Income taxes. Creates a new income tax bracket for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2024, for income in excess of $600,000, which is to be taxed at seven percent. The bill also creates two new tax credits: a child and dependent care tax credit and a family caregiver tax credit. Both tax credits would be refundable for Virginia residents and would be available for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2024, but before January 1, 2029. The child and dependent care tax credit would equal 50 percent of the federal tax credit allowed for employment-related expenses for household and dependent care services. A similar income tax deduction for employment-related expenses would be sunsetted by the bill. The family caregiver tax credit would apply to expenses incurred by an individual in caring for an eligible family member, defined in the bill, who requires assistance with one or more activities of daily living, also defined in the bill. The family caregiver tax credit equals 50 percent of eligible expenditures incurred by the caregiver up to $1,000. The family caregiver tax credit shall be available only to taxpayers that have federal adjusted gross income that is no greater than $100,000 for individuals or $200,000 for married persons.
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.
Electric utilities; integrated resource plans; grid-enhancing technologies and advanced conductors. Requires an electric utility to include in an integrated resource plan a comprehensive assessment of the application of grid-enhancing technologies and advanced conductors, as those terms are defined in the bill, and, if applicable, to include in such plan a detailed explanation of why such technologies or conductors are not included in such plan.
Income tax; contributions to Virginia College Savings Plan accounts; report. Increases the maximum individual income tax deduction for amounts paid or contributed to a prepaid tuition contract or college savings trust account entered into with the Virginia College Savings Plan from $4,000 to $7,500 in taxable year 2024, $11,000 in taxable year 2025, and $15,000 for taxable year 2026 and thereafter. Such amount shall be adjusted for changes in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) beginning in taxable year 2024. The deduction is limited to $4,000 for taxpayers with federal adjusted gross income that is greater than $100,000 for an individual or $200,000 for married persons filing a joint return. The bill also creates an individual or corporate deduction, as applicable, of up to $4,000 for the amount a child day center or child day program paid or contributed to a customer's or client's prepaid tuition contract or college savings trust account entered into with the Virginia College Savings Plan. The bill also provides a nonrefundable income tax credit for taxable years 2024 through 2028 for 35 percent of expenses incurred by a business during the taxable year for contributions into a Virginia College Savings Plan account owned by an employee of the business. If the employee receiving the contribution is a qualified employee, as defined in the bill, the bill specifies that the credit shall not exceed $500 annually for each such employee. If the employee receiving the contribution is a qualified employee who is not highly compensated, as defined in the bill, the bill specifies that the credit shall not exceed $1,000 annually for each such employee. The bill provides that the total amount of tax credits available for a calendar year shall not exceed $5 million and that any unused tax credit may be carried over for five years.
Health professions; universal licensure; requirements. Requires health regulatory boards within the Department of Health Professions to recognize licenses or certifications issued by other United States jurisdictions, as defined in the bill, as fulfillment for licensure or certification in the Commonwealth if certain conditions are met. The bill also requires such health regulatory boards to recognize work experience as fulfillment for licensure or certification in the Commonwealth if certain conditions are met. The bill does not apply to licensure for physicians or dentists.
Standards of Quality; Standards of Learning assessments; development and administration of assessments; assessments in languages other than English; requirements. Requires the Board of Education to develop all Standards of Learning assessments using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, as defined in the bill. The bill also requires the Board to develop and implement policies providing for the development and administration of all Standards of Learning assessments in languages other than English that are identified as being present to a significant extent in the participating student population. The bill requires such policies to provide that each local school board provide appropriate accommodations on such assessments for eligible students who are English language learners, including providing for administration of such assessments for any student who is an English language learner in grades three through eight who has been identified as having limited English proficiency and has participated in an English language proficiency program for no more than a total of three school years. The bill provides, however, that each local school board, on the recommendation of English language learner faculty that any such student has not yet reached sufficient English proficiency, may provide on an individual case-by-case basis for the administration of any such Standards of Learning assessment in one of such top three languages other than English for a period that does not exceed two additional consecutive years. The provisions of the bill are required to be implemented by the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year.
