Sen. Emmett Hanger

Authorizes a qualified county to impose, after holding a public hearing, an additional transient occupancy tax not to exceed five percent of the amount of the charge for the occupancy of any room or space occupied at eligible historic lodging properties. An eligible historic lodging property is defined as a structure that (i) contains 450 or more rooms for overnight lodging, (ii) is located on land exceeding 700 acres, and (iii) at least a portion of which was built prior to 1930. A qualified county is one in which at least 40 percent of employment is in accommodations and food services. Any revenue generated by the tax would be used by the local government to incentivize other entities to invest in substantial rehabilitation, renovation, and expansion projects at eligible historic lodging properties.

Directs the Commonwealth Transportation Board to develop and adopt an Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement plan and evaluate financing options for Interstate 81 corridor improvements.

Removes certain programs from the list of child day programs exempt from licensure and clarifies that such programs are not considered child day programs and therefore are not subject to licensure. The bill also modifies the terms of certain child day programs that remain listed as exempt from licensure and requires that such programs (i) file with the Commissioner of Social Services (the Commissioner), prior to beginning operation of a child day program and annually thereafter, a statement indicating the intent to operate a child day program, identifying the Code provision relied upon for exemption from licensure, and certifying that the child day program has disclosed to the parents of children in the program the fact that it is exempt from licensure; (ii) report to the Commissioner all incidents involving serious injury or death to children attending the child day program; (iii) have a person trained and certified in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) present at the child day program; (iv) comply with background check requirements established by regulations of the Board of Social Services (the Board); (v) maintain daily attendance records; (vi) have an emergency preparedness plan in place; (vii) comply with all applicable laws and regulations governing transportation of children; (viii) comply with certain safe sleep practices for infants; and (ix) post in a visible location notice that the program is not licensed by the Department of Social Services and only certifies basic health and safety requirements. The bill exempts from licensure any program offered by a local school division, operated for no more than four hours per day, staffed by local school division employees, and attended by school-age children who are enrolled in public school within such school division. The bill also modifies staffing ratios for religious-exempt child day centers. The bill directs (a) the Board to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of the bill and (b) the Commissioner to establish a process to inspect child day programs exempt from licensure and a process to gather and track aggregate data regarding child injuries and deaths that occur at such child day programs. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2019.

Provides that expansion of a courthouse to contiguous land within the same county or city shall not trigger a referendum requirement. The existing statute refers only to relocation within the same county.

Amends the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act (§ 2.2-3800 et seq.) to facilitate the sharing of data among agencies of the Commonwealth and between the Commonwealth and political subdivisions. The bill creates the position of Chief Data Officer of the Commonwealth (CDO), housed in the office of the Secretary of Administration, to (i) develop guidelines regarding data usage, storage, and privacy and (ii) coordinate and oversee data sharing in the Commonwealth to promote the usage of data in improving the delivery of services. The bill also creates a temporary Data Sharing and Analytics Advisory Committee (Advisory Committee) to advise the CDO in the initial establishment guidelines and best practices, and to make recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly regarding a permanent data governance structure.