Continue to oppose charter school bill removing local authority
HB 2416 (Davis) allows certain charter schools to appeal to the Virginia Board of Education the denial of an application establishing a charter school by a local school board. HB 2416 was referred to the House Education Committee’s Subcommittee #2, where it was heard on January 25. VACo spoke in opposition to this measure, as […]
Constitutional Amendments advance
The House Privileges and Elections Committee considered several Constitutional amendments on Friday, February 1, reporting three measures to the House floor. Several amendments of interest to local governments have also been passed by the Senate and await consideration in the House. HJ 591 (Cole), a measure VACo supports, would allow the General Assembly to make […]
Troubling procurement legislation fails to advance out of subcommittee
Problematic procurement legislation seeking to change the statute of limitations on actions on construction contracts failed to advance out of subcommittee late on February 1. HB 1667 (Kilgore) attempted to amend the Virginia Public Procurement Act to significantly limit the timeframe during which a public body could bring an action on a construction contract or […]
Workers’ Comp Presumption legislation moving towards JLARC Study
VACo thanked members of the House Appropriations Committee on February 1 for unanimously reporting with enactment clauses two pieces of legislation related to Worker’s Comp Presumptive Illness legislation. As previously reported, legislation concerning worker’s compensation for firefighters SB 1030 (Cosgrove) / HB 1804 (Hugo) adds cancers of the colon, brain, or testes to the existing […]
General Assembly’s shot at alcohol reform one step closer to law
Legislation seeking to reform Virginia’s predominant mixed beverage license law has made it past the halfway mark in this General Assembly Session and is ready for post-crossover consideration. SB 1110 (Reeves) and HB 2634 (Hurst) seek to allow the sale of mixed beverages by licensed restaurants and the sale of alcoholic beverages by the Board […]
School Resource Officer training bill modified to address concerns
SB 1130 (Locke) originally required each school resource officer (SRO) to be trained and certified by the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety, which is not current practice and expanded the topics on which school security officers are required to be trained. VACo expressed concerns that additional training requirements would impose an unfunded mandate […]
Water quality funding and reporting bill finally reaches House floor
HB 1822 (Bulova), which seeks to broaden the applicability of Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF) grants as well as enact new reporting requirements for WQIF and Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF), has finished its journey through a House committee and will be heard this week on the House floor. HB 1822 allows the Director of […]
School modernization legislation update
As previously reported, many localities face significant challenges in raising enough funds to undertake capital school construction or renovation projects. According to a 2013 report, more than 40 percent of Virginia’s public school buildings and facilities were built at least 50 years ago and another 20 percent were constructed at least 40 years ago. The […]
Helpful bill authorizing loans and grants for agricultural best management practices advances to House floor
Delegate Michael Webert’s bill authorizing loans and grants for agricultural best management practices has advanced to the House floor where it’s now expected to pass. HB 2637 (Webert) authorizes the State Water Control Board (Board) to issue loans and grants from the Virginia Water Facilities Revolving Fund for the construction, renovation, improvement, or equipping of […]
Virginia Grocery Investment Fund dead for the year
The Virginia Grocery Investment Fund (VGIF) has effectively been killed for the year, as neither the House nor Senate budget proposals released February 3 included funding for the program. The VGIF sought to solve the growing problem of “food deserts” across the Commonwealth and aimed to provide greater access to fresh, nutritious foods to the […]
Land conservation bill heads to House floor with a fix
HB 2755 (Fariss), which seeks to make it easier to preserve open-space lands, has advanced out of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee and will be heard on the House floor. As introduced, the bill initially sought to eliminate a key provision of Code of Virginia relating to Conservation Easements, striking the entirety […]
Rural stormwater bill passes Senate, heads to House
Senator Emmett Hanger’s rural stormwater bill, SB 1328 (Hanger), unanimously passed the Senate late last week and will now be heard in the House of Delegates. The bill authorizes the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to provide Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF) grants to smaller, rural localities that are not regulated under municipal separate storm […]
Capitol Contact ALERT – Oppose Bill that Adds ‘Weddings’ to Definition of ‘Agritourism Activity’ and Thwarts Local Regulation
VACo opposes HB 2364 (Knight), which adds “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 as “Agritourism Activity” then […]
2019 VACo County Government Day
VACo President Tim Reeves kicked off the 2019 County Government Day by encouraging more than 200 County Officials to “make our presence known by boldly sharing our policy priorities with our state legislators.” County elected officials and staff from all over the Commonwealth convened in Richmond on January 31 to hear Governor Ralph Northam speak […]
Speaker Cox and House Appropriations leadership come out in support of 5 percent teacher salary increase as Virginia teachers march on Richmond
On January 28, House Appropriations Committee Vice-Chairman Steve Landes announced that the House of Delegates budget to be released on Sunday will include a 5 percent pay raise for public school teachers. This follows the Governor’s proposed budget presented in December which included $88 million in additional state funding for a 2 percent raise on […]
Troubling school security bill defeated in subcommittee
A problematic school security bill, HB 2734 (Bourne) that would have resulted in heavy costs to localities, was defeated Monday night. HB 2734 was intended to accomplish three main objectives. First, it directed the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to establish compulsory minimum training standards for law enforcement officers serving as school resource officers […]