Virginia Bills

Authorizes the hiring of certified third-party professionals to administer any or all aspects of a program for the management of stormwater and erosion, including plan review and inspection but not including enforcement, on behalf of (i) an erosion and stormwater management program authority, which is the State Water Control Board or a locality approved by the State Water Control Board, or (ii) a stormwater management program authority, which can be a locality, a state entity, or another type of entity.

Adds three legislative members, two of whom shall be members of the House of Delegates appointed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates and one of whom shall be a member of the Senate appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules, to the Advisory Board on Teacher Education and Licensure. The bill provides an exception to the prohibition against service by legislators on boards within the executive branch for the Advisory Board.

Provides that if a residential dwelling unit is foreclosed upon and a tenant is lawfully occupying the dwelling unit at the time of the foreclosure, the foreclosure shall act as a termination of the rental agreement by the landlord. The bill also provides that, if there is in effect at the date of the foreclosure sale a written property management agreement between the landlord and a real estate licensee licensed pursuant to the provisions of § 54.1-2106.1, the foreclosure shall convert the property management agreement into a month-to-month agreement between the successor landlord and the real estate licensee acting as a managing agent, except in the event that the terms of the original property management agreement between the landlord and the real estate licensee acting as a managing agent require an earlier termination date. Except in the event of foreclosure, the bill permits a real estate licensee acting on behalf of a landlord client as a managing agent who elects to terminate the property management agreement to transfer any funds held in escrow by the licensee to the landlord client without his consent, provided that the real estate licensee provides written notice to each tenant that the funds have been so transferred. The bill provides that, in the event of foreclosure, a real estate licensee shall not transfer any funds to a landlord client whose property has been foreclosed upon. The bill provides immunity, in the absence of gross negligence or intentional misconduct, to any such licensee acting in compliance with the provisions of § 54.1-2108.1. The bill clarifies that a tenant residing in a dwelling unit that has been foreclosed upon is eligible to file an assertion pursuant to § 55-225.12 and that a court may order any moneys accumulated in escrow to be paid to the successor landlord or the successor landlord's managing agent, if any.

Reorganizes the provisions of the Code of Virginia related to the calculation of Virginia taxable income of residents. Current law sets out the additions, subtractions, deductions, and other modifications in one lengthy section. The reorganization creates four new, smaller sections for additions, subtractions, deductions, and other modifications, respectively, but does not make any substantive changes to the calculation of Virginia taxable income. The bill contains numerous technical amendments. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Code Commission.

Requires that written consent provided by the victim's next of kin to law enforcement is necessary, if the victim is a minor, before a law-enforcement agency may disclose any information that identifies the victim of a crime that resulted in the victim's death.

Adds physician assistant to the list of mental health service providers who have a duty to take precautions to protect third parties from violent behavior or other serious harm. This bill is identical to

Adds two new disclosures required to be made by a seller of residential real property to a purchaser, one for whether the property is subject to one or more conservation or other easements and a second for whether the property is subject to a community development authority approved by a local governing body. The bill also (i) adds a definitions section for the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act, (ii) provides for electronic delivery of required disclosures, and (iii) provides that the required disclosures provided by the Real Estate Board appear on its website. The bill has numerous technical amendments.

Directs the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency (the Center) to convene a work group to consider alternative methods of stormwater management in rural Tidewater localities. The bill provides that the group is to be facilitated by the Virginia Coastal Policy Center at William and Mary Law School and is to include representatives of institutions of higher education, state agencies, local governments, private industry, and other groups. The bill provides that the work group is to review and consider the creation of rural development growth areas, the development of a volume credit program, the payment of fees to support regional best management practices, and the allowance of the use of stormwater in highway ditches to generate volume credits. The bill requires the Center to report the results of the work group's examination to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources by January 1, 2018, which is the date the work group provisions of the bill are set to expire. The bill also delays from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018, the effective date of new stormwater laws enacted during the 2016 Session of the General Assembly.

Provides that the pecuniary liability of an employer for a medical service provided for the treatment of a traumatic injury or serious burn includes liability for any professional service rendered during the dates of service of the admission or transfer to a Level I or Level II trauma center or to a burn center, as applicable. The measure increases the initial charge outlier threshold, which under the stop-loss feature allows hospitals to receive payments or reimbursements that exceed the fee schedule amount for certain claims, from 150 percent of the maximum fee for the service set forth in the applicable fee schedule to 300 percent of such amount. The measure allows the Workers' Compensation Commission to adjust the charge outlier threshold percentage; under existing law, it is allowed only to decrease the percentage. The measure also (i) expands the definition of codes, as used in the provision directing the Commission to establish fee schedules for scheduled medical services, to include revenue codes, which are defined in the bill; (ii) clarifies the definition of "HCPCS codes"; (iii) directs the Commission to use the regulatory advisory panel on all matters involving or related to the fee schedule as deemed necessary by the Commission; (iv) adds a definition of "new type of technology"; and (v) extends the deadline by which the regulatory advisory panel is required to meet, review, and make recommendations to the Commission from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018. The bill contains an emergency clause.

Allows a locality to charge owners of property the cost the locality incurred in removing or repairing a building or structure on such property if permitted under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code in the event of an emergency.