Del. Marcus Simon

Study; JLARC; remote sales and use tax distributionto localities; report. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit andReview Commission (JLARC) to study the distribution of remote salesand use taxes to localities. JLARC shall determine whether currentpractices are distributing the proper amount of revenue to each localityand recommend to the General Assembly any changes needed to improvethe system.

Paid family and medical leave program. Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administera paid family and medical leave program with benefits beginning January 1, 2024. Under the program, benefits are paid to eligible employees for family and medical leave. Funding for the program isprovided through premiums assessed to employers and employees beginningin 2023. The amount of a benefit is 80 percent of the employee'saverage weekly wage, not to exceed 80 percent of the state weeklywage, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflectchanges in the statewide average weekly wage. The measure caps theduration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any application year. The billprovides self-employed individuals the option of participating inthe program.

Vehicle registration fees; Public Safety TrustFund. Imposes an additional $4 vehicle registration fee to be deposited into the Public Safety Trust Fund, established by the bill.The moneys in the Public Safety Trust Fund are to be used to eliminatebarriers to an inclusive, diverse, and well-qualified workforce byaddressing compensation issues related to staffing, retention, and pay compression at the Department of State Police.

Required release of video or audio recording;discharge of firearm or use of stun weapon or chemical irritant by law-enforcement officer. Requires that, whenever a law-enforcementofficer (i) discharges a firearm or (ii) uses a stun weapon or chemicalirritant on a person resulting in death or serious bodily injury,any video or audio recording that relates to such incident producedor obtained by a law-enforcement officer be open to inspection andavailable for release and posted on a website that is maintained by the law-enforcement agency or on any other website on which the law-enforcement agency generally posts information and that is availableto the public or that clearly describes how the public may accesssuch data within 15 days of producing or obtaining such video oraudio recording. The bill includes exceptions to such release. Thebill also provides that any person denied the rights and privilegesconferred may proceed to enforce such rights and privileges by filinga petition for mandamus or injunction pursuant to the Virginia Freedomof Information Act.

Workers' compensation; injuries caused by repetitiveand sustained physical stressors. Provides that, for the purposesof the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act, "occupational disease"includes injuries from conditions resulting from repetitive and sustainedphysical stressors, including repetitive and sustained motions, exertions,posture stress, contact stresses, vibration, or noise. The bill providesthat such injuries are covered under the Act. Such coverage doesnot require that the injuries occurred over a particular period,provided that such a period can be reasonably identified and documentedand further provided that the employment is shown to have primarily caused the injury, considering all causes.

Pandemic Remediation Task Force established. Establishes the 22-member Pandemic Remediation Task Force (the task force) as an advisory task force in the executive branch of state government, to be administered by the Department of Education, for the purpose of making recommendations on strategies for improving public education in the Commonwealth in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that can be implemented in each region and local school division in order to achieve a measure of uniformity in such improvements across the Commonwealth. The bill requires the task force to (i) develop recommendations for policies and funding that would assist public elementary and secondary school students impacted by school closures and the remote learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic to adequately obtain core educational material that they may not have otherwise successfully retained during the course of such pandemic; (ii) develop a uniform strategy for public elementary and secondary schools to effectively identify students in need of remediation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide remediation coursework and resources to such students; (iii) consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement gaps and make recommendations on the interventions and additional services, such as tutoring, mentoring, and services from private educational service providers, that may be necessary to ensure that such gaps do not widen further beyond pre-pandemic levels; and (iv) submit to the Governor and the General Assembly, no later than December 1, an annual report on its work. The task force has a sunset date of July 1, 2024.

Memorializing Congress; H.R. 6422; NationalInfrastructure Bank. Urges the Congress of the United Statesto pass H.R. 6422 and create a National Infrastructure Bank to financeurgently needed infrastructure projects.

Suspension or modification of sentence; transferto the Department of Corrections. Provides that if a person hasbeen sentenced for a felony to the Department of Corrections (theDepartment), the court that heard the case, if it appears compatiblewith the public interest and there are circumstances in mitigationof the offense, may, at any time before the person is transferredto the Department or regardless of whether the person has been transferredto the Department, at any time within 12 months of entry of the sentencingorder, suspend or otherwise modify the unserved portion of such asentence. Additionally, notwithstanding the foregoing, the bill providesthat for good cause shown and in the interest of justice the courtmay, at any time before the sentence has been completely served, suspend the unserved portion of any such sentence, place the personon probation for such time as the court shall determine, or otherwisemodify the sentence imposed. Current law allows such suspension ormodification of the unserved portion of a sentence only if the personhas not yet been transferred to the Department of Corrections.

Teacher compensation; at or above national average.Requires that public school teachers be compensated at a rate thatis at or above the national average. Under current law, compensationat such rate is aspirational. The bill requires state funding tobe provided pursuant to the general appropriation act in a sum sufficientto fund a 4.5 percent annual increase for public school teacher salaries,effective from the 2022-23 school year through the 2026-27 schoolyear. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2022.

Presidential electors; National Popular VoteCompact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known asthe Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by NationalPopular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United Statesgives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the mannerof awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agreesto award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receivesthe most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessinga majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A statemay withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring withinsix months of the end of a President's term shall not become effectiveuntil a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the next term.