Legislative Bulletin January 13, 2023
Friday, January 13, 2023 - 05:35pm
In this issue:
- The 2023 General Assembly is in session!
- VML and partners work on 2023 budget amendments
- Target reserve for school capital improvement plans reported from subcommittee
- Tax legislation update
- Charter bills and emergency medical services bills heard in subcommittee
- Local enforcement of Landlord and Tenant Act bill clears subcommittee
- Senate General Laws Committee hears bills related to fire marshals and public notices
- Legislation introduced to limit local control of firearms in public buildings
- Bills that deal with presumptions for public safety employees
- Constitutional amendments that would affect local governments
- Senate bills dealing with the removal of appointed and elected officers
- Natural resources and energy bills in play
- Transportation legislation rolls out
- Marijuana legislation introduced this week
The 2023 General Assembly is in session!
The General Assembly convened its 2023 Session on Wednesday, Jan. 11. This year’s session is a “short” session (46 days versus 60 days for the long session) and is a budget amendment year, since the General Assembly adopted a two-year budget in 2022 that began July 1, 2022, and will run through June 30, 2024.
Useful legislative resources
Legislation and Schedules:
- General Assembly Information System – 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 information about members of the General Assembly, get to floor session and committee video feeds, and find out more about legislative agencies and information.
The House of Delegates:
- Two new members of House were elected during special elections on Jan. 10. Here is the updated listing of House members.
- You can find the House committee meeting schedule here.
- A streaming pageallows you to link to current and archived committee meetings and floor sessions.
The Senate:
- The Senate is gaining a new member; however, the results have not been confirmed by the Board of Elections so the current Senate listing does not yet reflect the new Senator.
- You can find the Senate committee meeting schedule here.
VML Contact: Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org.
VML and partners work on 2023 budget amendments
VML once again teamed up with local government partners and associations on several budget amendments, including:
- An increase in jail per diems for local-responsible inmates (the General Assembly increased state-responsible per diems in 2022 but did not address local-responsible).
- Funding to local law enforcement (the HB 599 program – the Governor’s budget did not increase funding for this program).
- A language amendment on the K-12 Compensation Supplement from the 2022 General Assembly Session removing the minimum threshold required for local divisions to access state funding for K-12 salary increases.
- Restoration of state funding for K-12 support positions that were “temporarily” capped in 2008.
- A language amendment relating to the eligibility of the School Construction Grant Program to allow projects begun during the biennium to be eligible for the grant program; evaluation of the LCI at least every year, and inclusion of debt service costs.
- $50 million for Stormwater Local Assistance Funding.
- Increase in reimbursement local registrars’ offices would receive for costs associated with the 2024 President primaries. The amount included in the Governor’s introduced budget did not reflect inflation or an increase of registered voters.
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 Contacts: Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org; Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org; Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org
Target reserve for school capital improvement plans reported from subcommittee
In the December 2, 2022 issue of VML’s eNews, we reported that Senator Jeremy McPike has introduced legislation to include a reserve target of a minimum of 1.5 percent replacement value be added to capital improvement plans as a recommendation from the Commission on School Construction and Modernization.
In December, we did not have the definitive language to have an opinion. We are now able to report that SB1045 is not harmful to localities. The bill passed the Senate Education and Health Public Education Subcommittee on Jan. 12.
VML Contact: Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org
Tax legislation update
With the beginning of the 2023 Session comes the predicted introduction of tax bills. More specifically, tax relief is on the table once again. Governor Glenn Youngkin is proposing an additional $1.0 billion in tax relief this session, building upon changes made last year plus additional tax relief targeted primarily at businesses.
One percent local option grocery tax
Missing from Youngkin’s proposal this year is a renewed effort to repeal the one percent local option sales tax on food and essential personal hygiene products that failed to pass during the 2022 Session. But that doesn’t mean the conversation is over. Bills to repeal the one percent local option sales tax have been introduced in both chambers (see below) assuring that the topic will be up for debate again this year.
These bills will need to be monitored closely to ensure that this reliable source of revenue for local governments – estimated at $280 million — is not eliminated, risking the provision of important services in our communities.
