2018 General Assembly Summary

Education Related Legislation

Fairfax County Public Schools, Office of Government Relations

 

CONTINUED TO 2019 BILL REPORT

 

This report describes all of the education-related legislation that was “Continued to 2019” during the 2018 Virginia General Assembly Regular Session.  Bills designated as Continued are effectively “Failed” for purposes of the 2018 Session, but can technically still be acted upon by the Committee that recommended continuing the legislation prior to the 2019 Session (specifically by November 29, 2018).  Even if a bill were to be acted upon prior to that deadline (which rarely occurs), it would still have to proceed through the remainder of the legislative process (pass in both chambers, signed by the Governor) during the 2019 Session.

 

 

 

 

UPDATED: May 1, 2018

 

 

BUSES, BUILDINGS & SAFETY – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Cash Proffers; Impact Fees SB 944 (Stuart) would remove various provisions granting localities authority to accept cash proffers as part of the conditional rezoning process. The bill would repeal provisions that limit existing impact fee authority to localities that have established an urban transportation service district and areas outside of such service districts that are zoned for agricultural use and that are being subdivided for by-right residential development. The effect of the repeal will be to make the existing impact fee provisions available for use by any locality that includes within its comprehensive plan a calculation of the capital costs of public facilities necessary to serve residential uses.

 

Commercial Advertising Material on School Buses HB 809 (O’Quinn) would permit local school boards to display commercial advertising material on the sides of school buses between the rear wheels and the rear of the bus, provided that no such material obstructs the name of the school division or the number of the school bus, is sexually explicit, or pertains to alcohol; food or beverages that do not meet the nutrition standards developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture pursuant to the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 or any additional state or local nutrition standards for food or beverages sold to students in school; gambling; politics; or tobacco.

 

Conditional Proffers; Public Facility Capacity; Previously Approved Residential Developments SB 458 (Peake) would authorize a locality to base its assessment of a public facility's capacity on the projected impacts specifically attributable to previously approved residential developments, or portions thereof, that have not yet been completed when determining whether a proffer is unreasonable. The bill would also remove language prohibiting a locality from accepting any unreasonable proffer; language prohibiting a locality from requesting any unreasonable proffer is retained.

 

Conditional Rezoning Proffer Requirements; Exemptions SB 957 (Black) would provide that certain provisions enacted in 2016 related to conditional rezoning proffers shall not apply to any county that operates under the county executive form of government that adjoins a county that operates under the urban county executive form of government (Prince William County) or to any city adjoining a county that operates under the urban county executive form of government (Cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Falls Church) if such locality enacts an ordinance to provide that such provisions would not apply.

 

Deemed Consent to Testing of Bodily Fluids HB 1033 (Price) would allow a magistrate or a general district court to issue an order requiring a person to provide a blood specimen for testing for human immunodeficiency virus or the hepatitis B or C virus when exposure to bodily fluids occurs between a person and any health care provider, person employed by or under the direction and control of a health care provider, law-enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical services personnel, person employed by a public safety agency, or school board employee and the person whose blood specimen is sought refuses to consent to providing such specimen. Currently, only the general district court may issue such order. The bill would also allow a testing order to be issued based on a finding that there is probable cause to believe that exposure has occurred. Currently, there must be a finding by a preponderance of the evidence that exposure has occurred.

 

Firearms in Locked Vehicles; Immunity From Liability SB 351 (Peake) would provide that no person, property owner, tenant, employer, or business owner may prohibit a person who lawfully possesses a firearm from storing that firearm or ammunition for a firearm in a locked motor vehicle, take any adverse employment action against an employee or contractor for lawfully storing a firearm or ammunition for a firearm in a locked motor vehicle, or search an employee's or contractor's motor vehicle or require that an employee or contractor consent to such a search as a condition of employment. The bill would allow a person to petition a circuit court for an injunction to enforce his right to lawfully store a firearm or ammunition for a firearm in a locked motor vehicle. The bill would provide immunity for any person, property owner, tenant, employer, or business owner in a civil action for any occurrence resulting from the use of a lawfully stored firearm or ammunition for a firearm.