School boards; employee criminal history records checks and applications; penalty for noncompliance. Clarifies that certain school board employees who are (i) employed in an in-person or remote capacity or some combination thereof or (ii) fully licensed, provisionally licensed, or unlicensed are subject to the requirements in existing law to undergo a criminal history records check and a search of the registry of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect and to disclose certain criminal history information at the employment application stage and upon arrest. The bill provides that in the event that any school board fails or refuses to perform its duty to require any employee to undergo a criminal history records check as set forth in relevant law, each individual member of such board is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor and his position on such school board shall be deemed vacant.
Based solely on the provided context, a detailed summary of HB 1314's policy provisions cannot be generated. The title and abstract identify the bill's focus on regulating political campaign advertisements sponsored by individuals or nonparty committees, but the context does not include the bill's specific text, mechanisms, or concrete policy changes. The recent actions (e.g., committee assignments, continuances) indicate the bill is pending but do not describe its content. Without the actual bill language or a substantive summary, a factual policy description cannot be provided.
Certified nursing facilities; administrative sanctions; facilities subject to minimum standards. Amends the administrative sanctions that may be imposed on certified nursing facilities in relation to compliance with staffing requirements. The bill directs the State Health Commissioner, in determining whether or not to impose sanctions, to make the determination of whether a certified nursing facility was located in a medically underserved area that severely limited the ability of the certified nursing facility to recruit and retain direct care staff. The bill requires nursing facilities subject to a corrective action plan to demonstrate compliance with the corrective action plan on a quarterly basis. Under the bill, in determining whether a corrective action plan is needed, the Commissioner shall consider certain evidence of direct care staff hours, unless the facility has had a change in ownership. The bill changes from three to two the number of corrective action plans after which, if a a certified nursing facility fails to show compliance or improvement, the Commissioner may place the facility on probation. The bill also includes all nursing homes eligible to receive Medicaid reimbursement for residents in the list of facilities subject to minimum standards for (i) construction and maintenance; (ii) operation, staffing, and equipping; and (iii) the qualifications and training of staff. The bill changes the effective date of certain provisions passed in the 2023 Session of the General Assembly relating to staffing requirements for certified nursing facilities from July 1, 2025, to July 1, 2024.
Department of Energy; data center energy usage. Requires each data center located in the Commonwealth to make a quarterly energy source report to the Department of Energy's Division of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency that identifies the amount of energy, disaggregated by the source of energy, consumed by the data center in the previous quarter. The bill requires the Division to publish aggregate deidentified data from such reports on its website. The bill also directs the Secretary of Commerce and Trade to convene a work group to estimate the future energy demands of the data center industry in the Commonwealth. The bill requires the work group to include representatives from the Department of Energy, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority, the State Corporation Commission, the data center industry, electric utilities, and other interested stakeholders. The Secretary is required to report the findings of the work group to the General Assembly by November 30, 2024.
Public school funding; nonpersonal cost categories; federal fund deduction methodology; support services. Requires the Department of Education, (i) in calculating nonpersonal costs in the Standards of Quality funding formula, to include the costs associated with leased facilities and work-related employee travel and (ii) in calculating the deduction of federal funds in the Standards of Quality funding formula, to examine actual school division spending on support costs as a percentage of actual school division spending on all public education costs, with certain exceptions such as food service. The bill also requires support services positions, which includes positions in each local school division that the school board deems necessary for the efficient and cost-effective operation and maintenance of its public schools, to be funded based on a calculation of prevailing costs and prohibits such positions from being subject to any method of funding calculation that caps the number of funded support services positions based on a ratio of such positions to students enrolled in the local school division.
License plate readers; penalties. Provides requirements for the use of license plate readers, defined in the bill, by law-enforcement agencies. The bill requires such agencies to enter into an agreement with the license plate reader owner or other responsible non-law-enforcement entity to operate a data trust, defined in the bill, to store the data collected by a license plate reader and requires any such law-enforcement agency to apply to the data trust for access to such data. The bill limits the use of license plate readers to scanning, detecting, and identifying license plate numbers for the purpose of identifying vehicles involved in certain crimes.