Del. Vivian Watts

Commending Robert Eugene Foster, Jr.

Celebrating the life of Alan Arnold Diamonstein.

Transit funding. Raises the existing regional transportation fee, a grantor's tax, from $0.15 per $100 to $0.20 per $100 for localities in the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority that are also members of the Northern Virginia Transportation District. The bill requires half of the revenues to be deposited in the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Fund and half to be deposited in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Capital Fund. The rate of tax in the other localities will remain at $0.15 per $100, with one-third of the revenues to be retained by the locality to be used for transportation purposes and the other two-thirds to be deposited in the Northern Virginia Transportation District Fund. The bill also raises the existing transient occupancy tax in the localities located in the Northern Virginia Transportation District from $2 to $3, with all of the revenues from the tax being used to support WMATA. This bill incorporates HB 977.

Protective order; family abuse; restitution;temporary spousal support. Allows the court to order the respondentin a protective order issued in a case of family abuse to make restitutionto the petitioner for damage or destruction to the petitioner's property,medical bills related to treatment of injuries caused by the familyabuse, and petitioner's financial loss caused by the respondent.The bill further allows a court to issue a temporary spousal supportorder for support of the petitioner in conjunction with the issuanceof such a protective order.

Celebrating the life of William Griffith Thomas.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable GeraldL. Baliles.

Health insurance; mandated coverage for hearing aids for minors. Requires health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts to provide coverage for hearing aids and related services for children 18 years of age or younger when a licensed audiologist prescribes such hearing aids and related services. The coverage includes one hearing aid per hearing-impaired ear, up to a cost of $1,500, every 24 months. The measure applies to policies, contracts, and plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2021.

Income tax; rolling conformity with the Internal Revenue Code; nonconformance with certain amendments. Provides that Virginia shall generally conform to federal tax laws on a rolling basis, meaning that Virginia tax laws incorporate changes to the Internal Revenue Code as soon as Congress enacts them. The bill provides that Virginia will not conform to the reduction in the medical expense deduction floor in the federal Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020. However, the bill also provides that unless subsequently adopted by the General Assembly, Virginia shall not conform to any amendments to the Internal Revenue Code that have an impact of $10 million or more on Virginia tax revenues in the fiscal year in which the amendment was enacted or any of the next four years. The Secretary of Finance, in consultation with the Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committees on Appropriations and Finance, shall be responsible for determining when an amendment meets these criteria. The Secretary of Finance shall also provide an annual report to such Chairmen on the fiscal impact of amendments to the Internal Revenue Code. The bill applies to taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2019.

Prostitution-related crimes; minors; penalties. Makes it a Class 6 felony for an adult to visit a bawdy place with a minor when he knows that the bawdy place is used or to be used for lewdness, assignation, or prostitution. The bill also adds felony violations of such offense to (i) the list of offenses for which registration in the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry is required, (ii) the definition of violent felony for the purposes of the sentencing guidelines, (iii) the list of predicate criminal acts that constitutes the definition of street gangs, (iv) the list of offenses that may constitute racketeering under the Virginia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, and (v) the offenses that may be investigated by a multi-jurisdiction grand jury. The bill also makes applicable to all persons, regardless of the gender of the victim, the crimes of (a) assisting or aiding in the abduction of or threatening to abduct a female under 16 years of age for the purpose of concubinage or prostitution, which the bill also changes to include any person under 18 years of age, and (b) placing or leaving one's wife in a bawdy place.

Common-law crime of suicide. Abolishes thecommon-law crime of suicide. Suicide is currently a common-law crimein Virginia, although there is no statutorily prescribed punishment.