Legislative Bulletin January 20, 2023

The House and Senate have unprecedented numbers of budget amendments to consider this session, and have a very short amount of time to make our local government voices heard! House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations will report their respective budgets on Sunday, Feb. 5.

Amendments to support

To ensure that the amendments that address local government concerns have an even chance of being addressed, please communicate with your General Assembly members about the below amendments, how they would help your community, and urge their support, even if they are not on House Appropriations or Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Full contact list for House of Delegates available here >
Full contact list for Senate available here >

Elimination of cap on recognition of K-12 support positions

Item 137#8h(Davis), Item 137 #34h (Avoli), Item 137#31h (Bourne), and Item 137#5s (McClellan) provide additional funding for K-12 support positions. Since 2009, the state has arbitrarily capped its support for these positions at a ratio that does not reflect local prevailing practice. Though significant progress has recently been made in restoring funding to pre-2009 levels, approximately $270 million is still needed to make localities whole. These amendments provide additional funding or fully eliminate the cap.

KEY POINTS:

Support positions are currently arbitrarily capped at a ratio that does not reflect the need for these positions or the local prevailing practice.
Support staff (such as school psychologists, school social workers, and licensed health and behavioral positions, cafeteria workers, IT professionals, administrative personnel, custodial staff, etc.) have decreased since 2009, even as the number of students has risen statewide. This means less support for more students.
These positions are geared to support mental health and student wellness and allow for students to have the support needed to achieve successful educational outcomes. The number of economically disadvantaged students, English Learners, and students with certain disabilities has increased disproportionately to general student population, and so have their needs.
Furthermore, adjusted for inflation, state direct aid for public schools has fallen by 3.4 percent since 2009. Local governments have taken on this share of the funding burden, investing more than $4.2 billion beyond what they are required to do so to support K-12 education, yet many localities struggle to raise sufficient revenue to meet the growing needs of students and communities.

Instructional aides

Item 137#30 (Maldonado), Item 137#10s (Norment), and Item 137#11s (McClellan) provide $38.6 million GF in FY 2024 for the state’s share of funding for instructional aides. Currently, instructional aides are only funded for kindergarten and special education. This amendment is intended to provide additional state support for positions that are currently funded only with local dollars.

KEY POINTS:

This amendment reflects increased state basic aid for school divisions employing instructional aides to reflect local prevailing practice.
The SOQs fund only a portion of the actual prevailing costs of K-12 education in Virginia.
This amendment is meant to provide additional state support for school divisions for positions that they are currently funding on their own without state support.
Teacher Aides are vital positions that work with a teacher in the classroom to provide extra help and attention to students. They help enforce classroom rules and help supervise children during free-time like recess and lunch. They may work with students one-on-one or in groups to help reinforce lessons the teacher discussed. Teacher aides often help teachers track assignments and attendance, prepare lesson materials and equipment and more. Some teacher aides may work in specific areas of a school, such as a computer lab.

Flexibility in teacher compensation increase and bonus payments

Item 137#2h (Watts), Items 137#9s (Ebbin), and Item 137#26s (Marsden) remove the requirement for school divisions to provide at least an average 2.5 percent salary increase in each year of the biennium in order to access the state share of the five percent compensation supplement that is proposed for each year of the biennium, and clarify that the proposed retention bonus for instructional and support staff would be provided at local option.

KEY POINTS:

Local governments recognize the difficult work done by teachers and school staff and make considerable local contributions toward compensation, in addition to funding additional positions in excess of what is recognized by the Standards of Quality.
By virtue of this large number of locally-funded positions, localities fund an estimated 56 percent of salary increases in order to provide the local match for the SOQ-recognized positions as well as the local funding required to provide equivalent salary increases for locally-funded positions in order to treat the school workforce equitably.
This amendment would provide flexibility in implementing the compensation actions in the introduced budget in recognition of the significant number of positions that would not be covered by the state funding for the salary increase and retention bonus.

School capital (language only)

Item 137#32h (Morefield) and Item 137#7s (McClellan) provide additional guidance on the eligibility of School Construction Assistance Program applicants by allowing a multi-year review of local composite index and fiscal stress, allowing projects where construction began on July 1, 2022, to be eligible, as well as allowing the principal portion of future debt service payments on projects not yet began as a eligible expense. These were recommendations from the Board of Education and the Commission on School Construction and Modernization.

