Del. Lee Ware

General Assembly Conflicts of Interests Act; definition of "gift." Excludes from the definition of a gift, for purposes of the General Assembly Conflicts of Interests Act, food and beverages that are consumed by a legislator while sitting and sharing a meal with at least one legislator of a different political party.

Medical Conscience Protection Act established. Establishes the right of a health care professional not to participate in any medical procedure or service that violates such health care professional's conscience, as those terms and conditions are defined in the bill. The bill provides protections for health care professionals who disclose violations of the bill or report violations of laws or ethical guidelines for the safe provision of any medical procedure or service. The bill also provides a private right of action for any party harmed by violations of the bill.

Campaign finance; prohibited contributions to candidates; Phase I Utility and Phase II Utility. Prohibits candidates, campaign committees, and political committees from soliciting or accepting contributions from any public utility, as defined in the bill, and prohibits any public utility or any political committee established by such public utility from making any such contribution.

Estimated tax; failure by individual, trust, or estate to pay. Increases from $150 to $1,000 the maximum underpayment of estimated tax for which no addition to tax shall be added.

Maddy summarySJ 307 is a commemorative resolution honoring Joy Ann Durham Painter. It does not create new laws or affect any policies, as it is a ceremonial resolution expressing recognition for an individual's life. The resolution passed both the Senate (January 30, 2025) and House (February 3, 2025) without amendments. It serves solely to acknowledge and celebrate Joy Ann Durham Painter's contributions.

Short-term rentals; registration; civil penalty. Directs the Department of Taxation to establish a registry of short-term rental properties and require accommodations providers and intermediaries to register. Under the bill, an accommodations provider shall provide to the Department its name and the address of each property it offers for short-term rental. The bill states that the Department shall issue each such accommodations provider a unique numerical identifier for each such property. An accommodations intermediary shall provide the Department its name and the contact information for the individual responsible for liaising with state and local officials regarding noncompliant short-term rental listings. The bill states that as a condition of listing a short-term rental on its platform, an accommodations intermediary shall require each accommodations provider to provide such provider's name and the unique numerical identifier and specific address for each short term-rental offered. Under the bill, such information, as well as information regarding receipts and taxes paid, shall be provided to the Department by the accommodations intermediary on a quarterly basis. However, an accommodations intermediary shall not be required to provide such information to the Department if the intermediary provides monthly reports of property addresses and gross receipts for all accommodations facilitated by the accommodations intermediary to each locality in which an accommodation is located. Such monthly reports are a compliance requirement imposed by law for the payment of transient occupancy taxes. The bill states that the Department shall provide the commissioner of the revenue for each locality with access to the registry and information contained therein. The commissioner of the revenue shall notify an accommodations intermediary of any short-term rental on its platform that is not lawfully authorized to be offered on its platform, and the accommodations intermediary shall remove any such listing from its platform. Under the bill, any accommodations intermediary who does not remove such a listing from its platform shall be subject to a civil penalty of $1,000, to be paid into the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. Finally, the bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.

Line of Duty Act; payments to beneficiaries. Provides that if a deceased person, as that term is defined in the Line of Duty Act, died as a result of certain cancers within 10 years from his date of retirement, his beneficiary shall be entitled to the payment of certain benefits. Under current law, such beneficiary shall be entitled to such payment if the deceased person's death (i) arose out of and in the course of his employment or (ii) was within five years from his date of retirement.

High school graduation requirements; passing score on select questions from U.S. Naturalization Test. Requires the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to require, except in the case of a high school student whose individualized education program indicates otherwise, each high school student to take and correctly answer at least 70 percent of the questions on a test composed of at least 25 but not more than 50 of the questions on the civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test in order to graduate high school with a standard or advanced studies diploma, provided that such student may take such test at any time during grades nine through 12 and as many times during such period as necessary to achieve the minimum 70 percent passing score.

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.

Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Marine Resources Commission; study of ecology, fishery impacts, and economic importance of Atlantic menhaden; report. Directs the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in collaboration with the Marine Resources Commission and certain stakeholders, as provided in the bill, to conduct a three-year study of the ecology, fishery impacts, and economic importance of the Atlantic menhaden population in the waters of the Commonwealth. The bill requires VIMS to provide a report on its findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources no later than October 1, 2027.