 

Impact Fees for Residential Development SB 208 (Stuart) would repeal provisions that limit existing impact fee authority to localities that have established an urban transportation service district and areas outside of such service districts that are zoned for agricultural use and that are being subdivided for by-right residential development. The effect of the repeal would be to make the existing impact fee provisions available for use by any locality that includes within its comprehensive plan a calculation of the capital costs of public facilities necessary to serve residential uses.

 

Public Procurement; Contracting for Construction on a Construction Management Basis SB 317 (Ruff) would authorize state public bodies and public institutions of higher education to enter into contracts for construction on a construction management basis where the estimated cost is expected to be greater than $40 million of actual construction costs without following certain statutory procedures. The bill also would change the threshold for local public bodies to contract for construction using construction management from $10 million to $40 million. The bill also would amend the components of the definition "complex project" by removing references to multifaceted program, unique equipment, and specialized building systems, adding unconventional building systems, clarifying that the accelerated schedule component of the definition must be due to regulatory mandates, and requiring that any historic designation be properly registered.

 

School Bus Video-Monitoring Systems; Release of Information by the Department of Motor Vehicles SB 700 (Deeds) would authorize the Department of Motor Vehicles to release vehicle owner data of a vehicle that failed to stop for a stopped school bus upon request of a video-monitoring system operator or upon request of the authorized agent or employee of a video-monitoring system operator.

 

School Principals; Incident Reports SB 476 (Reeves) would provide that school principals are not required to report criminal misdemeanors or status offenses to law enforcement if in the principal's discretion, based on a totality of the circumstances and consistent with Board of Education guidelines, such report is not warranted. The bill would require the Board of Education, in consultation with the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Office of the Attorney General, and any interested stakeholders, to update its Student Conduct Policy Guidelines to provide guidance for principals in exercising such discretion. Note that a bill with similar provisions, HB 445 (Carroll Foy), failed.

 

Sex Offenses Prohibiting Entry Onto School Property; Penalty HB 622 (Bell R.B.) would provide that an adult who has been convicted of any felony offense for which registration on the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry is required where the victim of the offense was a minor is guilty of a Class 6 felony if he enters or is present upon any property he knows or has reason to know is a public or private elementary or secondary school or child day center property during school hours and during school-related or school-sponsored activities; upon any property during hours when such property is being used by such a school for school-related or school-sponsored activities; or on any school bus.

 

 

CONDUCT & DISCIPLINE – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Schedule I Drugs; Classification for Fentanyl Derivatives SB 436 (Wexton) would add to Schedule I of the Drug Control Act a classification for fentanyl derivatives.

 

School Principals; Incident Reports SB 476 (Reeves) would provide that school principals are not required to report criminal misdemeanors or status offenses to law enforcement if in the principal's discretion, based on a totality of the circumstances and consistent with Board of Education guidelines, such report is not warranted. The bill would require the Board of Education, in consultation with the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Office of the Attorney General, and any interested stakeholders, to update its Student Conduct Policy Guidelines to provide guidance for principals in exercising such discretion. Note that a bill with similar provisions, HB 445 (Carroll Foy), failed.

 

Topical Sunscreen for Public Elementary and Secondary Students HB 330 (Yancey) would permit any public elementary or secondary school student to possess and use unscented topical sunscreen in its original packaging on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored event without a note or prescription from a licensed health care professional if the topical sunscreen is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for nonprescription use for the purpose of limiting damage to skin caused by exposure to ultraviolet light.

 

 

FINANCE/PURCHASING/FOOD SERVICES – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Composite Index of Local Ability to Pay, Land-Use Assessment Value SB 537 (Hanger) would require the General Assembly to modify the current standards of quality funding formula and calculation of composite index of local ability to pay to incorporate within the real estate indicator of local wealth the land-use assessment value for those properties located within a land-use plan. 

 

Composite Index of Local Ability to Pay; Certain Counties SB 880 (Stuart) would require that the composite index of local ability to pay for any county within which there is a school division composed of a town be calculated as if there were no such school division composed of a town within the county.

 

Composite Index of Local Ability to Pay; Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Act; Revenue Sharing; HB 692 (Marshall) would require the Department of Taxation's calculation of true values as applied to the Commonwealth's composite index of local ability-to-pay to take into account an arrangement by localities entered into pursuant to the Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Act whereby a portion of tax revenue is initially paid to one locality and redistributed to another locality. The bill would require such calculation to properly apportion the percentage of tax revenue ultimately received by each locality. The bill would have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2020.

