Del. Vivian Watts

Collective bargaining by firefighters and emergency medical services providers. Authorizes firefighters and emergency medical services providers employed by a political subdivision of the Commonwealth to engage in collective bargaining through labor organizations or other designated representatives. The bill provides for the appointment of a three-member board of arbitration regarding any dispute arising between an employer and firefighters or emergency medical services providers. Under the bill, determinations made by such board of arbitration are final on a disputed issue and are binding on the parties involved.

Study; joint committee of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study fair school funding reform; report. Establishes a joint committee consisting of five members of the House Committee on Education and three members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study fair school funding reform by, among other things, utilizing the recommendations from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in its July 2023 report, "Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula," and any stakeholder input and feedback received by the joint committee to produce and submit to the Division of Legislative Automated Services by the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly an executive summary of its findings and recommendations.

Income tax; rolling conformity. Provides that when Virginia does not conform on a rolling basis to federal tax laws due to any changes in a single act of Congress with an impact of more than $15 million on revenues in the year in which the amendment was enacted or any of the next four years, such nonconformity shall not be considered for purposes of calculating the nonconformity threshold for all amendments in a year with a cumulative projected impact of more than $75 million in the year in which the amendments were enacted or any of the next four years.

Sales and use tax on services. Levies the retail sales and use tax on the following services: admissions; charges for recreation, fitness, or sports facilities; nonmedical personal services or counseling; dry cleaning and laundry services; companion animal care; residential home repair or maintenance, landscaping, or cleaning services when paid for directly by a resident or homeowner; vehicle and engine repair; repairs or alterations to tangible personal property; storage of tangible personal property; delivery or shipping services; travel, event, and aesthetic planning services; and communications services that are not subject to the communications sales and use tax and are not digital personal property. The bill also imposes the retail sales and use tax on digital personal property, defined in the bill as a digital product delivered electronically that the purchaser owns or has the ability to continually access without having to pay an additional subscription or usage fee to the seller after paying the initial purchase price. Revenues generated by the taxes levied on services and digital personal property shall be allocated in the same manner as other sales and use taxes; however, revenues from the state portion of the sales and use tax that would be allocated to the general fund shall instead be allocated to school divisions as follows: (i) 60 percent shall be distributed to localities on the basis of school-age population and (ii) 40 percent shall be distributed to localities on the basis of the high-need student population in the locality. The bill clarifies that a high-need student population includes students who are (a) automatically certified for free school meals because of participation in social services programs, (b) participants in a program of special education, or (c) English language learners. The bill provides certain exemptions to the sales and use tax on services, including health care services that must be performed by a person licensed or certified by the Department of Health Professions, veterinary services, professional services, Internet access services, and services provided by a person who does not receive more than $2,500 per year in gross receipts for performance of such services. The bill exempts services purchased by a nonprofit organization and services purchased by a homeowners' association or by a landlord for the benefit of his tenant. The bill also repeals the service exemptions currently provided for the sale of custom programs and modification of prewritten programs. The bill imposes the communications sales and use tax on prepaid calling services and on digital subscription services, defined in the bill as services for which the user pays in order to access and use software, reading materials, or other digital data or applications for a defined period of time, which products the user does not own or have permanent access to outside of such period of time.

Maddy summaryHB 1546 would exempt data centers from state sales and use taxes on specific equipment (like servers and storage systems) and supporting software used in their operations. This directly affects data center operators and technology companies building or expanding facilities in the state. The bill provides a tax break for qualifying hardware and software purchases, aiming to reduce costs for these facilities. It does not change existing tax rules for other businesses or industries. (Note: The bill remains pending in the Finance committee as of November 2024.)

Absentee voting in person; voter satellite offices; days and hours of operation. Authorizes the governing body of any county or city establishing voter satellite offices for absentee voting in person to prescribe, by ordinance, the dates and hours of operation for such offices. The bill prohibits any reduction in the dates or hours of operation of such offices to be enacted within 60 days of any general election.

Presidential electors; National Popular Vote Compact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known as the Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United States gives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the manner of awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agrees to award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A state may withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring within six months of the end of a President's term shall not become effective until a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the next term.

Division of Early Childhood Care and Education; Department of Education; comprehensive review of certain findings and recommendations relating to the quality of early childhood care and education in the Commonwealth; report. Requires the Division of Early Childhood Care and Education of the Department of Education, in consultation with the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to (i) conduct a comprehensive review of the findings and recommendations contained in the 2017 report of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, Improving Virginia's Early Childhood Development Programs, to determine what barriers, gaps, and deficiencies continue to exist in the provision of high-quality early childhood education and care in the Commonwealth, with a particular focus on gaps and deficiencies in the ongoing monitoring of Virginia Preschool Initiative program quality, including the collection and analysis of data relating to outcomes and kindergarten readiness, and (ii) report its findings and any associated policy recommendations to the Board of Education, the Governor, and the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2024.

Task Force on Maternal Health Data and Quality Measures; report. Directs the State Health Commissioner to reestablish the Task Force on Maternal Health Data and Quality Measures for the purpose of evaluating maternal health data collection processes to guide policies in the Commonwealth to improve maternal care, quality, and outcomes for all birthing people in the Commonwealth. The bill directs the Task Force to report its findings and conclusions to the Governor and General Assembly by December 1 of each year regarding its activities. This bill reestablishes the Task Force on Maternal Health Data and Quality Measures that concluded on December 1, 2023.

Public school staffing ratios; specialized student support positions. Increases the number of specialized student support positions required to be employed by each local school board from at least three to at least four such positions per 1,000 students in the local school division. Such specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions.