Del. Irene Shin

Common interest communities; pesticides; prohibition on use. Clarifies that common interest community associations may ban the use of pesticides in or upon any common area or common element, as defined in relevant law. The bill also allows such associations to establish reasonable restrictions on the use of pesticides within the common interest community if such use might reasonably affect any lot, common area, unit, or common element.

Department of Environmental Quality; enforcement of regulations; Clean Water Act; cooling water intakes at power plants. Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to promptly enforce federal regulations implementing a provision of the federal Clean Water Act for cooling water intakes at power plants to reduce negative impacts on fish populations in the waters of the Commonwealth.

Public high schools; personnel; career coach required. Requires each school board to employ at least one career coach in each public high school in the local school division whose duties are required to include assisting students with securing internships, externships, and credentialing opportunities as required by the Profile of a Virginia Graduate, providing students with information on apprenticeship programs, and connecting students to career opportunities. The bill provides that each such individual shall be employed in addition to and not as a replacement for the required school counselor positions, specialized student support positions, or support services positions.

Campaign finance; prohibited personal use of campaign funds; complaints, hearings, civil penalty, and advisory opinions. Prohibits any person from converting contributions to a candidate or his campaign committee to personal use. Current law only prohibits such conversion of contributions with regard to disbursement of surplus funds at the dissolution of a campaign or political committee. The bill provides that a contribution is considered to have been converted to personal use if the contribution, in whole or in part, is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense that would exist irrespective of the person's seeking, holding, or maintaining public office but allows a contribution to be used for the ordinary and accepted expenses related to campaigning for or holding elective office, including the use of campaign funds to pay for the candidate's child care expenses that are incurred as a direct result of campaign activity. The bill provides that any person subject to the personal use ban may request an advisory opinion from the State Board of Elections on such matters. The bill directs the State Board of Elections to adopt emergency regulations similar to those promulgated by the Federal Election Commission to implement the provisions of the bill and to publish an updated summary of Virginia campaign finance law that reflects the State Board of Elections' and Attorney General's guidance on the provisions of such law that prohibit the personal use of campaign funds and any new regulations promulgated by the State Board of Elections.

Income tax; contributions to Virginia College Savings Plan accounts; report. Increases the maximum individual income tax deduction for amounts paid or contributed to a prepaid tuition contract or college savings trust account entered into with the Virginia College Savings Plan from $4,000 to $7,500 in taxable year 2024, $11,000 in taxable year 2025, and $15,000 for taxable year 2026 and thereafter. Such amount shall be adjusted for changes in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) beginning in taxable year 2024. The deduction is limited to $4,000 for taxpayers with federal adjusted gross income that is greater than $100,000 for an individual or $200,000 for married persons filing a joint return. The bill also creates an individual or corporate deduction, as applicable, of up to $4,000 for the amount a child day center or child day program paid or contributed to a customer's or client's prepaid tuition contract or college savings trust account entered into with the Virginia College Savings Plan. The bill also provides a nonrefundable income tax credit for taxable years 2024 through 2028 for 35 percent of expenses incurred by a business during the taxable year for contributions into a Virginia College Savings Plan account owned by an employee of the business. If the employee receiving the contribution is a qualified employee, as defined in the bill, the bill specifies that the credit shall not exceed $500 annually for each such employee. If the employee receiving the contribution is a qualified employee who is not highly compensated, as defined in the bill, the bill specifies that the credit shall not exceed $1,000 annually for each such employee. The bill provides that the total amount of tax credits available for a calendar year shall not exceed $5 million and that any unused tax credit may be carried over for five years.

License plate readers; penalties. Provides requirements for the use of license plate readers, defined in the bill, by law-enforcement agencies. The bill requires such agencies to enter into an agreement with the license plate reader owner or other responsible non-law-enforcement entity to operate a data trust, defined in the bill, to store the data collected by a license plate reader and requires any such law-enforcement agency to apply to the data trust for access to such data. The bill limits the use of license plate readers to scanning, detecting, and identifying license plate numbers for the purpose of identifying vehicles involved in certain crimes.

Early childhood care; Child Care Subsidy Program expansion; provision of free child care to certain child care provider employees. Requires the Child Care Subsidy Program, established pursuant to applicable regulations, to be expanded to assist employees of any licensed child care provider in the Commonwealth with the costs of child care by providing any such employee who meets the eligibility criteria set forth in the bill child care at no cost to and with no copayment required of such employee. The bill directs the Board of Education to adopt any regulations and the Department of Education to implement any policies and procedures necessary for the implementation and administration of the provisions of the bill.

Study; Department of Social Services; Department of Housing and Community Development; unaccompanied minor housing program; report. Directs the Department of Social Services and the Department of Housing and Community Development to convene a work group to study the implementation of an unaccompanied minor housing program. The bill requires the work group to report its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the relevant committees of the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2024.

Study; JLARC; rate of accidents that cause fatalities on roads maintained and managed by the Virginia Department of Transportation and localities; report. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the rate of accidents that cause fatalities on roads maintained and managed by the Virginia Department of Transportation and roads maintained and managed by localities.

Study; Department of Housing and Community Development; tax implications of implementing a land value tax; report. Directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to study tax implications of local governing bodies implementing a land value tax.