 

Public Procurement; Contracting for Construction on a Construction Management Basis SB 317 (Ruff) would authorize state public bodies and public institutions of higher education to enter into contracts for construction on a construction management basis where the estimated cost is expected to be greater than $40 million of actual construction costs without following certain statutory procedures. The bill also would change the threshold for local public bodies to contract for construction using construction management from $10 million to $40 million. The bill also would amend the components of the definition "complex project" by removing references to multifaceted program, unique equipment, and specialized building systems, adding unconventional building systems, clarifying that the accelerated schedule component of the definition must be due to regulatory mandates, and requiring that any historic designation be properly registered.  Note that a similar bill, HB 774 (Landes), failed in the House.

 

Required Local Effort for Basic Aid; Debt Service on Projects in Certain School Divisions HB 670 (Kilgore) would permit any local school board that governs a school division in which the locality is designated as fiscally at-risk or fiscally distressed by the Appalachian Regional Commission in the most recent fiscal year or is determined to have above-average fiscal stress or high fiscal stress by the Virginia Commission on Local Government in its most recent "Report on the Comparative Revenue Capacity, Revenue Effort, and Fiscal Stress of Virginia Counties and Cities" and for which the composite index of local ability to pay is less than or equal to 0.2000 to expend up to 25 percent of the required local effort for basic aid for debt service on school building capital renovation or construction projects. The bill would provide that in the event that the school division no longer meets such criteria, the local school board shall develop and implement a plan to readjust expenditures of the required local effort for basic aid over the course of no more than four fiscal years. The bill would also provide that in the event that a school division that no longer met such criteria and that developed such plan subsequently meets the criteria again, the local school board may seek the approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to amend such plan. The bill would have an expiration date of July 1, 2030.

 

School Nurses; Staffing Standards SB 366 (Stuart) would exclude school nurse positions from requirements for student support positions and instead require each local school board to employ at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position in each elementary school, middle school, and high school in the local school division or at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position per 550 students in grades kindergarten through 12. Note that all other school nurse staffing ratio-related bills, including HB 791 (Pogge), HB 1046 (Torian), and HB 1254 (Thomas), failed.

 

 

INSTRUCTION & STANDARDS OF LEARNING – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Division-Level Performance Assessments; Resource Guide HB 1320 (Habeeb) would require the Department of Education to develop and distribute to each local school division a resource guide on the local development and implementation of performance assessments that includes detailed recommendations for methods of ensuring the quality, validity, and reliability of such assessments, such as assurances, sampling, and auditing, and the alignment of such assessments with the desired student outcomes of critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and citizenship and a collection of division-level performance assessment exemplars.

 

Mathematics Intervention Services SB 713 (Dunnavant) would require local school divisions to identify students in grades 10, 11, and 12 who are at risk of graduating without the necessary skills to take college-level mathematics coursework, as demonstrated by their individual performance on a Standards of Learning assessment, the PreACT, PSAT/NMSQT, ACT, or SAT, the Virginia Placement Test, or any diagnostic test that has been approved by the Department and to provide mathematics intervention services to such students. The bill would require such intervention services to be aligned with the developmental math curriculum offered by the Virginia Community College System and provide that local school divisions may partner with a local comprehensive community college to provide such intervention services.

 

Standards of Achievement Career and Technical Education Committee; Established SB 936 (Wagner and Ruff)  would direct the Board of Education to establish the Standards of Achievement Career and Technical Education Committee (Committee) to make recommendations to the General Assembly and the Board of Education to facilitate the development of career and technical education Standards of Achievement, including accreditation standards, assessment testing, and course content and curriculum for participating schools, with a focus on rigorous standards and course content and curriculum that align workforce skills with industry-recognized standards; robust business and industry engagement and responsiveness to labor market needs; strategies to remove the stigma from career and technical education, including early exposure to career options and life skills; work-based learning and apprenticeships;  innovative high school models; and leveraging existing resources and programs in the Commonwealth.

