School counselor staffing ratio reduction bills
One of the primary recommendations of the House Select Committee on School Safety and the Governor’s Student Safety Workgroup was to reduce the ratio of counselors to students in Virginia K-12 schools. The Virginia Board of Education and the American School Counseling Association recommend a ratio of 1 counselor for every 250 students. The Governor […]
Industrial hemp bills have the House and Senate seeing green
Two bills removing significant barriers to industrial hemp have passed their respective chambers and will continue to make their way through the General Assembly as the session enters its second phase. SB 1692 (Ruff) and HB 1839 (Marshall) seek to conform Virginia law to the 2019 federal Farm Bill, which lifted restrictions on the cultivation […]
Early childhood education legislation update
One area of focus for Governor Ralph Northam’s Children’s Cabinet is early childhood development and school readiness. Early childhood care and education programs like Head Start are currently administered across multiple agencies. Over the summer, Jenna Conway joined the Department of Education as Chief School Readiness Officer in an effort to unify and improve Virginia’s […]
Class size limit bill left in Appropriations
HB 2646 (Hugo) reduces from 29 to 28 the maximum class in kindergarten, from 30 to 28 the maximum class size in grades one, two, and three; and from 35 to 29 the maximum class size in grades four, five, and six. Although not opposed to the intent of the bill, VACo expressed concerns regarding […]
VACo Premier Partner Spotlight Podcast – The Berkley Group
LINK TO THE BERKLEY GROUP PODCAST Host Dean Lynch speaks with The Berkley Group’s Darren Coffey, CEO, and Drew Williams, COO, about the firm’s array of services for Counties. Lynch also talks with Executive Manager Kimball Payne and Executive Manager Jay Stegmaier about the Executive Transition Assistance Program and how it can help Counties with […]
Visit Patrick County and Fairy Stone State Park
Home of the lucky fairy stones, Fairy Stone State Park is well known for its 168-acre lake adjoining Philpott Reservoir just minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The park offers cabins, a campground, group camping, a conference center, a lodge that sleeps 16, numerous trails, beach swimming, rowboats, canoes, paddle boats, hydro-bikes, picnicking and two […]
Get to know VACo Associate Member Clark Nexsen
Clark Nexsen – As an innovative architecture and engineering firm, Clark Nexsen has partnered with municipalities throughout the state of Virginia to deliver design solutions that are cost conscious and improve local service. Our portfolio includes a diverse range of projects; from iconic facilities such as the Virginia Beach Convention Center to smaller scale improvements […]
House Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance Committee report budgets
On February 3, the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance Committee met to report their respective budget proposals. VACo is reviewing the subcommittee reports, which provide an overview of the Committees’ priorities. Both Committees made significant changes to the introduced budget, many of which are attributable to decisions to depart from the Governor’s approach to […]
Problematic machinery and tools legislation fails
HB 2640 (Byron) failed to advance to its third reading on the House floor on February 4, which means that the legislation is no longer under consideration this session. VACo is grateful to its many members who communicated with their legislators about the concerns raised by this bill, which would have changed a well-established method […]
Bill that would have added weddings to definition of “Agritourism Activity” voted down
VACo opposed the problematic HB 2364 (Knight), which would have added “weddings” to the definition of “Agritourism Activity” under Code of Virginia § 3.2-6400. This is the section of the Virginia Code that limits the liability of agritourism operators for the risks of agritourism activities. More importantly for localities is the fact that anything defined […]
Local government renewable energy bills survive crossover
Delegate Kathy Tran’s and Senator Adam Ebbin’s local government renewable energy bills have each survived the General Assembly’s halfway point and will now be taken up in the opposite chambers. HB 2792 (Tran) and SB 1779 (Ebbin) establish a six-year pilot program that allows a locality to use excess energy generated by a renewable energy […]
Proposals to fund I-81 improvements come to a halt
In 2018, the General Assembly required the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) to prepare a plan that identified options for financing more than $2 billion in improvements to end severe bottlenecks along this heavily travelled corridor. Various bills to establish new revenue sources on I-81, through either tolls or tax increases, were modified in each chamber […]
Bill making harmful changes to local government grievance procedure left in subcommittee
HB 2736 (Hugo) proposes some major changes to the local grievance procedure, including requiring that the final step of the procedure be agreed upon by the aggrieved employee, doing away with any existing impartial hearing panels and eliminating the provision for determining if the decision is in conformance with local policy. HB 2736 was docketed […]
Helpful water quality and funding bill unanimously passes House
Legislation introduced by Delegate David Bulova seeking to make several tweaks to the Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF) and the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF) has unanimously passed the House. HB 1822 (Bulova) broadens the applicability of WQIF grants as well as enacts new reporting requirements for WQIF and SLAF needs. More specifically, the bill […]
House version of Local Stormwater Management Fund passes full chamber
HB 1614 (Cole), which seeks to give localities greater flexibility in addressing stormwater management needs, passed the House of Delegates today and will now head to the Senate for consideration. If signed into law, HB 1614 would authorize any locality to provide by ordinance the creation of a Local Stormwater Management Fund for providing grants […]
Charter school bill removing local authority defeated on House floor
On February 5, HB 2416 (Davis), which allows certain charter schools to appeal the denial of an application establish a charter school by a local school board to the Virginia Board of Education, was defeated on the House of Delegates floor on a vote of 62-37. VACo has opposed this bill throughout its legislative journey, […]