SB850 (Suetterlein) / HB1484 (McNamara) – Eliminates the sales tax on food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products, resulting in a significant reduction in revenue to local governments. Localities use this revenue generated from their communities to address unique local needs. While the bills attempt to replace these lost local revenues with a fixed general fund allocation, this solution would not reflect future revenue growth in localities.
BPOL bills
Several bills chip away at local revenues by allowing deductions for certain products or exempting certain licenses from the Business, Professional, and Occupational License (BPOL) tax. During these uncertain economic times, local governments need to have the ability to maintain current revenues.
HB2200 (Robinson) – Provides a deduction from BPOL for anti-cancer drugs purchased by a medical practice and administered within a physician-patient relationship to patients. The exemption would apply to drugs that are administered to a patient whose costs for treatment are paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, or TRICARE. While narrowly drawn, enactment of this law would reduce revenues used to provide local services.
HB1920 (Hope) – Prohibits localities from collecting license fees for publishing any blog or online website containing daily or regularly updated news, feature articles, advertisements, or correspondence, provided that such blog or online website employs full time at least one journalist who has a Virginia taxable income. This bill has the potential to exempt from BPOL small, “mom and pop” entities and larger corporate entities, resulting in negative revenue impacts in localities.
VML staff will continue to monitor and communicate with you and with legislators about the potential impact of legislation like those outlined above being considered during the 2023 Session.
VML Contact: Joe Flores, jflores@vml.org
Charter bills and emergency medical services bills heard in subcommittee
Counties, Cities and Towns (CCT) – Subcommittee #1 met this morning to take up charter bills and a bill related to emergency medical services.
Charter bills
Bills anticipated to be heard in the Full Committee next Friday include the following:
HB1641 (Kilgore) – A big CONGRATULATIONS to the Town of Pound and thanks to Majority Leader Delegate Kilgore! The above bill was sent out of committee that would keep the Town of Pound charter in place. As you recall, last year there was a bill attempting to revoke the town charter.
These are the other charter bills that were sent out of committee: HB1509 (Kilgore) City of Norton, HB1539 (Edmunds) Town of Farmville, HB1678 (Ransone) Town of White Stone, and HB1679 (Ransone) Town of Kilmarnock.
Bills laid on the table
The emergency medical services bill, HB1472 (Fowler) was gently laid on the table. This bill added the word “essential” to the requirement that localities ensure that emergency medical services are maintained throughout the locality.
HB1697 (Simon) City of Falls Church charter bill was also laid on the table.
VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org
Local enforcement of Landlord and Tenant Act bill clears subcommittee
HB1650 (Price) was reported out of committee and should be heard in full committee next week. This bill allows a locality to institute an action for injunction and damages to enforce a landlord’s duty to maintain the rental dwelling unit in a fit and habitable condition. There are conditions for when a locality may intervene along with processes that must be followed.
VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org
Senate General Laws Committee hears bills related to fire marshals and public notices
SB905 (DeSteph) was reported out of Senate General Laws. The bill provides that any local fire marshal shall not exercise police powers without completing satisfactorily a basic law-enforcement course and maintains their education.
SB859 (Cosgrove) dealt with the Virginia Public Procurement Act and public notices; given that there is an ongoing study of public notices at the Code Commission, the Committee agreed to send it to that study.
VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org
Legislation introduced to limit local control of firearms in public buildings
In 2020, the General Assembly authorized local governments to prohibit firearms in public buildings. Several bills this session would reverse the law. SB1236 (Obenshain) will be heard by the Senate Local Government Committee. SB805 (Chase) will be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee. HB1427 (LaRock), will be considered by the House Public Safety Committee.
Last year, the Senate Judiciary Committee defeated Senator Chase’s bill on the subject and the House bill that was approved by the full House.
A number of member localities responded to our request last year, confirming that localities use the 2020 authority to prohibit weapons in city and town halls and other buildings. It was clear that the authority to prohibit weapons in public buildings was important to VML’s members.
A House bill is likely to be approved by the House and to be rejected by the Senate. Localities interested in preserving the authority to protect workers and others in public buildings are encouraged to contact your legislators to ask them to oppose the bills.