 

 

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

NONE

 

 

PERSONNEL – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Deemed Consent to Testing of Bodily Fluids HB 1033 (Price) would allow a magistrate or a general district court to issue an order requiring a person to provide a blood specimen for testing for human immunodeficiency virus or the hepatitis B or C virus when exposure to bodily fluids occurs between a person and any health care provider, person employed by or under the direction and control of a health care provider, law-enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical services personnel, person employed by a public safety agency, or school board employee and the person whose blood specimen is sought refuses to consent to providing such specimen. Currently, only the general district court may issue such order. The bill would allow a testing order to be issued based on a finding that there is probable cause to believe that exposure has occurred. Currently, there must be a finding by a preponderance of the evidence that exposure has occurred.

 

Teacher Licensing Process; Study and Report SJ 6 (Locke) would request to study the teacher licensure process and the assessment requirements therein for any inherent biases that may prevent minority teacher candidates from entering the profession.  Note that an identical bill, HJ 88 (Bagby), failed in the House.

 

 

RETIREMENT & INSURANCE – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Health Insurance; Coverage for Contraceptives SB 907 (McClellan) would require health carriers to provide coverage, under any health insurance policy, contract, or plan that includes coverage for prescription drugs on an outpatient basis, for any prescribed contraceptive drug or contraceptive device and would prohibit a health carrier from imposing upon any person receiving contraceptive benefits pursuant to the provisions of the measure any copayment, coinsurance payment, or fee. The measure would apply to health insurance contracts, policies, or plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2019.

 

Workers' Compensation; Presumption of Compensability for Certain Diseases SB 352 (Peake) and SB 642 (McPike) would add colon cancer to the list of cancers that are presumed to be an occupational disease covered by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act when firefighters and certain employees develop the cancer and would remove the compensability requirement that the employee who develops cancer had contact with a toxic substance encountered in the line of duty. 

 

 

SCHOOL BOARD GOVERNANCE – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Deposition of Local Governing Body SB 613 (Surovell) would provide that when a local governing body is named as a deponent, it shall designate one or more members of such body to serve as a deponent on its behalf. The bill would provide that such designee and his testimony shall be subject to all of the same duties, responsibilities, and consequences as a corporate or organizational deponent as determined by the rules of court.

 

Future of Public Elementary and Secondary Education in the Commonwealth; Report HJ 19 (Bell, R.P.) would continue for one additional year the Joint Committee of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health to Study the Future of Public Elementary and Secondary Education in the Commonwealth, consisting of seven members of the House Committee on Education and six members of the Senate. Note that bills with similar provisions, including HB 1176 (Landes), SB 738 (Newman), and SJ 62 (Newman), failed.

 

Regional Charter School Divisions SB 516 (Obenshain) would authorize the Board of Education (the Board) to establish regional charter school divisions consisting of at least two but not more than three existing school divisions in regions in which each underlying school division has an enrollment of more than 3,000 students and (one or more schools that have accreditation denied status for two out of the past three years. The bill would require such regional charter school divisions to be supervised by a school board that consists of eight members appointed by the Board and one member appointed by the localities of each of the underlying divisions.

 

School Calendar; Opening Day of the School Year HB 372 (Robinson) would make local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening day of the school year The bill would require local school boards that set the school calendar with a pre-Labor Day opening date, except those schools that were granted a "good cause" waiver for the 2017-2018 school year, to close all schools in the division from the Thursday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day or the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through the Tuesday immediately succeeding Labor Day.  Note that all other Labor Day related bills, including HB 36, HB 38, HB 354, HB 1020, SB 300, and SB 914, failed.

 

State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act; Disclosure by Local Government Officers and Employees SB 816 (Black) would provide that an officer or employee of local government who has a personal interest in a transaction but who is still eligible to participate in the transaction because he is a member of a business, profession, occupation, or group of three or more persons the members of which are affected by the transaction need only declare his interest in the transaction at the first meeting at which the transaction is discussed and at least one subsequent meeting thereafter.

 

 

SPECIAL SERVICES – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing; Services; Advisory Subcommittee HB 676 (Pogge) would declare it the goal of the Commonwealth that each child who is deaf or hard of hearing is (i) as linguistically ready for kindergarten as his peers who are not deaf or hard of hearing and (ii) receptively and expressively literate in English and literate in written English by the end of third grade. The bill would require each agency of the Commonwealth that is responsible for providing services to children who are deaf or hard of hearing to collaborate to provide unified and seamless services for each such child from the onset of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention process through the end of his elementary and secondary school career. The bill also would establish a 14-member Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children's Advisory Subcommittee within the Disability Commission to advise the Commission on the provision of services in the Commonwealth for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.  SB 160 (Edwards) would require the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, in coordination with the Department of Education, to select, with input from an advisory committee, language development milestones and include such milestones in a resource for use by parents of a child from birth to age five who is identified as deaf or hard of hearing to monitor and track their child's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy; would disseminate such resource to such parents; select existing tools or assessments for educators for use in assessing the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing; would disseminate such tools or assessments to local educational agencies and provide materials and training on their use; and would annually produce a report that compares the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing with the language and literacy development of their peers who are not deaf or hard of hearing and make such report available to the public on its website. Note that multiple bills with identical or similar intent failed, including HB 118 (Kory), HB 232 (Tyler), HB 735 (Carr), HB 848 (Ingram), HB 893 (Webert) and HB 1410 (Helsel).

 

Educational Placement Transition of Certain Students With Disabilities, Pilot Program SB 975 (Vogel) would require the Department of Education to develop and implement a pilot program in two local school divisions in the Commonwealth to partner with the appropriate school board employees in each such local school division to identify the resources, services, and supports required by each student who resides in each such local school division and who is educated in a private school setting pursuant to his Individualized Education Program; would study the feasibility of transitioning each such student from his private school setting to an appropriate public school setting in the local school division and providing the identified resources, services, and supports in such public school setting; and would recommend a process for redirecting federal, state, and local funds, including funds provided pursuant to the Children's Services Act, provided for the education of each such student to the local school division for the purpose of providing the identified resources, services, and supports in the appropriate public school setting. Note that an identical bill, HB 176 (Bell, R.P.) failed in the House.

 

In-State Tuition, Rates of Increase SB 373 (DeSteph) would prohibit any percentage increase in in-state tuition or instructional fees for undergraduate students at Virginia's public institutions of higher education that exceeds the annual percentage increase, as determined by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, in the Average Consumer Price Index for all items, all urban consumers (CPI-U), as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, from January 1 through December 31 of the year immediately preceding the affected year. Note that this bill incorporated provisions from SB 377 (DeSteph), SB 577 (DeSteph), SB 749 (Sturtevant), and SB 836 (DeSteph)

 

Reading Diagnostic Tests SB 865 (Black) would require that the first reading diagnostic test administered to a student in kindergarten through grade three include a rapid alphabet naming component and that local school divisions report the results of reading diagnostic tests to parents, including subset scores.

 

School Nurses; Staffing Standards SB 366 (Stuart) would exclude school nurse positions from requirements for student support positions and instead require each local school board to employ at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position in each elementary school, middle school, and high school in the local school division or at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position per 550 students in grades kindergarten through 12. Note that all other school nurse staffing ratio-related bills, including HB 791 (Pogge), HB 1046 (Torian), and HB 1254 (Thomas), failed.

 

Topical Sunscreen for Elementary and Secondary School Students HB 330 (Yancey) would permit any public elementary or secondary school student to possess and use unscented topical sunscreen in its original packaging on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored event without a note or prescription from a licensed health care professional if the topical sunscreen is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for nonprescription use for the purpose of limiting damage to skin caused by exposure to ultraviolet light.

 

 

STANDARDS OF QUALITY/STANDARDS OF ACCREDITATION – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Mathematics Intervention Services SB 713 (Dunnavant) would require local school divisions to identify students in grades 10, 11, and 12 who are at risk of graduating without the necessary skills to take college-level mathematics coursework, as demonstrated by their individual performance on a Standards of Learning assessment, the PreACT, PSAT/NMSQT, ACT, or SAT, the Virginia Placement Test, or any diagnostic test that has been approved by the Department and to provide mathematics intervention services to such students. The bill would require such intervention services to be aligned with the developmental math curriculum offered by the Virginia Community College System and provide that local school divisions may partner with a local comprehensive community college to provide such intervention services.

