Dam Safety, Flood Prevention, and Protection Assistance Fund; percentage of funds available; owner match requirements. Reduces from 50 percent to 30 percent the project match required of applicants to receive funds from the Dam Safety, Flood Prevention, and Protection Assistance Fund for grants (i) to a local government that owns a dam, (ii) to a local government for a dam located within the locality, or (iii) to a private entity that owns a dam for the design, repair, and safety modifications of such a dam if it is identified in a safety report. The bill provides that grants made from the Fund to a local government or private entity for the determination of the hazard classification for impounding structures, dam break analysis, the mapping and digitization of dam break inundation zones, incremental damage analysis, and other engineering requirements shall require no more than a 10 percent match by the applicant except that such applicant shall be required to provide a minimum of $5,000 of the cost of the project, if funded, and such match provided by such applicant may be used to pay the application fees for the necessary impounding structure operation and maintenance certificate. The bill removes the 50 percent limit on matching grants that owners of impounding structures may be eligible for from the Fund and other sources of funding available to the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation to assist in the development of dam break inundation zone maps and for conducting incremental damage assessments in accordance with the Virginia Impounding Structure Regulations. The bill also removes the limitation that the total amount of expenditures for grants in any fiscal year are not to exceed 50 percent of the total noninterest or income deposits made to the Fund during the previous fiscal year together with the total amount collected in interest or income from the investment of moneys in the Fund from the previous year as determined at the beginning of the fiscal year.
Taxation; secrecy of information; taxpayer waiver. Allows a taxpayer to waive confidentiality and secrecy of information provisions of Virginia law with respect to tax information upon executing a written acknowledgement waiver.
Faith in Housing for the Commonwealth Act. Permits a religious organization, defined in the bill, to construct affordable housing on real estate owned by such religious organization (i) on or before January 1, 2024, or for a period of not less than five years, and (ii) for which the religious organization retains a majority ownership interest.
Institutions of higher education; tuition grants; Virginia National Guard State Tuition Assistance Program. Makes several changes to the Virginia National Guard State Tuition Assistance Program, including (i) making the provisions relating to the requirements and conditions for eligibility for and award of grants under the Program subject to regulations as prescribed by the Adjutant General, (ii) eliminating the requirement to satisfy financial obligations with the institution of higher education at the beginning of each semester, (iii) simplifying the requirements relating to academic performance and good standing, and (iv) providing that any grant awarded shall be in an amount equivalent to the difference between the full cost of tuition and fees at the institution of higher education less any other educational benefits for which an individual is eligible as a member of the National Guard.
Certificate of public need; hospitals licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; psychiatric beds. Excludes from the list of medical care facilities for which a certificate of public need is required hospitals licensed as a provider by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. The bill excludes the following from the list of projects for which a certificate of public need is required for certain medical care facilities: (i) an increase or relocation of psychiatric beds licensed by the Department, (ii) the introduction of any psychiatric service when such medical care facility has not provided such service in the previous 12 months, and (iii) the conversion of beds to psychiatric beds. The bill also modifies the list of projects for which a certificate of public need is required for certain medical care facilities by requiring a certificate for the conversion of any psychiatric inpatient beds to nonpsychiatric inpatient beds. Under current law, a certificate is required for the conversion of a psychiatric bed to a nonpsychiatric bed only when the psychiatric bed was approved pursuant to a Request for Applications (RFA).
Consumer Data Protection Act; protections for children. Requires a controller or processor to obtain verifiable parental consent, defined in the bill, prior to registering any child with the operator's product or service or before collecting, using, or disclosing such child's personal data and prohibits a controller from knowingly processing the personal data of a child for purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of such personal data, or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning a consumer. The bill also amends the definition of child for purposes of the Consumer Data Protection Act to include any natural person younger than 18 years of age.
Synthetic media; penalty. Expands the applicability of provisions related to defamation, slander, and libel to include synthetic media, defined in the bill. The bill makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person to generate, create, or use or cause to be generated, created, or used any deceptive audio or visual media, defined in the bill, for the purpose of committing a criminal offense involving fraud. The bill creates a rebuttable presumption that such deceptive audio or visual media was generated or created for the purpose of committing such criminal offense if such deceptive audio or visual media is subsequently used as part of a plan or course of conduct to commit such criminal offense. The bill also authorizes the individual depicted in the deceptive audio or visual media to bring a civil action against the person who violates such prohibition to recover actual damages, reasonable attorney fees, and such other relief as the court determines to be appropriate. The bill directs the Attorney General to convene a work group to study and make recommendations on the current enforcement of laws related to the use of deceptive audio or visual media, including deepfakes, and any further action needed to address the issue of such use in fraudulent acts.
Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirement benefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provide enhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirement benefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher on or after July 1, 2025, but allows an employer, as that term is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher before July 1, 2025, in addition to service earned on or after that date. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025.
Study; Board of Workforce Development; adequacy of the funding model for noncredit workforce credential programs; work group; report. Requests the Virginia Board of Workforce Development to study the current funding model for noncredit workforce credential programs offered at comprehensive community colleges in order to identify areas of inadequacy and make recommendations on options for reforming the funding model to address those inadequacies and improve the sustainability of offering and providing noncredit workforce credential programs to ensure that the Virginia Community College System as a whole is capable of continuing to meet the increasing demand for highly skilled credentialed workers in the Commonwealth.
Content manufacturing tax credit. Removes the sunset for the motion picture tax credit, which currently is set to expire after taxable year 2026, and expands and redesignates the tax credit as the content manufacturing tax credit. The bill increases the total amount of credits that can be allocated to taxpayers to $46.5 million beginning in fiscal year 2024; however, should less than $100 million worth of certain new investments, as described by the bill, occur in Virginia by January 1, 2027, the cap will be reduced to $10 million per fiscal year. The bill also amends the definition of the "qualifying expenses" eligible for the content manufacturing tax credit to mean certain amounts spent in connection with the production of an eligible project filmed in the Commonwealth. The bill defines "eligible project" to be the production of a motion picture or an episodic television series.
Income tax subtraction; military retirement benefits; uniformed services. Expands the definition of "military benefits" to include an income tax subtraction of retirement income received for service in the uniformed services of the United States, which includes the United States Armed Forces, the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the commissioned corps of the United States Public Health Service. Under current law, the subtraction is only allowed for military retirement income received for service in the United States Armed Forces.
Court fines and fees; indigent defendant; waiver of fees. Provides that in any criminal or traffic case, the court may waive the assessment of certain fees specified in the bill, either wholly or in part, if the court determines the defendant to be indigent pursuant to relevant law and is unable to pay such fee. The bill provides that the court may make such determination upon motion of the defendant at any time prior to the entry of order for which such fee is assessed or final order has been entered.