Contact: Mark Flynn, markkflynn@gmail.com
Bills that deal with presumptions for public safety employees
Several bills will add more public employees to eligibility for certain public safety medical conditions. Other bills increase the kinds of conditions that are presumed to be employment-related for public safety employees.
HB1408 (Brewer) adds to the list of diseases that are presumed to be workplace related for firefighters. The added conditions are melanoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cancer of the bladder or thyroid.
HB1631 (Bulova) and SB1088 (Ebbin) add public safety dispatchers to the list of public safety employees who the employer will be responsible for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment under workers compensation.
HB1775 (O’Quinn) adds anxiety disorder and depressive disorder to the PTSD for workers compensation coverage for public safety employees. PTSD was added as a compensable condition for public safety employees in 2020.
HB1876 (Helmer) requires that health insurance plans for employees of local governments, teachers and retirees, and their dependents must cover the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and for standard fertility preservation procedures.
The House bills are all likely to be considered by the House Commerce and Energy Committee.
Contact: Mark Flynn, markkflynn@gmail.com
Constitutional amendments that would affect local governments
There are several constitutional amendments of note for local governments.
HJ458 (Anderson) would limit local elected officials to three terms. Delegate Anderson also is proposing HJ462, which would make all personal vehicles exempt from personal property taxes.
HJ498 (Carr) / HJ485 (Price) would allow the General Assembly to allow localities to exempt low-income property owners from the real estate tax.
HJ517 (Leftwich) would allow the General Assembly to allow localities to exempt from taxes the real estate on which housing is to be constructed.
HJ533 (Tran) would exempt from taxes the realty of a surviving spouse of anyone who “died in the line of duty” as determined by the Department of Defense. The current exemption is limited to those who were killed in action. HJ497 (Reid) adds spouses of those killed in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.
The House amendments are to be heard in the House Privileges and Elections Committee.
Contact: Mark Flynn, markkflynn@gmail.com
Senate bills dealing with the removal of appointed and elected officers
Two Senate bills provide a new method of removing appointed and elected local officials. SB1431 (Surovell) and last year’s SB495 (McClellan) provide that an appointed city or town official can be removed by a majority of the council, even if the appointment was for a certain term. The court system remains involved in some circumstances. The bills also provide for a recall petition by voters that expands current law.
Contact: Mark Flynn, markkflynn@gmail.com
Natural resources and energy bills in play
SB849 (Chase) prohibits a public utility from installing smart meters for water, gas, or electricity without customer consent. For any smart meters installed before July 1, 2023, the utility must get retroactive consent. If the customer declines consent, then the utility must remove the smart meter at no cost to the customer. A “smart meter” is defined as being interconnected with the utility via the internet, telephone connection, or radio frequency.
SB1001 (Stuart) repeals the Clean Energy and Community Preparedness Act and directs the Department of Environmental Quality to take all steps necessary to suspend Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Note: Virginia’s participation in RGGI and its emissions auctions is a considerable source of funding for local flooding mitigation initiatives.
SB1013 (Edwards) requires a public waterworks owner to notify customers via mailings and newspaper publication when a water quality analysis reveals that PFAS chemicals are present in a water supply or when a PFAS contaminant exceeds maximum contaminant levels.
SB1129 (Hanger) / HB1485 (Webert) extend the date of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan from July 1, 2026 to July 1, 2030. The bills also allow a combination of point and nonpoint pollution reductions other than agricultural BMPs when determining when Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan commitments have been met.
SB1152 (Cosgrove) exempts federal government agencies from Virginia law and local ordinances relating to wetlands and the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act.
HB2189 (Rasoul) requires industrial users of publicly owned treatment works who clean, repair, refurbish, or process items that contain PFAS to test waste streams for PFAS before and after undertaking their work. The bill also requires prompt testing for PFAS after discharging certain toxic agents or materials.
HB1370 (Ware) prohibits the siting of a new municipal solid waste landfill within one mile of any existing private water well.
HB1634 (Bulova) requires a locality’s comprehensive plan to include strategies to address “resilience,” including anticipating, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from “multi-hazard threats” to a locality’s social well-being, health, economy, and environment.
