conservation districts, and whether projects funded through the program are producing reductions in nonpoint source pollution. (Planned briefing: September 2026)
- Artificial Intelligence: JLARC members directed this study via resolution last year. Commission staff are charged with reviewing the “use, governance, regulation, and oversight of AI in the Commonwealth,” with a focus on its use in state government and the opportunities and risks posed by such use. The study will also examine areas outside of state government that could require state regulation of AI use, and review the effect of data center capacity on the cost and availability of AI. (Planned briefing: October 2026)
- Assisted living and in-home care: JLARC members directed staff to review “the availability and quality of non-medical services and supports available for aging Virginians,” to include assessing the current number of providers by region, estimating current and future service gaps, evaluating the effectiveness of the state’s oversight of the quality of care, and developing options, including a potential Medicaid waiver, to expand the availability of services. (Planned briefing: November 2026)
- Judicial allocation methodology: The General Assembly directed this study, which requires JLARC to review the methodology used to allocate judgeships and court staff, in 2025. JLARC will review previous judicial workload studies conducted by the National Center for State Courts, with a particular focus on how variation across courts affects workload measures. The study resolution requires JLARC to determine whether state funding would be more appropriately allocated if case filing and processing requirements were standardized and if time limits were imposed for certain types of cases. (Planned briefing: December 2026)
- Oversight of managed care organizations: JLARC directed its staff to review the oversight provided by the Department of Medical Assistance Services of the managed care program in Medicaid, to include the Department’s approach to ensuring access to care while preventing overutilization, inefficiency, and fraud, as well as the Department’s financial oversight of the program and approach to rate setting and forecasting of expenditures. (Planned briefing: December 2026)
JLARC staff also conduct ongoing evaluation and oversight of the state’s economic development incentives, the Virginia Retirement System, the Commonwealth Savers Plan, and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, and will provide periodic reports during the year. JLARC also produces an annual report on state spending, which is scheduled to be presented in October; this year, this report will include an analysis of revenue and expenditures between the state and localities.
The Auditor of Public Accounts is scheduled to present an update on the work of her office at JLARC’s June 3 meeting; this presentation traditionally includes an update on local fiscal distress monitoring as well as the compilation of the Comparative Report of Local Government Revenues and Expenditures.
Studies on artificial intelligence in higher education, the possibility of establishing a rural affairs Secretariat, the impact of discretionary parole, and local coastal storm management funding are planned for 2027 and 2028. JLARC’s full workplan for 2026, which includes a schedule of briefings planned for each meeting, is available at this link.
VACo Contact: Katie Boyle