Del. Clint Jenkins

Teacher compensation; at or above national average. Requires public school teachers to be compensated at a rate that is at or above the national average. Under current law, compensation at such rate is aspirational. The foregoing provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. The bill requires funding to be provided on an incremental basis pursuant to the general appropriation act to implement such teacher compensation rate by the effective date.

Study; JLARC; effects of gun violence on communities;report. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commissionto study the social, physical, emotional, and economic effects ofgun violence on communities across the Commonwealth.

Free use of toll facilities; teachers, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel. Authorizes any teacher employed by a public school district, firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel to use all toll bridges, toll ferries, toll tunnels, and toll roads in the Commonwealth without the payment of toll while traveling between his place of residence and his place of employment.

Interest on fines and costs in criminal casesand traffic infractions. Eliminates the accrual of interest onany fine or costs imposed in a criminal case or in a case involvinga traffic infraction. The bill provides that any such fine or coststhat have accrued interest prior to July 1, 2020, shall cease toaccrue interest on July 1, 2020, and such accrued interest may bewaived by any court. A person who owes fines and costs on which interesthas accrued may move any court in which he owes fines and costs to waive the interest that accrued on such fines and costs and shallhave such interest waived for any period of incarceration.

Firearms; restoration of rights of persons convictedof violent felonies. Provides that a person who has been convictedof an act of violence or a violent felony may not petition for arestoration order that unconditionally authorizes possessing, transporting,or carrying a firearm, ammunition for a firearm, or a stun weaponuntil one year after his civil rights have been restored by the Governoror other appropriate authority. The bill further provides that ifsuch person is convicted of a violent misdemeanor, defined in thebill, after his civil rights have been restored, then he may not petition for such order until two years after the date of conviction.

Study; Department of Rail and Public Transportation; Commonwealth Corridor passenger rail service; report. Requeststhe Department of Rail and Public Transportation to study the feasibilityof an east-west Commonwealth Corridor passenger rail service connectingHampton Roads, Richmond, and the New River Valley.

Study; JLARC; teacher salaries and benefits in the Commonwealth; regional competitiveness of such salaries and benefits; report. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study teacher salaries and benefits in the Commonwealth, including the regional competitiveness of such salaries and benefits, by analyzing the relationship between (i) salaries and benefits provided to teachers in the Commonwealth, states adjoining the Commonwealth, and the District of Columbia and (ii) the recruitment and retention of teachers in each such state and the District of Columbia.

Study; Virginia State Crime Commission; thelow use of geriatric parole; report. Directs the Virginia StateCrime Commission to study the low use of geriatric parole and theappropriate structure for increasing the use of geriatric parole.

Juveniles; trial as adult. Increases from14 years of age to 16 years of age the minimum age at which a juvenilecan be tried as an adult in circuit court for a felony.

Paid family and medical leave program. Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administera paid family and medical leave program with benefits beginning January 1, 2023. Under the program, benefits are paid to eligible employees for family and medical leave. Funding for the program isprovided through premiums assessed to employers and employees beginningin 2022. The amount of a benefit is 80 percent of the employee'saverage weekly wage, not to exceed 80 percent of the state weeklywage, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflectchanges in the statewide average weekly wage. The measure caps theduration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any application year. The billprovides self-employed individuals the option of participating inthe program.