Rep. Mike Webert

Real property tax; special assessment for land preservation. Allows a locality to provide for the use value assessment and taxation of qualifying leased real estate. Qualifying leased real estate is defined in the bill as real estate devoted to open-space use that is subject to an active lease with a lessor who is using the property for agricultural purposes. The taxpayer seeking to qualify for the different assessment of any such qualifying leased real estate must apply to the commissioner of the revenue and provide any documentation necessary to determine eligibility.

Digital Right to Repair Act; access to diagnostics, tools, service documentation, and firmware; penalties; civil action. Requires an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of digital electronic equipment, or parts for such equipment, to make available to owners of such equipment and to independent repair providers, on fair and reasonable terms, documentation, parts, and tools for purposes of diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of such equipment. The bill requires, for digital electronic equipment that contains an electronic security lock or other security-related function, OEMs to make available to the owners of such equipment and to independent repair providers, on fair and reasonable terms, any special documentation, parts, and tools needed to disable such lock or function and to reset it when disabled. A violation of the bill's provisions is a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. Any person who suffers a loss as the result of a violation of the bill's provisions shall be entitled to initiate an action for an injunction to enforce such provisions. The bill applies with respect to equipment sold or in use in the Commonwealth on or after January 1, 2026.

Virginia taxable income; standard deduction; sunset. Removes the sunset on elevated standard deduction amounts for single individuals and married persons that is scheduled to expire for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2026.

Office of New Americans Advisory Board; increase in membership. Increases from 18 to 21 the number of nonlegislative citizen members of the Office of New Americans Advisory Board and adds the Secretaries of Commerce and Trade, Education, Health and Human Resources, Labor, Public Safety and Homeland Security, and Transportation as ex officio members with nonvoting privileges. This bill was incorporated into HB 2279.

School-connected overdoses; policies relating to parental notification and response; requirements. Expands current law relating to school-connected overdose parental notification and response policies by, in addition to requiring the Board of Education to establish guidelines for school-connected overdose response and parental notification policies, requiring (i) each division superintendent or his designee to notify the parent of each student in the local school division of any suspected school-connected overdose, with school-connected overdose defined as any verified overdose that occurs on school premises during or after regular school hours or during school-sanctioned activities whether on or off school premises, within 24 hours of learning of the suspected overdose and requiring such notification to include as much information as is known about the circumstances surrounding the suspected overdose, to the extent that the disclosure of any such information is not prohibited by any applicable laws, rules, or regulations relating to the disclosure and protection of a minor's personal, confidential, or otherwise sensitive information, and (ii) each local school board to adopt, implement, and maintain policies consistent with the provisions of the bill and the guidelines developed by the Board of Education.

Pari-mutuel wagering; historical horse racing; percentage retained for distribution. Provides that, with respect to all authorized historical horse racing terminals, of the amount that a horse racing licensee retains from wagering on historical horse racing pools and in addition to the current distribution required under law, 0.025 percent each shall be distributed to the Shenandoah County Fair Association and the Great Meadow Foundation.

Siting of data centers; site assessment. Allows a locality, prior to any approval for the siting of a data center, to perform a site assessment to examine the effect of the data center on water usage and carbon emissions within the locality.

Counties, cities and towns; powers of local government; conveyance of real property; public hearing requirement. Adds to the list of exemptions from the requirement imposed upon localities to hold a public hearing prior to the disposition of real property owned by such locality the conveyance of any utility easement necessary to provide utilities to residential properties adjacent to property owned by the locality. Current law only excludes from such public hearing requirement (i) the leasing of real property to another public body, political subdivision, or authority and (ii) the conveyance of site development or utility easements related to transportation projects across public property.

Public utilities; classification of customers. Requires that a public electric utility or a public utility authorized to furnish water or water and sewer service include a separate classification for data centers when satisfying the existing requirement that any rate, toll, charge, or schedule of a public utility is only considered to be just and reasonable by the State Corporation Commission if the public utility has demonstrated that such rates, tolls, charges, or schedules contain reasonable classifications of customers.

Drinking water; maximum contaminant levels; water treatment systems; Rural Water Supply Program and Fund established. Directs the State Board of Health to adopt regulations to utilize point-of-use or point-of-entry drinking water treatment or filtration to remove or significantly reduce concentrations of contaminants of concern that meet or exceed any maximum contaminant level or health advisory for the same contaminant adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The bill also establishes the Rural Water Supply Program and Fund to allow the Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water to test and treat contaminated drinking water for individuals on private wells and small rural public water systems.