HB 1132 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Data center tax revenue; creates local residential renewable energy incentive program.

Summary

Data center tax revenue; local residential renewable energy incentive program; tangible personal property tax reimbursement; penalty. Authorizes the governing body of any county, city, or town that collects real or personal property taxes for any real or personal property owned by a data center to create a local residential renewable energy incentive program, through which funds shall be used to reduce existing utility bills for residential customers, to reduce reliance upon fossil fuel power generation facilities, to reduce the need for construction and placement of new transmission lines, and to minimize future electricity costs for residential customers. The bill provides that 15 percent of new data center revenue, defined in the bill, shall be spent toward residential solar and battery storage investment and 15 percent of new data center revenue shall be spent toward providing pro rata reimbursements for residents' tangible personal property tax assessments for any qualifying vehicle. Finally, the bill provides that if any locality violates the requirements for such incentive program, the local treasurer shall immediately transfer any remaining funds directly to the State Treasurer. The State Treasurer shall direct such remaining funds to be used for authorized purposes and thereafter such locality's incentive fund shall be dissolved. The bill makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for a local treasurer to violate such requirement.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 14, 2026 Last action Feb 11, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Finance Substitute → Subcommittee #1 Subcommittee Substitute · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill underwent significant formatting and layout changes between versions, with the text being reorganized from a left-aligned format to a right-aligned, numbered format typical of legislative markup. The substantive policy content regarding data center taxation and renewable energy incentives appears unchanged in the visible portions of the diff.

TECHNICAL

The document layout changed from left-aligned text to right-aligned text with line numbers, which is a formatting adjustment rather than a substantive policy change.

The header section was restructured with different spacing and positioning, changing from a simple header to a more formal legislative document format with line numbers.

The bill text was reformatted with line numbers and different indentation, but the actual legislative language appears to remain the same.

Introduced → Finance Substitute · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill was amended from its original introduction to a Finance Committee substitute version. The primary changes involve streamlining the definition of 'data center' by referencing an existing state statute, adjusting the threshold for localities required to create the incentive program from 20 data center buildings to simply collecting taxes from at least 20 data centers, and reorganizing the fund usage priorities to consolidate renewable energy investment categories. These modifications aim to clarify applicability and simplify implementation while maintaining the core policy of funding residential renewable energy through data center tax revenues.

Scope change

The bill's applicability was modified by changing the threshold for localities required to create the incentive program from 'collects real property taxes from at least 20 data center buildings' to 'collects real property taxes from at least 20 data centers', which broadens the scope to include data centers without individual building assessments.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'data center' was changed from a detailed eight-part list to a reference to the existing definition in subdivision A 43 of § 58.1-3506, simplifying the language and aligning with current state definitions.

SCOPE

The requirement for localities to create the incentive program was changed from applying to those collecting taxes from 'at least 20 data center buildings' to those collecting taxes from 'at least 20 data centers', potentially expanding the number of localities subject to the program.

FISCAL

The fund usage priorities were reorganized by removing the separate 'fossil fuel power generation' category and consolidating renewable energy investments into a single category, while maintaining the 15% allocation for solar/battery storage and vehicle reimbursements.

REQUIREMENT

The list of local government requirements was shortened from five items to two items, removing specific provisions about utility interconnection fees, capacity limits, and utility obligations that were previously included in the original version.

TECHNICAL

Formatting and structural changes were made to convert the bill from an introduced version to a Finance Committee substitute, including renumbering sections and adjusting layout for committee consideration.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 9, 2026

Lower · Passed

House subcommittee offered

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Committee

Assigned HFIN sub: Subcommittee #1

lower

Jan 14, 2026

Committee

Referred to Committee on Finance

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors