Del. Mark L. Keam

Commending the Virginia Manufacturers Association.

Study; Virginia State Crime Commission; hatecrimes and bias-motivated acts directed toward Asian Americans andPacific Islanders; report. Directs the Virginia State Crime Commission to study the increase in hate crimes and bias-motivated acts directedtoward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Commonwealth.

Virginia African Diaspora Advisory Board. Establishes the Virginia African Diaspora Advisory Board to advise the Governor on ways to improve economic and cultural links between the Commonwealth and African nations, with a focus on the areas of commerce and trade, agriculture, art, education, and government. The Board is composed of 18 nonlegislative citizen members, of whom at least 15 must be persons who identify as part of the African diaspora, to be appointed by the Governor. The Secretaries of Agriculture and Forestry, Commerce and Trade, and Education or their designees serve as ex officio members.

Administration of government; language accessequity; report. Establishes the Interagency Language Access WorkingGroup in the Office of the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusionwith the following membership: the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Director of the Office of the Children's Ombudsman, the Governor's Secretaries, and six nonlegislative citizen membersrepresenting organizations that represent individuals with languageaccess needs. The Working Group is established for the purpose ofmaximizing state policies, resources, technical assistance, and procurementpractices to further language access and equity in the Commonwealthand its state government agencies. The bill also requires each stateagency to designate a language access coordinator who will be responsiblefor the agency's annual language access report, the requirements ofwhich are set out in the bill. The Secretary of Administration isdirected to establish criteria for state agencies to procure languageinterpretation and translation services and to establish a policyfor compensating multilingual state employees who are required aspart of their job to provide interpretation, translation, or otherbilingual skills at least once a month.

Powers of local government; trees during development process; replacement and conservation. Expands to all localitiesprovisions that currently allow only certain localities to adopt anordinance providing for the planting and replacement of trees duringthe development process and adds more flexibility for implementationand management of tree canopy banks, tree canopy credits, and treecanopy requirements. The bill changes and updates standards, referencedocuments, and published reference texts, expands options for localitiesto disburse funds to charitable organizations, and adds percentage specifications for ordinances related to cemeteries. In addition,the bill removes the prohibition of invalidating local ordinancesadopted before July 1, 1990, the allowance of 10-year minimum requirementsfor pre-1990 ordinances, and the inability to invalidate an ordinanceadopted that relates to the replacement of trees during the developmentprocess in certain localities. The bill allows ordinances that havebeen made pursuant to the law prior to the effective date of the changes in this bill to not be invalidated by the changes. The billrequires the Virginia State Forester to create standards for treecanopy percentages and to select members for the Stakeholder Advisory Group, established by the bill to provide recommendations on suchstandards. Some provisions of the bill become effective on July 1, 2022, and some have a delayed effective date of January 1, 2023.

Telework expenses tax credit. Reinstatesthe telework expenses tax credit for taxable years 2022 through 2031.The previous version of the credit expired on January 1, 2019. Thebill removes requirements that were in place under the previous versionof the credit, such as requiring the employee and employer to signa telework agreement. The bill also eliminates a previous requirementthat credit claimants apply for and reserve credits in advance andinstead directs the Department of Taxation to develop proceduresfor claiming the credit.

Agrippa Hull Day. Designates May 21, in2022 and in each succeeding year, as Agrippa Hull Day in Virginia.

Prohibition of killing contests. Prohibitscontests and competitions that offer cash or prizes for the captureor killing of coyotes or fur-bearing animals.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; authority for localities to use cooperative procurement. Allows a public body to participate in cooperative procurement for construction contracts purchased by localities if the contract is valued at no greater than $200,000.

Public schools; English language learners. Requires state funding to be provided to support new divisionwide ratiosof English learner students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching positions, as follows: (i) for each English language learner identified as proficiency level one, one position per 25students; (ii) for each English language learner identified as proficiencylevel two, one position per 30 students; (iii) for each English languagelearner identified as proficiency level three, one position per 40 students; and (iv) for all other English language learners, one positionper 50 students.