eNews January 14, 2022
Friday, January 14, 2022 - 05:13pm
This issue sponsored by:
Dominion Energy operates in 20 states across the U.S., offering clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy to more than 7 million customers. Headquartered in Richmond, VA, we invest in the communities where we live and work, and strive to protect our natural resources while delivering safe, reliable energy to our customers.
In this issue
- Register now for Local Government Day happening February 3rd in Richmond
- VML now accepting entries for the 2022 “If I Were Mayor” essay contest for 7th graders
General Assembly
General Assembly begins 2022 session
Here we go!
The General Assembly began its session on Wednesday, January 12.
In the House, this was a day of change as the House of Delegates elected a new Speaker – Todd Gilbert, who has represented the 15th District since 20015 (Page and Shenandoah Counties and parts of Rockingham and Warren Counties) and served as Republican leader in the House since 2018. He took over from Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn as the House has flipped from a Democratic to Republican majority (52 Republicans to 48 Democrats).
In the Senate, the membership remained the same because members were not up for election in 2021. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax presided over the Senate floor session for a final week. A new Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Sears, is waiting in the wings to take over after inauguration. Sears is the first woman to hold this office in Virginia. She won election in November as part of a Republican sweep of statewide offices. Sears is a former member of the House of Delegates (2002-2004) and former member of the Board of Education.
On Wednesday evening, out-going Governor Ralph Northam gave his final address to the General Assembly. On Saturday, Jan. 15, Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin will be inaugurated, taking office alongside Lieutenant Governor Sears and Attorney General Jason Miyares, another former member of the House of Delegates.
The newly inaugurated Governor Youngkin will address the General Assembly on Monday, Jan. 17, at 4:00 p.m. – a change in time from past gubernatorial addresses to the Assembly.
General Assembly information
This year’s session is a long session during which a new biennial budget (2022-2024) will be adopted and changes will be made to the current budget that expires June 30, 2022.
Here are some links to legislative websites:
General Assembly Legislative Information System (LIS) – Track all legislation and the budgets as they progress through the process and all committee meetings. You can also access and search the Code of Virginia and Administrative Code through this website.
General Assembly Home Page – Find out information about members of the General Assembly, get to floor session and committee video feeds, and find out more about legislative agencies and information.
House Standing Committees – Lists each committee, meeting days and times, and members. A streaming page allows you to link to current and archived committee meetings and floor sessions.
Senate Standing Committees – Find links to Senate committees and committee meeting live streaming as well as to the leadership and the Clerk’s office. Senate Committee members and meetings – you can find a complete listing of meeting times/days and members in this link.
VML Contact: Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org
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VML and partners developing 2022 budget amendments
VML teamed with its local government partners and local associations on several budget amendments, including increased state funding to local law enforcement (the HB 599 program); jail per diems (to increase the state funding rate, which has stayed the same since 2010); transportation; and a number of education-related amendments.
Once the amendments are officially posted, we will provide you with the item numbers so you can weigh-in with your legislators to support the amendments.
VML Contact: Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org
Finance
Tax cutting zeal should be tempered by an appreciation of local budgets
They’re baaack! The General Assembly has returned to town, and they came bearing gifts. Indeed, it hasn’t even been a full week and already some bills with fiscal impacts to localities have caught our attention.
HB380 (Freitas) – Would repeal the authority currently enjoyed by local governments to levy fees or taxes on licenses. Local governments use this authority to collect revenue from business licenses, motor vehicle licenses, and franchise licenses, to name a few. The elimination of this license revenue would mean a reduction of more than $916 million every year to Virginia’s local governments.
2022 may be shaping up as a year for tax relief, but legislators need to be deliberate and judicious. It is unquestionable that Virginia’s cities, counties, and towns cannot function effectively if they are forced to remove nearly a billion dollars annually from their local budgets.
HB119 (March) – Would prohibit local governments, the state government, and all other public bodies in Virginia, from engaging in any commercial activity that could be otherwise performed by an existing private business.
There are myriad issues with this legislation. Would this mean a privatized police force? Perhaps our health inspectors and firefighters can be owned by stockholders in faraway lands? And that’s just for starters.
The Virginia Municipal League will continue to monitor and educate our members and legislators about the potential impact of legislation like those outlined above being considered in the 2022 Session. Given the increased enthusiasm for tax relief this year, we at VML expect many opportunities to help Senators and Delegates appreciate the fiscal impact to local government budgets of any tax cutting proposals made by the state.
Stay tuned!