KEY POINTS:

According to the Commission on School Construction and Modernization, more than half of K-12 school buildings in Virginia are more than 50 years old. The amount of funding needed to replace these buildings is estimated at $25 billion.
The condition of the facilities in which children are educated has a direct impact on their ability to learn. Issues like inadequate climate control, lack of modern electric circuitry and internet capacity, and leaking roofs can negatively affect student assessment performance and staff morale.
Many localities face significant challenges in raising sufficient funds to undertake these projects.
This funding represents a significant investment to help address this issue.

School capital funding

Item 137#6s (McClellan) provides $2.5 billion GF in FY 2024 to increase funding of School Construction Grants Program by $500 million GF in FY 2024 and increase funding of the School Construction Assistance Program by $2 billion GF in FY 2024. These programs represent the first time since the Great Recession that the State has made significant investments in helping local governments with school capital costs. These amendments provide additional funding. This is a recommendation of the Commission on School Construction and Modernization.

KEY POINTS:

According to the Commission on School Construction and Modernization, more than half of K-12 school buildings in Virginia are more than 50 years old. The amount of funding needed to replace these buildings is estimated to cost $25 billion.
The condition of the facilities in which children are educated has a direct impact on their ability to learn. Issues like inadequate climate control, lack of modern electric circuitry and internet capacity, and leaking roofs can negatively affect student assessment performance and staff morale.
Many localities face significant challenges in raising sufficient funds to undertake these projects.
This funding represents a significant investment to help address this issue.

Jail per diems

Item 73#1h(Krizek) and Item 73#1s (Reeves) would restore the local-responsible per diem rate from $4 to its pre-FY 2011 level of $8.

KEY POINTS:

The local-responsible per diem rate was cut in half in FY 2011, from $8 to $4. “Local-responsible” inmates are individuals who are incarcerated in a local correctional facility while awaiting trial, individuals convicted of misdemeanor offenses, or individuals convicted of felony offenses with a sentence of one year or less.
The 2022 General Assembly increased the state-responsible per diem rate from $12 to $15. This funding increase is much appreciated and is a critical step in the right direction toward increasing state support for jails. Revisiting the local-responsible rate will provide important assistance to local and regional jails, as there are more local-responsible offenders in local and regional jails and the population of state-responsible inmates in local and regional jails declined significantly over the last year.
Virginia localities make a substantial contribution to the housing and care of inmates in local and regional jails. According to the Compensation Board, in FY 2021, localities contributed $601.4 million in operating and capital costs for jails and jail farms and an additional $16.4 million to house inmates in other jurisdictions; the state through the Compensation Board contributed $361.3 million.
partnership of the state in support of this critical function of government is essential.

Aid to localities with police departments (“HB 599”)

Item 410#1h (McQuinn), Item 410#2h (Brewer), Item 410#3h (Hayes), and Item 410#2s (Edwards) provide $20.8 million in FY 2024 in aid to localities with police departments to align funding for this program with the percentage change in total general fund revenue collections, in accordance with statutory requirements.

KEY POINTS:

While the Operation Bold Blue Line proposal in the introduced budget would provide important recruitment and retention resources for state and local law enforcement in the second year, HB 599 funding is the long-standing program to support local police departments.
Localities that receive HB 599 funding contribute significant local funds to their local police departments. In FY 2023, localities that receive HB 599 funds have been allocated $210.8 million from this funding source and budgeted $2.4 billion in local funds for this purpose.

Reimbursement to localities for 2024 Presidential primary expenses

Item 485#1h (Sickles) and Item 485#1s (Deeds) provide an additional $1.4 million to increase the reimbursement amount included in the introduced budget for the 2024 Presidential primary.

KEY POINTS:

Virginia Code requires the costs of the Presidential primary to be paid by the Commonwealth.
The introduced budget includes an appropriation of approximately $5.8 million to reimburse localities for costs associated with the 2024 primary. This amount is the same as what was appropriated in 2020; localities reported costs of approximately $5.7 million to administer that primary.
In order to account for growth in the number of registered voters and inflation in the intervening years, as well as the increasing complexity of election administration, the budget amendments request an additional $1.4 million for 2024 primary expenses.

Recordation tax distribution to localities

Item 266#1s (Stuart) provides $20 million from the general fund in FY 2024 to be distributed amongst localities, as was done prior to 2020. This funding can be directed toward transportation or public education purposes.

KEY POINTS:

Prior to the 2020 General Assembly session, a portion of recordation tax revenues had been distributed to counties and cities since 1993. Funding was distributed quarterly and could be used for transportation or public education purposes.
We support the restoration of state recordation taxes distributed to localities.

Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF)

Item C-80#1h (Bulova) and Item C-80#1s (Hanger) increases SLAF funding by 9.9 million. SLAF is a grant-based funding program for localities managed by the Department of Environmental Quality. Grants can be used by localities to make stormwater improvements including capital improvements that reduce pollutants and improve water quality and implement stormwater best management practices.

KEY POINTS:

Stormwater improvements are capital intensive and essential for improving water quality across the commonwealth.
SLAF provides matching grants to localities for planning, design, and implementation of stormwater best management practices that are cost effective and improve water quality.
SLAF grants are essential for helping localities fund capital stormwater projects by implementing best management practices. Funding can be used for capital improvement projects such as stream restoration, wetland restoration, and pond restoration.

VML Contacts:

Education – Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org)
Public Safety – Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org
Elections – Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org
Recordation taxes – Joe Flores jflores@vml.org
Natural Resources – Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org

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A wealth of budget amendments; Updates on finance bills of note

The first full week of the 2023 Session is in the books, and we continue to monitor bills that are being passed, amended, or tabled. Also, this week, nearly 2,000 amendments were introduced in the House and Senate to modify the Governor’s proposed budget. In two weeks, the House and Senate will unveil their respective budgets, built in part, on those proposed amendments.

In the meantime, we remain focused on communicating our concerns to lawmakers regarding proposed legislation that chips away at localities’ ability to maintain our current revenue base in an uncertain economic environment.

Several bills related to the one percent local options sales tax were defeated in the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee (SFAC) on Wednesday. Without taking public testimony, the members voted to pass by indefinitely SB850 (Suetterlein) and SB1008 (DeSteph). SB850 proposed to eliminate the sales tax on food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products and replace it with general fund revenues that would quickly exceed $300 million annually. SB 1008 would have allowed the city of Virginia Beach to opt out of the one percent local sales tax option on food and personal hygiene products.

On Friday morning, the House Finance Subcommittee #3 met to consider Del. Watt’s bill, HB1470, that requires localities to provide a refund from real property taxes for certain disabled veterans and surviving spouses, retroactive to the date of eligibility, excluding interest or penalties. Similar to last year, the bill was reported but not before concerns were raised about the burden imposed on local governments to retain property tax revenues for an indefinite period of time and the unknown fiscal impact. To be clear, we don’t oppose what Delegate Watt is trying to accomplish, but we are concerned about being able to carry out the provisions of the bill should it pass.

VML Contact: Joe Flores, jflores@vml.org

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General Laws

Bills reported out of House General Laws subcommittees this week

HB1490 (Davis) Virginia Public Procurement Act; certain construction contracts, performance and payment bonds. Allows a locality to pass an ordinance that will allow a contractor to furnish a performance bond and payment bond equal to the dollar amount in the current contract not a contract of indefinite delivery or quantity contract.

HB1569 (Walker) Virginia Freedom of Information Act; disclosure of personnel records. States that access to personnel records of persons employed by a public body engaged in emergency medical services or fire protection services or an emergency 911 or any equivalent reporting system shall be discretionary.

HB1610 (Tata) Virginia Public Procurement Act; cooperative procurement, installation of playground equipment. Allows cooperative procurement to purchase the installation of playground equipment which includes all associated and necessary construction and maintenance.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Senate Local Government and General Laws: Bills of note that were reported this week

Committee on Local Government

SB807 (Favola) Local parks; walking trails; liability; property owners. This bill from Loudoun County authorizes a locality or park authority to release from civil liability the owner of any property leased, licensed, or provided by easement used for a walking trail.

SB956 (Ruff) Localities; business improvement and recruitment districts. Provides a tool to localities to create a local business improvement and recruitment district plan in which businesses pay a fee which is used to fund business improvements, promotions, and recruitment.

SB1187 (Lewis) Comprehensive plan; strategies to address resilience. Requires localities to consider strategies to address resilience in a comprehensive plan. “Resilience” means the capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats with minimum damage to social well-being, health, the economy, and the environment.

SB1246 (Obenshain) / HB1472 (Fowler) Emergency medical services agencies; ordinances or resolutions; designation as emergency response agencies. This proposed legislation requires ordinances or resolutions that establish an emergency medical services agency to specify the geographic boundaries of the primary service area for such an agency. It also designates these agencies as designated emergency response agencies as an integral and essential part of the official public safety program.

