Sen. John Bell

Income tax; military benefits subtraction;emergency. Establishes an income tax subtraction for up to $20,000of military benefits in taxable year 2021, up to $30,000 in taxable year 2022, and up to $40,000 in taxable year 2023 and each year thereafter.The bill defines military benefits to include military retirementincome and benefits paid to the surviving spouse of a veteran. Thebill contains an emergency clause.

Contracts; payment clauses to be included in certain contracts; right to payment of subcontractors. Requires construction contracts awarded by state or local government agencies as well as certain private construction contracts in which there is at least one general contractor and one subcontractor to include a payment clause that obligates the contractors to be liable for the entire amount owed to any subcontractor with which it contracts. The bill provides that a contractor shall not be liable for amounts otherwise reducible due to the subcontractor's noncompliance with the terms of the contract; however, the contractor must notify the subcontractor in writing of the contractor's intent to withhold all or a part of the subcontractor's payment with the reason for such nonpayment. Payment by the party contracting with the contractor shall not be a condition precedent to payment to any lower-tier subcontractor. The bill also requires a payment clause to be included in any construction contract between an owner and a general contractor that requires (i) the owner to pay the general contractor within 60 days of receipt of an invoice following satisfactory completion of the contracted-for work, and (ii) a higher-tier contractor to pay a lower-tier subcontractor within the earlier of 60 days of satisfactory completion of the work for which the subcontractor has invoiced or seven days after receipt of amounts paid by the owner to the general contractor for work performed. Lastly, the bill provides that the Department of General Services shall convene the Public Body Procurement Workgroup to review whether the issue of nonpayment between general contractors and subcontractors necessitates legislative corrective action and report its findings and legislative recommendations to the General Assembly on or before December 1, 2022. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2023, and shall apply to construction contracts executed on or after January 1, 2023.

Enforcement of illegal gaming laws; Charitable Gaming Fund established. Establishes the Charitable Gaming Fund (the Fund) as the depository of all fees and penalties collected by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (the Department) in its administration of charitable gaming laws. The bill allocates 50 percent of the collected funds to the Department to fund its costs of administering charitable gaming laws; five percent to the Virginia Lottery to fund the costs of the Illegal Gaming Enforcement Coordinator, a position created at the Virginia Lottery by the bill; one percent to the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund; and 44 percent to the general fund.The bill charges the Illegal Gaming Enforcement Coordinator with coordinating local, state, and federal enforcement of illegal gaming laws, defined as laws regulating gambling, charitable gaming, lottery games, sports betting, casino gaming, fantasy contests, and horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering, and with establishing a tip line for members of the public to report concerns about illegal gaming. The bill (i) directs the Department, under certain circumstances, to revise the fees levied by it for placement into the Fund so that the fees are sufficient but not excessive to cover the costs of administration and enforcement of charitable gaming laws and (ii) provides that beginning on July 1, 2024, 95 percent of moneys in the Fund shall be allocated to the Department to fund its costs of administering charitable gaming laws and five percent to the Virginia Lottery to fund the costs of the office of the Illegal Gaming Enforcement Coordinator.

Charitable gaming; social organizations and social quarters; electronic gaming. Provides that the conduct of electronic gaming, defined in the bill, is restricted to qualified social organizations on their premises or other qualified organizations that lease the premises of a qualified social organization pursuant to the guidelines set out in the bill. The bill eliminates the exceptions related to the sale of instant bingo, pull tabs, or seal cards or the conduct of bingo games in current law for veterans and fraternal organizations. The bill provides that such qualified organizations shall be subject to two prohibitions that, under current law, apply to all other organizations, as defined in relevant law: (i) they are prohibited from selling instant bingo, pull tabs, or seal cards or conducting bingo games outside of their home locality and (ii) they are prohibited from offering such games at an establishment that has been granted a license by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority unless they hold such license. The bill provides that, with the exception of social organizations qualified under § 501(c)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code, all gross receipts attributable to electronic gaming shall be reported to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (the Department) and shall be subject to application, audit, and administration fees. Under the provisions of the bill, social organizations that are exempt from taxation pursuant to § 501(c)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code are permitted to conduct electronic gaming until such organizations reach $200,000 in electronic gaming adjusted gross receipts, defined in the bill, during any 12-month period. Such organizations are required to report their adjusted gross receipts to the Department and are subject to application, audit, and administration fees based on their adjusted gross receipts. The bill provides that application fees shall be paid to the Department by the qualified organization and that audit fees may be paid to the Department either by the qualified organization or the electronic gaming manufacturer that provides electronic gaming devices to such organization. The bill imposes on any person or organization conducting charitable gaming without a permit a civil penalty of not less than $25,000 and not more than $50,000 per incident. Finally, the bill sets out via a second enactment provisions that require qualified organizations permitted to conduct electronic gaming to report and pay all required fees to the Department based on such organization's electronic gaming adjusted gross receipts. The provisions of the first enactment of the bill requiring the use of a qualified organization's electronic gaming gross receipts for the purpose of reporting and payment of required fees has an expiration date of July 1, 2024. The provisions of the second enactment of the bill requiring the use of a qualified organization's electronic gaming adjusted gross receipts for the purpose of reporting and payment of required fees has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2024. This bill is identical to HB 763.

