Suspension of driver's license for nonpayment of fines or costs. Repeals the requirement that the driver's license of a person convicted of any violation of the law who fails or refuses to provide for immediate payment of fines or costs be suspended. The bill also removes a provision allowing the court to require a defendant to present a summary prepared by the Department of Motor Vehicles of the other courts in which the defendant also owes fines and costs. The bill requires the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles to return or reinstate any person's driver's license that was suspended prior to July 1, 2019, solely for nonpayment of fines or costs. Such person does not have to pay a reinstatement fee. The bill contains an emergency clause and incorporates SB 10, SB 514, and SB 814.
Sponsored bills
Early childhood care and education; licensing. Requires the Board of Education to establish a statewide unified public-private system for early childhood care and education in the Commonwealth to be administered by the Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Department of Education. The bill transfers the authority to license and regulate child day programs and other early child care agencies from the Board of Social Services and Department of Social Services to the Board of Education and Department of Education. The bill maintains current licensure, background check, and other requirements of such programs. Such provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021. The bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish a plan for implementing the statewide unified early childhood care and education system and requires the Department of Social Services and the Department of Education to enter into a cooperative agreement to coordinate the transition. The bill also requires the Board of Education to establish, no later than July 1, 2021, a uniform quality rating and improvement system designed to provide parents and families with information about the quality and availability of certain publicly funded early childhood care and education providers and to publish the initial quality ratings under such system in the fall of 2023. This bill is identical to HB 1012.
Firearms; removal from persons posing substantial risk; penalties. Creates a procedure by which any attorney for the Commonwealth or two law-enforcement officers may apply to a general district court, circuit court, or juvenile and domestic relations district court judge or magistrate, who must consult with the attorney for the Commonwealth, for an emergency substantial risk order to prohibit a person who poses a substantial risk of injury to himself or others from purchasing, possessing, or transporting a firearm. Upon service of an emergency substantial risk order, the person who is subject to the order shall be given the opportunity to voluntarily relinquish any firearm. An emergency substantial risk order shall expire on the fourteenth day following issuance of the order. The bill requires a court hearing in the circuit court for the jurisdiction where the order was issued within 14 days from issuance of an emergency substantial risk order to determine whether a substantial risk order should be issued. Seized firearms shall be retained by a law-enforcement agency for the duration of an emergency substantial risk order or a substantial risk order or, for a substantial risk order and with court approval, may be transferred to a third party 21 years of age or older chosen by the person from whom they were seized. The bill allows the complainant of the original warrant to file a motion for a hearing to extend the substantial risk order prior to its expiration. The court may extend the substantial risk order for a period not longer than 180 days. The bill provides that persons who are subject to a substantial risk order, until such order has been dissolved by a court, are guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor for purchasing, possessing, or transporting a firearm; are disqualified from having a concealed handgun permit; and may not be employed by a licensed firearms dealer. The bill also provides that a person who transfers a firearm to a person he knows has been served with a warrant or who is the subject of a substantial risk order is guilty of a Class 4 felony. The bill creates a computerized substantial risk order registry for the entry of orders issued pursuant to provisions in the bill.
Wetlands protection; living shorelines. Requires the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to promulgate and periodically update minimum standards for the protection and conservation of wetlands and to approve only living shoreline approaches to shoreline stabilization where the best available science shows that such approaches are feasible. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.
Advanced recycling; incentives in income tax,sales tax, and machinery and tools tax. Postpones from 2020 to2025 the sunset date of the income tax credit for purchase of equipmentfor processing recyclable materials and makes eligible for the creditpurchases of equipment used in advanced recycling, defined in thebill. The bill increases the dollar value of the credit from 20 percentto 100 percent of the purchase price of such equipment, eliminatesthe requirement that a taxpayer may only claim up to 40 percent ofhis tax liability in credit per year, and makes the credit refundableand transferable for credits issued starting in taxable year 2020.The bill provides that certain machinery,tools, and materials used in advanced recycling shall be exempt fromsales tax. The bill provides that such machinery, tools, and materialsshall be segregated and classified as machinery and tools, which aretaxed at a lower rate than the generally applicable personal propertytax rate.
Department of Environmental Quality; carbon market participation. Authorizes the Department of Environmental Quality to participate in any carbon market for which submerged aquatic vegetation restoration qualifies as an activity that generates carbon offset credits and to enter into agreements necessary to effect such participation, including with private entities for assistance with registration and sale of offset credits. The bill requires any revenue resulting from the sale of such credits to be used to implement additional submerged aquatic vegetation monitoring, restoration, and research or to cover any administrative costs of participation in the credit market. The bill also requires the Department to hold exclusive title to credits until sold.
Carbon-free energy and clean energy. Provides that "carbon-free energy" or "clean energy," as used in the Code of Virginia, includes electric energy generated from a source that does not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during the process of generating the electric energy, including electric energy generated by the conversion of sunlight, wind, falling water, wave motion, tides, or geothermal or nuclear energy.
Additional sales and use tax in Northampton County; appropriations to incorporated towns for educational purposes. Authorizes Northampton County to impose an additional local sales and use tax at a rate not to exceed one percent, as determined by the governing body, if initiated by a resolution of the local governing body and approved by the voters at a referendum. The bill requires the governing body to specify in the enacting ordinance the time period, not to exceed 20 years, for which the tax would be imposed. Revenue from the tax shall be used solely for capital projects for new construction or major renovation of schools in the locality enacting the tax. The bill removes the limit on the amount that Northampton County may appropriate to an incorporated town that has not complied with the provisions of its charter relating to the elections of local officials. Under current law, such amount is limited to the amount the town would have received from local sales and use tax for educational purposes if such election had been held. Under current law, only Halifax County has the authority to impose such tax and make such appropriations. The bill contains technical amendments.
Department of Health Professions; conversion therapy prohibited. Prohibits any health care provider or person who performs counseling as part of his training for any profession licensed by a regulatory board of the Department of Health Professions from engaging in conversion therapy, as defined in the bill, with any person under 18 years of age and provides that such counseling constitutes unprofessional conduct and is grounds for disciplinary action. The bill provides that no state funds shall be expended for the purpose of conducting conversion therapy with a person under 18 years of age, referring a person under 18 years of age for conversion therapy, or extending health benefits coverage for conversion therapy with a person under 18 years of age. This bill is identical to HB 386.
Corporal Ryan C. McGhee Memorial Bridge. Designatesthe bridge on Guinea Station Road over Interstate 95 in SpotsylvaniaCounty the Corporal Ryan C. McGhee Memorial Bridge.