HB1810 (Davis) Administration of Government; rights of state and local employees; freedoms of conscience and expression. This proposed legislation states that local government employees shall not be penalized by their employer for expressing an opinion during an open meeting on a current or proposed rule, etc.

Committee on General Laws

SB839 (Locke) Department of Housing and Community Development, Department of; adds to powers and duties of Director. nSeveral bills were rolled into this bill – SB1049 (McPike) and SB1190 (Ebbin) – and it was sent to the Senate Committee on Finance. The bills add powers and duties to the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development to include: a comprehensive study of statewide housing needs (every 5 years), a statewide housing plan and a duty to collect and publish zoning information collected from Virginia localities.

SB1046 (McPike) Law-enforcement officer; fire marshal with police powers. Provides that fire marshals who have police powers are included in the definition of “law enforcement officer.”

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Counties, Cities and Towns (CCT) Committee: Bills to watch reported out of full committee this week

These are the charter bills that were sent out of committee: HB1509 (Kilgore) City of Norton, HB1539 (Edmunds) Town of Farmville, HB1678 (Ransone) Town of White Stone, HB1679 (Ransone) Town of Kilmarnock and Town of Pound HB1641 (Kilgore).

HB1671 (Wyatt) Residential land development and construction; fee transparency, annual report. Requires every locality with a population greater than 3,500 shall submit an annual report to the Department of Housing and Community Development containing the total fee revenue collected by the locality for residential land use development and construction activities.

HB1674 (Hodges) Comprehensive plan; freight corridors. Would add to the local comprehensive plan freight corridors in the transportation area.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR DELEGATES TO OPPOSE: Bill rereferred to a CCT subcommittee

HB1487 (March) Local government; live broadcast and archive of meetings. States that a locality must provide access to a live video broadcast of all regular governing body meetings pursuant to 15.2-1416 and that the meetings must be maintained and available on the locality’s website if the cost is less than $100.

This is an unfunded mandate to localities and should be referred to the FOIA Council. The electronic meeting laws became effective in September and before additional rules there should be time for these laws to be implemented and tested.

All delegates’ contact info available here >.

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org

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Human Services

Identical jail fee bills go in different directions (for now)

The state has a responsibility to better fund jails. Comments like this were delivered by senators on the Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee this morning when it took up SB889 (Morrissey), which would severely limit fees and commissions charged to inmates in local and regional jails. Senators Hanger, Surovell, Favola, and Reeves (who has submitted budget amendment Item 73#1s to increase the local responsible jail per diem rate) all spoke to the need for the General Assembly to address the funding it sends to support local and regional jail operations so as to reduce the jails’ need to depend on fees and commissions to fund services and equipment.

The committee closely approved (8-7 vote) and re-referred Morrissey’s bill to Senate Finance and Appropriations for further examination and possible action.

On the House side, a subcommittee of the Public Safety Committee on Thursday morning recommended tabling the companion bill HB2039 (Shin) and writing a letter to the state Compensation Board requesting that it gather data on costs and fees, involving local and regional jails so as to get a handle on the real costs for providing certain services and what would be necessary to backfill losses if fees were reduced or eliminated.

VML supports these efforts to gather detailed numbers regarding local and regional jail fees and costs and for the state to reinvest in jail operations. State funding to jails has declined since the early 2000s, particularly during times of recession, and have never fully recovered. Last year the General Assembly increased state-responsible per diems, which was very helpful, but local-responsible was not touched, which led VML and VACo to pursue budget amendments on the issue.

VML Contact: Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org

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Good jail compensation bill goes by until next week

SB 966 (Peake) would require the Department of Corrections to compensate local and regional jails for the actual cost of incarceration as calculated in the annual jail cost report for any state responsible inmate who remains in a local or regional jail on the 61^st day following the transmittal by the clerk of court to the Director of the Department of Corrections.

This bill was carried over for the week by the patron in Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services. We support state compensation to local/regional jails holding state responsible inmates past the deadline for pickup outlined in the Code.

VML Contact: Janet Areson, jareson@vml.org

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Education

Some legislation that would establish an Education Success Account Program still in play

VML has been closely tracking several pieces of legislation to create a Virginia Education Success Account Program: HB1508 (Davis), HB1396 (March), HB1371 (P. Scott), SB823 (Chase), SB1290 (DeSteph), and SB1191 (Reeves).

These bills would establish the program to have state education funds follow the student rather than being allocated to the public-school division. Essentially, these bills would divert funds from public education for private institution use. Money in these accounts could be used for private school tuition, textbooks, uniforms, or other education-based needs within the private education realm.

