Del. Shelly Simonds

Retail Small Business Grant Program and Fund.Establishes the Retail Small Business Grant Program and Fund to supportexisting Virginia small businesses, attract new businesses, increasethe Commonwealth's tax base, create new job opportunities for Virginiaresidents, and enhance commercial activity in Virginia. The billprovides that an eligible Virginia small business, defined in thebill, is eligible for grants of up to $50,000. The total amount ofgrants awarded in a fiscal year is capped at $10 million.

Teacher Training Corps; report. Establishesthe Teacher Training Corps for the purpose of attracting and retainingpublic elementary and secondary school teachers in school divisionsin the Commonwealth by awarding scholarships to students who obtainteaching degrees and certifications at participating institutionsand requiring such students to fill teacher positions for specifiedperiods of time at high-needs schools, as defined in the bill, andmeet other requirements. The bill also establishes the Teacher TrainingCorps Scholarship Fund and Program for the purpose of funding such scholarships at the participating institutions of Longwood University,Norfolk State University, Radford University, and Virginia CommonwealthUniversity. Finally, the bill establishes the 12-member Teacher TrainingCorps Commission to administer the Teacher Training Corps Scholarship Program and directs the Commission to begin meeting on or after September1, 2022, establish the parameters for the Program, and award thefirst scholarships pursuant to the Program prior to the beginningof the 2023-2024 academic year.

Electric cooperatives; net energy metering foragricultural customer-generators; report. Removes the July 1,2019, sunset provision of the net energy metering program for agricultural customer-generators interconnected with electric cooperatives. Thebill provides that, for the purposes of net metering, an agricultural customer-generator may aggregate energy generated on noncontiguousparcels of land if the parcels are (i) owned and operated by thesame agricultural customer-generator and (ii) located within a reasonabledistance of the customer's original interconnection site. The billdirects the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry to convene a workgroupfor the purpose of assessing policy concerns related to the implementationof small-scale solar energy projects designed to meet the onsite energy needs of agricultural operations in the Commonwealth, and directsthe workgroup to report its recommendations to the House Committeeon Agriculture, Chesapeake & Natural Resources and the Senate Committeeon Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources by December 1, 2022.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; Virginia Initiative for Education and Work; sanctions. Lowers from thefull amount of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)grant to a maximum of six percent of the TANF grant the amount alocal department of social services can impose as a sanction on aparent for noncompliance with the requirements of the Virginia Initiativefor Education and Work.

Public institutions of higher education; admission, in-state tuition, and tuition waivers; members of certain AmericanIndian tribes. Requires each public institution of higher educationto establish and implement an admissions policy whereby a certainnumber of annual offers of student admission is reserved for individualswho are members of a state-recognized or federally recognized American Indian tribe that is headquartered in the Commonwealth. The billdeclares eligible for in-state tuition charges regardless of domicileany non-Virginia student who is a member of a state-recognized or federally recognized American Indian tribe that is headquarteredin the Commonwealth. The bill also provides that any student whois a member of a state-recognized or federally recognized AmericanIndian tribe headquartered in the Commonwealth and who has been admittedto a public institution of higher education is eligible for a tuitionwaiver up to the amount necessary to cover the last-dollar cost ofthe institution's in-state tuition and mandatory fees after all other federal and state financial aid to which the student is entitledis taken into account.

Family caregiver tax credit. Creates a nonrefundableincome tax credit for taxable years 2022 through 2026 for expensesincurred by an individual in caring for an eligible family member,defined in the bill, who requires assistance with one or more activitiesof daily living, also defined in the bill. The credit equals 50 percentof eligible expenditures incurred by the caregiver up to $1,000. Inorder to qualify for the credit, the family caregiver must (i) notreceive any compensation or reimbursement for the eligible expendituresand (ii) have federal adjusted gross income that is no greater than$100,000 for an individual or $200,000 for married persons. The billrequires the Tax Commissioner to establish guidelines for claimingthe credit and provides that any unused credit may be carried forwardby the taxpayer for five taxable years following the taxable yearfor which the credit was issued. The bill is a recommendation ofthe Joint Commission on Health Care.

Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act;landlord remedies; noncompliance with rental agreement. Increasesfrom five days to 14 days the mandatory waiting period after a landlordserves written notice on a tenant notifying the tenant of his nonpaymentof rent and of the landlord's intention to terminate the rental agreementif rent is not paid before the landlord may pursue remedies for terminationof the rental agreement.

Fines, costs, forfeitures, penalties, and restitution; collection fees; assessment against incarcerated individuals. Providesthat notwithstanding any other provision of law, no collection fees,including the fees of any private attorneys or collection agencies,administrative fees, or any other fees related to collection activities,shall be assessed for the collection of any fines, costs, forfeitures,penalties, or restitution imposed in a criminal case or in a caseinvolving a traffic infraction (i) for any period during which thedefendant is incarcerated and (ii) for a period of 90 days followingthe date of the defendant's release from incarceration if the sentenceincludes an active term of incarceration.

Department of Education; school division maintenancereserve tool. Requires the Department of Education, in consultationwith the Department of General Services, to develop or adopt and maintain a data collection tool to assist each school board to determinethe relative age of each public school building in the local schooldivision and the amount of maintenance reserve funds that are necessaryto restore each such building. The bill requires each school boardto provide to the Department of Education in a timely fashion thelocal data that is necessary to ensure that such tool remains relevantand useful for the determination of maintenance reserve needs. Thebill requires the Department of Education to consider converting or using as a template the Department of General Services' M-R FIXtool to meet the above requirement to maintain such a tool. This bill is a recommendation of the Commission on School Constructionand Modernization.

Tribal nations; acknowledging harmful historyand policies in the Commonwealth. Expresses the sense of theHouse of Delegates in acknowledging with profound regret the existence, acceptance, and perpetuation of the dispossession of lands and theracist and assimilationist policies designed to erase the identity,culture, and sovereignty of tribal nations in the Commonwealth.