VML Contact: Carter Hutchinson, chutchinson@vml.org
Health & Human Services
Health and Human Services bills of interest to localities
Bills are steadily dropping in. There has been a delay with House bill assignment to committees because the Speaker makes those assignments and things were paused until the new Speaker took over that position. Not so in the Senate, where the clerk makes bill assignments.
Of interest so far are the following bills:
HB427 (Herring) / SB435 (Barker) – Related to parent representatives on community and policy management teams and family assessment and planning teams/multi-disciplinary teams for the Children’s Services Act (CSA).
HB427 has not been assigned to a committee but is likely to go to Health, Welfare, and Institutions. SB435 has been referred to Rehabilitation and Social Services.
VML has concerns that the proposed language would restrict candidates to serve as parent representatives on these local teams. And while it could increase the pool of candidates by eliminating current language that restricts participation by parents working for programs that receive CSA funds and who either work directly with children on a daily basis or supervise employees who do so, that could potentially create additional conflicts of interest on local teams.
SB361 (Stuart) – Related to the Marcus Alert System. This bill has been referred to Senate Education and Health. It would roll back some of the requirements of the current law to make them local or regional options. This includes the creation of local voluntary databases for 911/Marcus alert system to provide mental health information or contact information for appropriate response to an emergency or crisis regarding an individual and making it an option for a locality to participate in the Marcus alert system. VML does not have a position on this bill.
VML Contact: Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org
Education
Senate Public Education subcommittee considers funding bill
The Senate Education and Health Committee held its first meeting this week. The committee is chaired  by Senator Louise Lucas (18th senatorial district). Procedures for the committee were announced, including that public comment would be only accepted in subcommittees or written form only – that is, no testimony allowed before the full committee. As such, individuals who wish to comment on legislation being considered by the full committee should do so via written comment or by calling their legislator directly.
Written comments can be submitted by finding the committee on the 2022 Meetings list and selecting the “Provide Comment” link.
At its first meeting this week, the Senate Education and Health Committee Public Education Subcommittee considered SB276 (Stanley) which would allow school boards with a surplus of funds of at the end of the school year to keep the money to be used solely to finance capital projects based on a recommendation for the Commission on School Construction and Modernization. This would mean unused funds from school divisions would no longer be given back to local governments.
As drafted, the language in this bill was problematic because 1) localities in certain regions currently have this system already in place, 2) this would remove local authority and control, and 3) by removing local control, local government would not have the ability to respond to a crisis, economic downturn, natural disasters, or other extraneous circumstances.
VML and VACo worked on a language amendment to make this permissive via resolution, not a mandate. This new language was accepted by Senator Stanley as well as the Public Education Subcommittee.
VML will closely follow this issue throughout the 2022 General Assembly Session.
While SB276 was amended, HB251Â (Simonds)and SB481 (McClellan) currently have similar issues. VML will be working with Delegate Simonds and Senator McClellan to address the issues with their legislation in the coming days.
VML Contact: Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org
Transportation
Transportation bills of interest to localities
SB281 (Ebbin) – Would fix a procurement issue that exists in the Code of Virginia that is at odds with Federal regulations and has prevented and obstructed the procurement of public transit vehicles by the state on behalf of public transit agencies for the past year. VML supports this bill and urges members to support this legislation.
SB320 (Vogel) – Authorizes “mini-trucks” to operate on any highway with a speed limit of 55 mph or less. “Mini truck” is defined as a 4-wheel vehicle with a motor of 660 cc or less or 7,500 watts or less which does not meet federal motor vehicle safety standards.
SB334 (Bell) – Expands local authority to establish photo speed monitoring devices anywhere in a locality and provides increased authority to use photo speed monitoring devices in towns that do not have police departments.
SB333 (Bell) – Expands local authority to lower speed limits below 25 mph on any road.
SB541 (Peake) / HB1144 (Webert) – Reduces the tax on motor fuels by 6 cents per gallon of gasoline and 7 cents per gallon on diesel fuel from 7/1/2022 – 7/1/2023 and serve to delay until 7/1/2024 the indexing of motor fuels taxes to inflation. Preliminary estimates show an impact of approximately a $240 million reduction in transportation funding for each year the rate is reduced.
HB297 (McNamara) – Eliminates all regional motor fuels taxes for one year between 7/1/2022 and 7/1/2023.
VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org
Environment
Environmental Quality bills of interest to localities
SB250 (Surrovell) – Increases the cost of solid waste fees for landfills from $0.115 per ton to $12,000 or $0.30 per ton, whichever is greater and creates new fees for surface impoundments with a permit of $12,000 and active captive landfills of $32,000 and increases fees for composting, regulated medical waste, materials recovery, transfer stations, and facilities in post-closure care by $1,500 – $6,500 and ties permit fees to inflation.