In the House Education K-12 Subcommittee earlier this week HB1508 was heard and thoroughly debated. The subcommittee voted 6-3 to recommend reporting and rereferring to House Appropriations. This bill has not been placed in the full committee docket.

The Senate Education and Health Public Education Subcommittee on Thursday afternoon took up SB823 (Chase), SB1290 (DeSteph), and SB1191 (Reeves). After considerable deliberation, all these bills were passed by indefinitely.

We will continue to monitor the active legislation.

VML Contact: Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org

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Update on bills that would allow local option sales and use tax for school construction

Among VML’s legislative priorities is support of statewide authority for local governments to impose a one percent sales tax (if approved by referendum) to help raise a dedicated set of funds for school construction and modernization. Nine localities have this authority, with four more asking for authority this session. Bills asking for statewide authority are SB1408 (McClellan and McPike) and HB2316 (Bourne).

SB1408 was reported by the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee earlier this week. This bill has been engrossed and advanced to its third reading for final consideration on the Senate floor.

The House version has not yet been taken up in committee.

VML Contact: Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org

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Also in education: Unexpended school surplus bill referred; Commission renamed and (slightly) revamped

Unexpended school surplus

HB2399 (Simonds) would allow any school board to establish a capital reserve fund to deposit any unexpended funds at the end of the school year for future use. Currently, if there are any unexpended funds the money reverts back to the locality to be distributed as deemed appropriate. HB2399 has been referred to the Committee on Education.

Commission renamed and (slightly) revamped

HB1423 (Coyner) would rename the School Readiness Committee as the Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education. This bill slightly changes the commission’s purpose and goals. One of the biggest changes made is that the previous committee did not have any local input while the new commission would. The new commission would give VML and VACo one (shared) seat to represent local government.

VML Contact: Josette Bulova, jbulova@vml.org

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Elections

Party identification requirement tabled by subcommittee

Earlier this week a House Privileges and Elections Subcommittee voted to table HB1414 (Wiley), which would have required local government and constitutional officer candidates to provide political party affiliation on the ballot.

VML Contact: Josette Bulova (jbulova@vml.org)

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Environment

Natural resources bills being monitored

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) and 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.

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.

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.

HB2283 (Shin) and 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 (W. 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.

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Transportation

Update on status of Transportation bills of note

Referred to the Committee on Transportation

SB979 (Marsden) pre-empts local authority to set towing fees at a rate other than the state maximum rate.

SB1326 (McClellan) would increase 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.

SB862 (Newman) http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?231+sum+SB862 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.

Reported with amendments

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.

In the bill’s current form, it allows localities to expand the size of a school zone up to 750 feet from 600 feet currently. The amendments accepted in subcommittee eliminated the provisions of the bill that would have expanded to all localities the authority to reduce speed limits in school zones. The amendments also eliminated provisions that would have allowed all localities, irrespective of whether the locality maintains their roads or not, to post “school crossing” or “school” signs.

SB868 (Cosgrove) reduces the penalty for violations involving passing a school bus when the stop arm is activated.

The amendments eliminate the introduced bill’s reduction of fines for passing a school bus when the stop arm is activated and maintains the current fine of $250. The bill clarifies an infraction is a civil penalty that does not count as a conviction that appears on the vehicle operator’s record and that no such conviction shall be used for insurance purposes. The bill also expands from 10 to 30 the number of days that a summons must be issued for a violation of this code section.

VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org

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Marijuana

No movement this week on marijuana bills

Three bills have been introduced in the 2023 General Assembly to legalize 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.

No action was taken on these bills this week. We will continue to track this legislation.

HB1464 (Hodges) would permit existing medical retailers to sell marijuana and marijuana products July 1, 2023 to adults 21 and older. Includes local authority to hold a referendum to prohibit the recreational sale of marijuana from non-medical dispensaries, provides local authority to levy a three percent tax on recreational retail sales of marijuana, 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. 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, provides for a local distribution of one third of the state levied twelve 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 and in the intervening period of time allow existing medical marijuana retailers starting July 1, 2023 to sell marijuana and marijuana products to persons 21 years and older without a prescription as is currently required. Includes local authority to hold a referendum on whether recreational sales will be allowed in a locality, provides local authority to levy a three percent tax on recreational sales by ordinance, does not include local zoning authority.

VML Contact: Mitchell Smiley, msmiley@vml.org

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