Rep. Chad Green

Adoption tax credit. Creates a tax creditfor taxable years 2024 through 2028 that may be claimed by an individualor married couple filing jointly for qualified adoption expenses,as defined in the bill. The bill imposes certain limitations onwho may claim this credit and how much credit may be claimed basedon a taxpayer's Virginia adjusted gross income.

Tangible personal property tax relief; rateof taxation. Removes the $950 million cap, beginning in tax year2025 and all tax years thereafter, on the amount of tangible personalproperty tax relief reimbursed to localities by the Commonwealth.The bill requires, for tax year 2025 and all tax years thereafter,each county, city, or town to reduce its local tax rate on qualifyingvehicles to no greater than $0.000001 per $100 of assessed value of the qualifying vehicle.

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; conservation officers. Extends membership in the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System (VaLORS) to conservation officers of the Department of Conservationand Recreation. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1,2025, and provides that such membership would apply only to serviceearned on or after July 1, 2025.

Local government employees; expression of certainopinions protected. Provides that an employee of a locality shallnot be penalized by his employer for expressing his opinion regardinga current or proposed regulation, rule, policy, position, or otheraction or purpose of a public body at an open meeting of such publicbody when such employee is speaking on his own behalf. The bill excludesany speech that is unprotected under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, including speech that (i) incites violence;(ii) is obscene, defamatory, or fraudulent; or (iii) discloses privilegedand confidential information. The bill specifies that for purposesof this provision an employee of a locality does not include anyperson appointed to a position in a locality by an elected officialor by a government body composed in whole or in part of electedofficials.

Eligible educator income tax deduction; homeschool instruction income tax credit. Increases from $500 to$1,500 for tax years 2024 through 2026 the amount of income tax deductioncertain eligible educators may deduct for qualifying expenses. The bill also creates a nonrefundable taxcredit for taxable years 2024 through 2028 for amounts paid by anindividual or married couple filing jointly for their child receivinghome instruction for (i) instruction-related materials, includingtextbooks, workbooks, and supplies, or (ii) courses or programs used in home instruction. The bill provides that the credit equalsthe lesser of the amount actually paid during the year for such costsor $3,000.

Law-enforcement officers; Internet publicationof personal information; exemption. Prohibits publication ofthe personal information of active and retired law-enforcement officerson the statewide geographic information system (GIS) if a requestto redact such information is made by the officer to the entity that manages the GIS in the officer's locality. Current law prohibitsthe Commonwealth from publishing personal information on the Internetof public officials only if a petition has been granted by the circuitcourt.

Elections; voter identification containing photograph required; who may register up to and including the day of the election;absentee voting application requirements; absentee voting in personavailability; return of absentee ballots. Requires presentationof a form of identification containing a photograph in order to voteand provides that a voter who does not have one of the required formsof identification is entitled to cast a provisional ballot. The bill repeals a provision that would permit any person who is qualifiedto register to vote to do so in person up to and including the dayof the election and limits the persons who are entitled to registerto vote after the close of registration records to members of a uniformedservice on active duty, persons who are residing temporarily outsideof the United States, and their spouses and dependents. The billlimits the period during which absentee voting in person is availablefrom 45 days preceding the date of the election to the 14 days precedingthe date of the election. The bill requires that absentee ballotsreturned by mail be returned to the office of the general registrarby the close of polls on election day and be postmarked on or beforethe Saturday preceding the date of the election. The bill eliminatesthe use of drop-off locations for the return of absentee ballots.The bill requires absentee ballot applications to contain the lastfour digits of the applicant's social security number.

Personal property tax; classification; sunsetdate. Removes the sunset date from the provision of law that authorizes localities to classify most motor vehicles as a class ofproperty subject to a different rate of tax or rate of assessmentfrom the rate applicable to the general class of tangible personalproperty. Under current law, such classification would expire beginningwith taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.

Disorderly conduct; penalty. Removes theprohibition on the applicability of the offense of disorderly conductin public place to any elementary or secondary school student ifthe disorderly conduct occurred on the property of any elementaryor secondary school, on a school bus, or at any activity conductedor sponsored by any elementary or secondary school.

Smithsonian; return of human bodily remainsto Virginia descendants; review; compensation. Requests the Smithsonianto complete a full review of all human bodily remains within itscare, to return the bodily remains of all ancestors of Virginia citizensthat are within its care due to unethical practices, and to compensatefamilies for the reasonable funeral and burial expenses related to such return. The bill also requests that, upon completion of suchreview, the Smithsonian publicly publish such review, including thecircumstances resulting in its acquisition of such remains and anyrecords that might assist in the identification of the descendantsof the individuals whose human bodily remains are included in anyof the Smithsonian's collections.