Tax credits; vested interest. Creates avested interest when a taxpayer claims a tax credit, including aninterest in any conditions placed upon the credit, and prohibitsalteration of such interest by a subsequent action of the GeneralAssembly. The provisions of the bill are retroactive but shall notbe construed to extend the time during which a taxpayer may filean amended tax return.
Petition for modification of sentence; eligibility; procedures. Provides a petition process for a person servinga sentence for any conviction or a combination of any convictionswho remains incarcerated in a state or local correctional facilityand meets certain criteria to petition the circuit court that enteredthe original judgment or order to (i) suspend the unserved portionof such sentence or run the unserved portion of such sentence concurrentlywith another sentence, (ii) place such person on probation for suchtime as the court shall determine, or (iii) otherwise modify the sentenceimposed.
Study; JLARC; VEDP; construction industry; report. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, in conjunction with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority, to conduct a study on demand and supply issues and trends in the Commonwealth's construction industry.
Allowing access to, purchase for, or provisionof marijuana to minors; penalties. Clarifies that it is a Class1 misdemeanor for any person who cultivates marijuana plants for personal use to recklessly allow unauthorized access to such marijuana plantsby a person younger than 21 years of age. Thebill provides that any person who purchases marijuana or marijuanaproducts for, or otherwise gives, provides, or assists in the provisionof marijuana or marijuana products to, another person when he knowsor has reason to know that such person is younger than 21 years ofage, except by any federal, state, or local law-enforcement officerwhen possession of marijuana or marijuana products is necessary inthe performance of his duties, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.The bill also removes marijuana from the types of drugs for which distribution to a person under the age of 18 is a felony punishableby a period not less than 10 nor more than 50 years, and a fine notmore than $100,000 with the possibility of mandatory minimum sentences.Such provisions shall not become effective if the corresponding provisionsof Chapters 550 and 551 of the Acts of Assembly of 2021, SpecialSession I, are reenacted by the 2022 Session of the General Assembly.
Study; Virginia State Crime Commission; hatecrimes and bias-motivated acts directed toward Asian Americans andPacific Islanders; report. Directs the Virginia State Crime Commission to study the increase in hate crimes and bias-motivated acts directedtoward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Commonwealth.
Lane filtering; motorcycles. Authorizesthe operator of a two-wheeled motorcycle to pass another vehiclethat is stopped or traveling at no more than 10 miles per hour inthe same lane, provided that there are at least two lanes of travelin each direction, such motorcycle does not exceed a speed of 20miles per hour, and the operator executes such passing safely.
Virginia African Diaspora Advisory Board. Establishes the Virginia African Diaspora Advisory Board to advise the Governor on ways to improve economic and cultural links between the Commonwealth and African nations, with a focus on the areas of commerce and trade, agriculture, art, education, and government. The Board is composed of 18 nonlegislative citizen members, of whom at least 15 must be persons who identify as part of the African diaspora, to be appointed by the Governor. The Secretaries of Agriculture and Forestry, Commerce and Trade, and Education or their designees serve as ex officio members.
Administration of government; language accessequity; report. Establishes the Interagency Language Access WorkingGroup in the Office of the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusionwith the following membership: the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Director of the Office of the Children's Ombudsman, the Governor's Secretaries, and six nonlegislative citizen membersrepresenting organizations that represent individuals with languageaccess needs. The Working Group is established for the purpose ofmaximizing state policies, resources, technical assistance, and procurementpractices to further language access and equity in the Commonwealthand its state government agencies. The bill also requires each stateagency to designate a language access coordinator who will be responsiblefor the agency's annual language access report, the requirements ofwhich are set out in the bill. The Secretary of Administration isdirected to establish criteria for state agencies to procure languageinterpretation and translation services and to establish a policyfor compensating multilingual state employees who are required aspart of their job to provide interpretation, translation, or otherbilingual skills at least once a month.
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission;study; Commonwealth's public health system; report. Directs theJoint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the Commonwealth'spublic health system, including the structure, organization, operations,and resources of the existing public health system and the effectivenessof the current public health system in meeting public health need,and develop recommendations for improving the Commonwealth's publichealth system to improve overall public health.
Labor and employment; misclassification of workers.Establishes criteria for classifying the difference between employeesand independent contractors based on either (i) the common law 20-factortest established in Internal Revenue Service Ruling 87-41, (ii) anapplicable determination of the Internal Revenue Service, or (iii)satisfaction of specific criteria for classifying a person as anindependent contractor as described in the bill.
Study; JLARC; increasing the progressivity ofVirginia's individual income tax system; report. Requires theJoint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to continue its studyof increasing the progressivity of Virginia's individual income taxsystem and to also study (i) the composite index of local ability-to-paypublic school funding formula and changes that could be made to theindicators of such local ability-to-pay or the weights assigned theretoand (ii) permitting local governing bodies to tax adjusted grossincome in order to promote greater fairness and more equitable accessto the resources needed to provide excellence in public educationin every local school division in the Commonwealth. The meeting andreporting deadlines in the original study are unaffected by the additionalstudy tasks.
Energy efficiency standards; more stringentenergy efficiency requirements. Allows a locality by ordinanceto create and require stretch codes, defined in the bill as energyefficiency standards that are in addition to or more stringent thanthose in the Uniform Statewide Building Code, and use them as analternative means of compliance with a locality's building requirements.The bill requires periodic review of the codes and allows the localityto make amendments.
