Sen. Danica Roem

Commending Major General Timothy P. Williams,VNG.

Virginia Highway Safety Improvement Program;surplus funds. Provides that beginning in fiscal year 2025, inany fiscal year in which there is a surplus of general fund revenues,as that term is defined in the bill, the Governor shall include inhis proposed budget an appropriation of 10 percent of such surplusfor the Virginia Highway Safety Improvement Program for the purposeof funding projects consistent with the objectives of the Program.

Commending John Ray Grisham, Jr.

Celebrating the life of Shawn Soares.

Commending the Honorable Dr. Luke E. Torian.

Commending Margaret L. Sanner.

Public school funding; At-Risk Program established. Establishes the At-Risk Program, defined in the bill as any state funding provided for programs of prevention, intervention, or remediation or pursuant to the at-risk add-on for the purpose of supporting programs for students who are educationally at risk. The bill requires (i) the determination of the amount of state funding for which a school division is eligible pursuant to the At-Risk Program to be based on the school division's identified student percentage, defined in the bill as the fraction, expressed as a percentage, that results from dividing the number of identified students enrolled in a school division by the total number of students enrolled in such school division, weighted by the factor of 1.5, and then adjusted by the addition of a percentage that corrects for undercounting English language learner students as identified students and (ii) such funding to be distributed as follows: 60 percent on a flat per-student rate and 40 percent on a variable rate set out in the general appropriation act based on the concentration of poverty in the school division. The bill provides that any school division that would have received more state funds for the at-risk add-on and programs of prevention, intervention, or remediation than it would pursuant to the consolidation of such state funding sources under the At-Risk Program established in the bill shall be held harmless and shall not have its share of such state funding reduced, effective for the 2024–2025 school year through the 2026–2027 school year. This bill was incorporated into SB 105.

Siting of data centers; site assessment.Requires a locality, prior to any approval for the siting of a data center, to require disclosure of water and power usage at full build-outand perform a site assessment to examine the effect of the data centeron water usage, the regional electric grid, and carbon emissions aswell as any impacts on agricultural, historic, and cultural resourceswithin the locality.

Siting of data centers; impacts on resourcesand historically significant sites. Provides that any local governmentland use application required for the siting of a data center shallonly be approved in areas where the data center will (i) have a minimal impact on historic, agricultural, and cultural resources and (ii)not be within one mile of a national park, state park, or other historicallysignificant site.

Guardianship and conservatorship; duties andpowers of guardian and conservator; self-dealing prohibited.Provides that a guardian and conservator shall avoid all conflictsof interest and self-dealing, including all appearances of conflictsof interest and self-dealing, when addressing the needs of the incapacitatedperson to whom the guardian or conservator owes a fiduciary duty.The bill provides that a conflict of interest arises when the guardianor conservator has a personal or agency interest that can be perceivedas self-serving or adverse to the position or best interest of theincapacitated person, and self-dealing arises when the guardian orconservator seeks to take advantage of his position as guardian or conservator and acts for his own interests rather than for the interestsof the incapacitated person. The bill further provides that anysale or transaction that constitutes self-dealing shall be voidableby the court.