 

School Nurses; Staffing Standards SB 366 (Stuart) would exclude school nurse positions from requirements for student support positions and instead require each local school board to employ at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position in each elementary school, middle school, and high school in the local school division or at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position per 550 students in grades kindergarten through 12. Note that all other school nurse staffing ratio-related bills, including HB 791 (Pogge), HB 1046 (Torian), and HB 1254 (Thomas), failed.

 

Standards of Achievement Career and Technical Education Committee; Established SB 936 (Wagner and Ruff) would direct the Board of Education to establish the Standards of Achievement Career and Technical Education Committee (Committee) to make recommendations to the General Assembly and the Board of Education to facilitate the development of career and technical education Standards of Achievement, including accreditation standards, assessment testing, and course content and curriculum for participating schools, with a focus on rigorous standards and course content and curriculum that align workforce skills with industry-recognized standards; robust business and industry engagement and responsiveness to labor market needs; strategies to remove the stigma from career and technical education, including early exposure to career options and life skills; work-based learning and apprenticeships;  innovative high school models; and leveraging existing resources and programs in the Commonwealth.

 

 

STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND ATHLETIC PROGRAMS – APPROVED

 

NONE

 

 

STUDENT TESTING – CONTINUED TO 2019

 

Division-Level Performance Assessments; Resource Guide HB 1320 (Habeeb) would require the Department of Education to develop and distribute to each local school division a resource guide on the local development and implementation of performance assessments that includes detailed recommendations for methods of ensuring the quality, validity, and reliability of such assessments, such as assurances, sampling, and auditing, and the alignment of such assessments with the desired student outcomes of critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and citizenship and a collection of division-level performance assessment exemplars.

 

Mathematics Intervention Services SB 713 (Dunnavant) would require local school divisions to identify students in grades 10, 11, and 12 who are at risk of graduating without the necessary skills to take college-level mathematics coursework, as demonstrated by their individual performance on a Standards of Learning assessment, the PreACT, PSAT/NMSQT, ACT, or SAT, the Virginia Placement Test, or any diagnostic test that has been approved by the Department and to provide mathematics intervention services to such students. The bill would require such intervention services to be aligned with the developmental math curriculum offered by the Virginia Community College System and provide that local school divisions may partner with a local comprehensive community college to provide such intervention services.

 

Reading Diagnostic Tests SB 865 (Black) would require that the first reading diagnostic test administered to a student in kindergarten through grade three include a rapid alphabet naming component and that local school divisions report the results of reading diagnostic tests to parents, including subset scores.

 

 

TAXATION – CONTINUED TO 2019

Cigarette Tax; Counties Authorized to Hold Referendum SB 510 (Carrico) would authorize the board of supervisors of any county to levy a tax on the sale or use of cigarettes if approved in a referendum. If approved, the tax would not exceed five cents ($0.05) or the amount levied under state law, whichever is greater.

 

Composite Index of Local Ability to Pay, Land-Use Assessment Value SB 537 (Hanger) would require the General Assembly to modify the current standards of quality funding formula and calculation of composite index of local ability to pay to incorporate within the real estate indicator of local wealth the land-use assessment value for those properties located within a land-use plan. 

 

Taxation in the Commonwealth; Income Tax, Sales Tax, and Credit for Certain Local Taxes HB 966 (Davis) would provide, for taxable years 2018 through 2022, a refundable credit against individual and corporate income taxes for a business's aggregate tax liability under the machinery and tools tax, the merchants' capital tax, and the business, professional, and occupational license (BPOL) tax.  The bill would impose a sales tax on all services except business-to-business, educational, health care, and real estate services. The bill requires the Department of Taxation (the Department) to assert the Commonwealth's jurisdictional nexus to tax services to the maximum extent allowed by Virginia and federal law and requires any person that furnishes services valued at $5,000 or more during a calendar year to register with the Department as a dealer. The bill would provide that food purchased for human consumption shall be exempt from state sales tax. Under current law, food purchased for human consumption is taxed at a reduced state rate of 1.5 percent and a local rate of 1 percent. Finally, the bill would eliminate the lowest two income tax brackets by providing that, starting with taxable year 2019, there shall be no income tax imposed on income of $5,000 or less.