Author: Gage Harter

Bill to Address Impacts to Farm and Forest Land Due to Large Scale Solar Projects Passes House

HB 206 (Webert), if adopted, would require the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to include an analysis of impacts to prime agricultural soils and forestlands when reviewing applications for utility-scale solar installations under its Permit-by-Rule (PBR) process. The bill passed the House of Delegates 67-32 and will likely be heard in Senate Agriculture, Conservation and […]

Bills to Improve Collection of Taxes for Short-Term Rentals Moving Forward

HB 518 (Head) and SB 651 (Vogel) revisit and refine legislation from 2021 that required that taxes due on a sale of transient accommodation be calculated based on the total charges paid by the customer, including any accommodations fee charged by an accommodations intermediary.  HB 518 and SB 651 make clear that the room charge […]

Legislation Impacting Collective Bargaining Defeated

On February 21, three bills engrossed by the House of Delegates that would impact the ability of local governments to enter in collective bargaining agreements with union or employee representatives were passed by indefinitely in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on votes of 12-3. As previously reported, enacted legislation from the 2020 session permits […]

Money Committees Report Budgets

The House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees met on Sunday, February 20, and reported their respective amendments to the introduced budget.  Preliminary information on the proposed amendments was made available to the public on Sunday, with the actual text of budget amendments to be unveiled on Tuesday, February 22.  The full House and […]

The Status of School Construction Legislation Post Crossover

Numerous bills have been filed seeking to address the issue of School Construction and Modernization, and on the whole, most have passed the Senate while only one bill has made it through the House of Delegates. In 2021, the Commission on School Construction and Modernization examined the state of K-12 school infrastructure across the Commonwealth. […]

Update on Jail Bills

Two bills that would have provided additional state support to jails for the care of state-responsible inmates failed to survive hearings in the money committees prior to crossover.  HB 989 (Runion) would have required the Department of Corrections to compensate local jails for housing state-responsible offenders at a tiered rate that would increase with the […]

Bill Expanding Farm Building Exemption from Building Code Passes Senate

SB 400 (Hanger), in its current form, would greatly expand the farm building code exemption to include existing, as well as new buildings, that are primarily used to host events. Specifically, the legislation defines an “agritourism event building” to mean  … a building or structure located on property where farming operations or agritourism takes place, […]

VACo Supports Helpful FOIA, Public Notice and Conflict of Interests Bills

FOIA HB 444 (Bennett-Parker) FOIA; meetings conducted by electronic communication means; situations other than declared states of emergency. Sets out the parameters for public bodies to hold electronic meetings outside of the state of emergency when following the rules written in the bill.  VACo, VML, the Press Association and the Coalition for Open Government worked with the […]

Grocery Tax Bills Move Forward in Different Forms

On Thursday evening, February 10, the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee advanced a new substitute for SB 451 (Boysko)., which passed the Senate today by a vote of 37-3. The key provisions of the bill as reported by the Committee are as follows: It would eliminate the 1.5 percent state portion of the sales and […]

Bill Requiring Increased Retirement Contribution for Deputy Sheriffs Passes Senate

SB 507 (Lewis) as originally introduced would have required local governments prospectively electing enhanced retirement benefits to use the 1.85 percent multiplier for determining the annual retirement allowance for local law enforcement officers receiving benefits similar to those provided to State Police officers. Currently, local governments may elect to provide a 1.7 percent multiplier in […]

Local Flexibility in Marcus Alert Implementation Advances in Different Versions

Two companion bills, HB 1191 (Ransone) and SB 361 (Stuart), are moving forward, although the bills are in different postures after action by the House Public Safety Committee and the full Senate, respectively. As introduced, both bills would have made implementation of the Marcus Alert system an option for all localities.  Under current law, every […]

Recordation Tax Distribution and Other Legislation Impacting Transportation Funding

As the General Assembly races towards crossover and the release of the House and Senate versions of the biennial budget, legislation seeking to roll back the 2020 reforms to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund is meeting mixed fates. HB 978 (Durant) would reestablish the distribution of $20 million of state recordation tax revenue to counties and […]

Update on Legislation Seeking to Reduce Law Enforcement Involvement in Mental Health Transports

A series of bills were introduced this session that intend to relieve the pressure on law enforcement associated with the emergency custody order and temporary detention order process by allowing for additional usage of alternative transportation and alternative custody arrangements.  As the legislature approaches crossover, three Senate bills are on the way to the House. […]

K-12 Staff Salary Bills Tabled for the Year

Two bills that would impact the compensation of K-12 staff positions have been defeated in each body of the legislature. SB 157 (Hashmi) expands on code language added in 2020 that it is the goal of the Commonwealth that public school teachers be compensated at a rate that is competitive in order to attract and […]