Rep. Jay Leftwich

Financial services; open-end credit plans; promotional annual percentage rates. Requires any creditor that permits a consumer to apply more than one promotional annual percentage rate to an open-end credit contract or plan to apply any payment made by the consumer to the promotional balance, as defined in the bill, with the earliest expiration date unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing by the parties.

Casino gaming; marketing or advertising to persons younger than 21 years of age prohibited; penalty. Prohibits a casino gaming operator from marketing or advertising to any person younger than 21 years of age. The bill defines to "market or advertise" as meaning the sale of any clothing, equipment, or other product that contains any statement, symbol, depiction, or reference to a casino gaming operator or any of its affiliates. Violations of this prohibition constitute a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Income tax; real property tax relief credit. Provides a refundable income tax credit in taxable years 2026 through 2030 to eligible taxpayers, defined in the bill, who incur real property taxes in an amount equal to or greater than four percent of their federal adjusted gross income for up to $500 for single individuals and $1000 for married persons filing jointly.

A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Title 24.2 a chapter numbered 6.1, consisting of sections numbered 24.2-684.1 through 24.2-684.17, relating to statewide referendum ballot questions; fairness and transparency requirements; Ballot question fairness Commission; readability standards; language accessibility; public comment; judicial review.

Income tax; credit for affordable housing projects. Provides, for taxable years 2026 through 2030, a nonrefundable income tax credit for qualifying taxpayers, defined in the bill as taxpayers that, during the taxable year, own a direct or indirect interest through one or more pass-through entities, in an affordable housing project, also defined in the bill. The credit amount shall be equal to the product of (i) the portion of such taxpayer's ownership in such affordable housing project and (ii) the sum of 50 percent of the difference between the fair market value of each unit rented to a qualifying tenant and the rent actually charged to such tenant for the unit, computed for that portion of the taxable year in which the unit was rented to such tenant. The bill defines a qualifying tenant as a tenant with a Virginia adjusted gross income less than 120 percent of the area median income, adjusted for family size. The aggregate amount of credits allowable under the provisions of the bill shall not exceed $5 million per taxable year.

Motor vehicles; insurance; highway use fee; tangible personal property tax relief for certain vehicles. Removes the highway use fee for fuel-efficient vehicles, and maintains the same highway use fee for electric vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles. The bill removes the prohibition on motor vehicle insurers establishing a repair facility network. Under current law, insurers are prohibited from requiring an insured or claimant to utilize designated replacement or repair facilities or services as a prerequisite to settling or paying any claim arising under a policy or policies of insurance. The bill also directs each county, city, or town that receives annual reimbursements from the Commonwealth for providing tangible personal property tax relief on qualifying vehicles to, beginning in tax year 2027, ensure that after first reimbursing certain tax attributable to qualifying vehicles leased by active duty members of the United States military, as is currently required by law, (i) no qualifying vehicle owned by an individual with an annual household income in excess of $200,000 receives any reimbursement for such vehicle and (ii) the remainder of the reimbursement provided to such locality is distributed based on a sliding scale for household incomes of residents of such locality, adopted by an ordinance of the governing body of such locality, as described in the bill.

State correctional facilities; required education or vocational training; earned sentence credits classification levels. Requires a prisoner in a state correctional facility, as a part of his reentry plan developed and implemented by the Department of Corrections, to complete a high school equivalency test or vocational, technical, or other certification prior to such prisoner's release. The bill also provides that the annual review of a prisoner's classification level for earned sentence credits shall include such prisoner's quantifiable or measurable progress, as available, in any programs, job assignments, and educational curricula in which he is participating, such as test scores achieved or completion of a high school equivalency test or other trade or vocational certification.

Sales and use tax; food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Eliminates the remaining one percent local sales and use tax that is imposed on food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Under current law, no other sales and use tax is applied to such products. The bill requires an equivalent amount of revenue to be distributed to cities and counties on a monthly basis in compensation for the lost tax revenue. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027.

Protection of employees; retaliatory action against employee prohibited. Provides that, for the purposes of the prohibition on an employer's retaliatory action against an employee for reporting a violation of a federal or state law or regulation, "federal or state law or regulation" means any federal law, any law of the Commonwealth, and any regulation published as a final rule in the Federal Register or the Virginia Administrative Code. The bill also provides that such prohibition does not apply to discrimination against an employee for exercising rights relating to safety and health provisions of existing law; such discrimination is prohibited under existing law and subject to different remedies.

Subdivision of property; sale and transfer. Provides that any subdivision created (i) 40 or more years prior to the sale or transfer of the subdivided residential property or (ii) 60 or more years prior to the sale or transfer of the subdivided commercial property and other nonresidential property shall be deemed to be lawful. Under current law, no person shall sell or transfer any land of a subdivision, before a plat has been duly approved and recorded, unless the subdivision was lawfully created prior to the adoption of an applicable subdivision ordinance.