HB2283 (Shin) / SB1447 (Edwards) suspend electric, gas, water, or wastewater utilities from disconnecting residential customers for nonpayment of bills or fees during a state of emergency for 30 days after the emergency has been declared. This applies to utilities subject to regulation by the State Corporation Commission and to utilities owned and operated by a municipality. Other provisions are included regarding when disconnections are suspended.
HB2310 (Williams) requests the Department of Housing and Community Development to conduct a study of opportunities for rural water systems to upgrade public water and sewer systems, with technical assistance provided by the Virginia Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Quality.
Contacts: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org; Preston Bryant, pbryant@mwcllc.com
Transportation legislation rolls out
SB979 (Marsden) pre-empts local authority to set towing fees at a rate other than the state maximum rate.
SB1326 (McClellan) increases flexibility for transit systems seeking to use the Transit Ridership Incentive Program by increasing the amount of funding available under this program for capital improvements for passenger facilities like bus shelters and for systems transitioning to a zero emissions fleet and related capital costs.
SB847 (Favola) authorizes cyclists to proceed with pedestrian signals at stop lights.
HB1537 (Jenkins) increases the distance a school bus must use warning lights prior to stopping.
HB2104 (Bourne) authorizes any locality to place a school crossing sign in a school zone, increases the default boundary of a school zone from 600 feet to 750 feet, and authorizes localities in Planning District 8 to reduce the speed limit in school zones below 25 mph without first conducting a traffic engineering study
SB868 (Cosgrove) reduces the penalty for violations involving passing a school bus when the stop arm is activated.
SB862 (Newman) would eliminate the highway use fee and optional mileage-based user fee for fuel efficient vehicles. Eliminating this program would reduce transportation revenues by tens of millions of dollars ($46 million was collected from this fee in 2022) annually and reduce transportation revenues by several hundred million dollars over the course of the six-year transportation improvement program.
SB1106 (Newman) similar to budget language in the Governor’s introduced budget (Item 452 subsections L-R) regarding the Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund. Requires the Governor to include an appropriation of up to $200 million with no more than $100 million each year for the Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund. These funds would be available for transportation improvements associated with economic development projects identified by the Governor and distributed by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. This funding would be an off the top distribution from transportation revenues and reduce total transportation funding by $100 million each year for a reduction of at least $600 million over the six-year transportation improvement program.
SB1293 (Deeds) Provides authority for any city, county, or town by ordinance to authorize operators of bicycles after slowing or yielding to proceed without stopping at an intersection controlled by a stop sign or proceed after stopping at a stop light, provided in each case that it is safe to proceed through the intersection.
VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org
Marijuana legislation introduced this week
Three bills introduced this week in the General Assembly deal with the recreational sale of marijuana and marijuana products either through the creation of a regulated retail market or through existing medical dispensaries selling direct to the public without a recommendation from a prescriber.
HB1464 (Hodges) would permit existing medical retailers to sell marijuana and marijuana products July 1, 2023, to adults 21 and older. The bill includes local authority to hold a referendum to prohibit the recreational sale of marijuana from non-medical dispensaries, provides local authority to levy a 3 percent tax on recreational retail sales of marijuana, but does not include local zoning authority.
HB1750 (Webert) establishes regulations for a recreational market for marijuana which would allow sales of recreational marijuana to begin in 2025. The bill also provides the Cannabis Control Authority with the authority to promulgate regulations for the licensing and regulation of a recreational retail market and recreational marijuana products with sales starting no sooner than Jan. 1, 2025. The bill also includes local authority to hold a referendum, provides for local zoning authority for cannabis recreational retail operations, provides local authority to regulate the hours of retailer operations, and provides for a local distribution of one-third of the state levied 12 percent tax on recreational retail sales for localities with retail operations.
SB1133 (Ebbin) establishes a framework for recreational sales to take place and for relevant state agencies and departments to promulgate the necessary regulations for the establishment of a market in the next two years. The bill would allow existing medical marijuana retailers to sell marijuana and marijuana products to persons 21 years and older without a prescription (as is currently required) starting July 1, 2023. The legislation also includes local authority to hold a referendum on whether or not recreational sales will be allowed in a locality, provides local authority to levy a 3 percent tax on recreational sales by ordinance, but does not include local zoning authority.
VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org