SB250 closely mirrors the recommendations advanced by the Nonhazardous Solid Waste Fee Study Working Group which was convened at the request of the General Assembly to gather stakeholders to determine whether and how nonhazardous solid waste fees should be adjusted. A copy of the report can be found here >.
HB479 (Bulova) – Wetland and stream mitigation credits; dam removal credits. Provides DEQ the authority to allow applicants for permits with stream mitigation requirements to satisfy all or part of the requirements through dam removal credits generated in the same or adjacent stream or watershed basin. A dam removal credit is defined in the bill as a credit generated through the removal of a significant obstruction, which is also defined in the bill. The bill includes certain requirements with which the applicant must comply in order to use dam removal credits from an adjacent river watershed.
HB919 (Orrock) – Board of Health; regulations; maximum contaminant levels in water supplies and waterworks; effective date. Provides that the regulations that the Board of Health is required to adopt under current law establishing maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) in all water supplies and waterworks in the Commonwealth for (i) perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctane sulfonate, and such other perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances as the Board deems necessary, (ii) chromium-6, and (iii) 1,4-dioxane shall become effective on or after July 1, 2025.
HB1011 (Guzman) – Commissioner of Health; study of the occurrence of PFOA, PFOS, PFBA, PFHpA, PFHxS, PFNA, and other PFAS in the Commonwealth’s public drinking water; report. Directs the Commissioner of Health to convene a work group to study the occurrence of PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS, PFBA, PFHpA, PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, PFHxA, PFPeA, and PFBS, in drinking water in the Commonwealth. The work group shall report its findings and recommendations by December 1, 2023.
HB148 (Runion) – Certified pollution control equipment; certification by subdivisions. Provides that for pollution control equipment to be used as part of a political subdivision’s water, wastewater, stormwater, or solid waste management facilities or systems, such equipment may be certified by the political subdivision itself instead of by the state certifying authority.
HB520 (Bulova) – Comprehensive plan; climate resilience. Requires a locality’s comprehensive plan to consider strategies to address climate resilience in order to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and adapt to changing conditions.
HB899 (Lopez) – Aboveground storage tanks; Hazardous Substance Aboveground Storage Tank Fund; civil penalties. Directs SWCB to regulate aboveground storage tanks that measure more than 250 gallons in capacity and are used to contain hazardous substances other than oil. The bill directs the Board to adopt regulations that establish requirements for registration, and other requirements of tank owners, and that establish a schedule of registration and renewal fees. The bill authorizes the Board to undertake corrective action in the event of a discharge of a hazardous substance. The bill requires tank owners notify certain parties in the event of a release of a regulated substance.
VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org
Cannabis legalization bills of interest to localities
SB391 (Ebbin) / HB430 (Herring) – Establishes the framework, rules, regulations and requirements for the establishment of a recreational marijuana market in Virginia and satisfies the re-enactment requirements of the bill passed in 2021.
HB41 (Ware) Requires a referendum be held by any locality that wishes to allow the operation of retail recreational marijuana stores.
VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org
VML News
Register now for Local Government Day 
happening February 3rd in Richmond
VML, VACo and VAPDC will host the 2022 Local Government Day starting on Thursday, February 3rd at the Omni Hotel in Richmond. As in years past, this event will allow local government officials and staff to learn about the important issues being considered by their legislators and to advocate at the 2022 General Assembly Session.
Check-in begins at 11:00 AM with lunch available beginning at 11:30 AM. The afternoon will include briefings from staff and an opportunity to visit the Capitol to meet with legislators. The day will conclude with a reception at the Omni beginning at 5:30 PM.
Registration and additional details, including hotel reservation information, can be found here >.
VML Contact: Rob Bullington, rbullington@vml.org
VML now accepting entries for the 2022 “If I 
Were Mayor” essay contest for 7th graders
The Virginia Municipal League (VML) invites all eligible Virginia 7th Graders to join its “If I were Mayor” essay contest.
Regional winners selected from around the state will each receive a $150 gift card and a plaque. One statewide winner chosen from the regional winners will receive a $250 gift card and a plaque. The runner-up from the region that receives the statewide award will become that region’s winner.
Winning essays will be featured in the May issue of VML’s magazine Virginia Town & City.
VML Contact: Rob Bullington, rbullington@vml.org