Electric utilities; energy efficiency programs. Makes several changes to energy efficiency standards under which each investor-owned incumbent electric utility is required to achieve incremental annual energy efficiency savings. The bill requires energy efficiency savings that start in 2022 at 0.5 percent for Appalachian Power and 1.25 percent for Dominion Energy Virginia of the average annual energy retail sales by that utility in 2019 and increases those savings annually until 2030 when the bill requires energy efficiency savings of 11 percent for Appalachian Power and 15 percent for Dominion Energy Virginia of the average annual energy retail sales by that utility in 2019. The bill requires that such savings percentages be net of (i) freerider savings from customers who would have implemented a measure in absence of utility-delivered energy efficiency programs and (ii) spillover savings from customers who implement an efficiency measure not directly targeted by utility-delivered energy efficiency program. The bill prohibits an electric utility from including in its efficiency programs, or the State Corporation Commission from requiring, budget limits on energy efficiency programs that the Commission reasonably determines substantially limit that electric utility's ability to acquire all feasible cost-effective energy savings available through such programs. The bill requires the Commission to biennially review the feasibility of the energy efficiency program savings requirements, taking into account the level of savings achieved by utilities in other states and required by other states, and any other factors the Commission deems appropriate to consider, and report to the Chairs of the House Committee on Labor and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor and the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources and the Secretary of Commerce and Trade on such feasibility by October 1, 2023, and biennially thereafter. The bill requires the Commission to establish, from 2024 through 2026 and for every three-year period thereafter, incremental low-income, elderly, disabled, and veteran energy efficiency savings targets in each year, to be achieved through energy efficiency programs designed to benefit low-income, elderly, disabled, or veteran customers. Each year's savings targets for such programs is required to be at least 1.25 percent of the average annual energy retail sales by that utility to those customer classes. The bill authorizes the Commission to provide for performance incentives and penalties for these low-income, elderly, disabled, and veteran savings targets, as deemed appropriate, and authorizes the savings from the low-income energy efficiency programs to count toward the overall energy efficiency savings requirements.

Credit unions; priority of shares. Removes a provision that establishes that shares held by a credit union member are subordinate to all other obligations of the credit union. This bill is identical to HB 268.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; performance and payment bonds. Requires a performance bond and payment bond to be furnished by the contractor for all nontransportation-related public construction contracts that exceed $500,000 and all transportation-related projects that exceed $350,000 and are partially or wholly funded by the Commonwealth. Current law only requires these bonds for certain types of contracts.

Elections; conduct of election; election results; risk-limiting audits. Requires local electoral boards and general registrars to perform certain risk-limiting audits, defined in the bill, under the supervision of the Department of Elections and in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the State Board of Elections with a risk limit of at least 10 percent. The bill provides that localities are required to participate in such audits at least once every five years. The bill also provides that the Department shall submit a report on the results of such audits to the State Board. The provisions of the bill requiring that such audits be conducted (i) for at least one randomly selected contested race for the General Assembly in the year of a general election for members of the General Assembly and (ii) for any other contested race that is necessary to ensure that each locality participates in a risk-limiting audit of an office within its jurisdiction at least once every five years or that the State Board finds appropriate have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2023. The provision of the bill requiring that such audits be conducted for at least one randomly selected contested race for an office that requires certification by the State Board in the year of general election for any local office has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2024. The bill also requires the Department to convene a work group to consider and propose a process and timeline for implementing risk-limiting audits of statewide contests. This bill is identical to HB 895.

Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; Charitable Gaming Board; powers and duties. Changes the Charitable Gaming Board (the Board) from a policy board to an advisory board in the executive branch of state government, decreases the membership from 11 members to nine members, and moves the power and duty to promulgate regulations related to charitable gaming in the Commonwealth from the Board to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (the Department). The bill provides that (i) the current regulations enacted by the Board shall be administered by the Department and remain in full force and effect until the Department promulgates new regulations pursuant to this bill and (ii) notwithstanding clause (i), the regulations promulgated by the Board regarding Texas Hold'em poker games and tournaments, which became effective on March 23, 2021, and were rescinded by the General Assembly pursuant to Item 105 of Chapter 552 of the Acts of Assembly of 2021, Special Session I, shall not take effect, but the Department shall promulgate regulations regarding Texas Hold'em poker games and tournaments consistent with the provisions of Chapter 982 of the Acts of Assembly of 2020 and pursuant to the provisions of the Administrative Process Act. The bill contains technical amendments. This bill is identical to HB 765.

Valluvar Highway. Designates Brentwall Drive in Fairfax County as "Valluvar Highway."