Del. Nick Freitas

Alcoholic beverage control; retail privatizationof government stores. Provides for the issuance of a "packagestore" license to authorize the retail sale of alcoholic beveragesfor off-premises consumption. The bill provides that persons holdinga retail off-premises wine and beer license are eligible to obtaina package store license. The bill also requires the Board of Directorsof the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (the Board)to dispose of all real estate used as government stores and to terminateleased property upon which the Board has operated a government store.The bill requires the Board to complete an implementation study byJanuary 1, 2023, on how it will privatize government stores. Thebill directs the Board to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the bill. The bill contains numerous technicalamendments.

Home instruction and private school tax credit.Creates an individual, nonrefundable income tax credit for taxableyears 2022 through 2026, for amounts paid by the parent or legalguardian of a child for the child's home instruction expenses or tuitionfor attending an accredited private school in Virginia. The creditshall equal the lesser of the amount actually paid in the taxableyear for such costs or half of the average state standards of quality funding per student per year. The credit may be taken for instruction-relatedmaterials, courses, or programs used in home instruction or for privateschool tuition. The credit is available for two years per child andcan be carried forward for five taxable years.

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

Certain school board property; establishmentof gun-free zone permitted. Removes the authority of any schoolboard to deem any non-school zone building or property that it ownsor leases where employees of such school board are regularly presentfor the purpose of performing their official duties as a gun-freezone. Under current law, any school board may prohibit any individual,subject to exceptions, from knowingly possessing, purchasing, transferring,carrying, storing, or transporting firearms, ammunition, or componentsor combination thereof while such individual is upon such property.

Elections; absentee voting; ballots to be sortedand results to be reported by precinct. Provides that absentee ballots processed at a central absentee precinct must be sorted bythe precinct to which the voter who cast the absentee ballot is assignedand that the resulting vote totals from such ballots must be reportedseparately for each voter precinct.

Sales tax; exemption for food purchased forhuman consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Exemptsfood purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygieneproducts (the grocery tax) from all state, regional, and local salestaxes.

Education Savings Account Program; establishment. Establishes the Education Savings Account Program (the Program),to be administered by the Department of Education (the Department)with assistance from each local school board, whereby the parentof any elementary or secondary school student who (i) is a memberof a household whose annual income does not exceed two times theannual household income that would qualify the student for free orreduced-price lunch and (ii) was eligible to attend a public schoolin the Commonwealth in the preceding semester or is starting elementaryor secondary school in the Commonwealth for the first time is eligibleto receive an education savings account, for as long as the studentis of school age and the amount of which is determined pursuant toa calculation set forth in the bill, to cover certain enumeratededucational expenses for his child. The bill requires the Departmentto establish rules and regulations for the Program and contains conditions,limitations, and other requirements for the Program, including provisionsrelating to the accountability and educational autonomy of individualsand entities receiving account funds to cover qualified expenses.

Control of firearms by localities. Removes the authority for a locality by ordinance to prohibit the possession or carrying of firearms, ammunition, or components or any combination thereof in (i) any building, or part thereof, owned or used by such locality for governmental purposes; (ii) any public park owned or operated by the locality; (iii) any recreation or community center facility; or (iv) any public street, road, alley, or sidewalk or public right-of-way or any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public and is being used by or is adjacent to a permitted event or an event that would otherwise require a permit. The bill provides that any firearm received by the locality pursuant to a buy-back program shall be offered for sale by public auction or sealed bids to a person licensed as a dealer. Current law provides that any such firearm shall be destroyed by the locality unless the person surrendering the firearm requests in writing that the firearm be offered for sale. The bill also limits the authority of localities and state governmental entities to bring lawsuits against certain firearms manufacturers and others.

Public education; student education accounts.Permits any school board to establish a program to create savingsaccounts for students to be used for alternative educational programs.The bill requires the Department of Education to establish policiesand procedures under which the parent of each student may use suchfunds on public or private educational programs.

Purchase of handguns; limitation on handgunpurchases. Removes the prohibition on any person who is not a licensed firearms dealer from purchasing more than one handgun ina 30-day period. Current law makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for aviolation of this provision, subject to certain exemptions.