Sen. Todd Pillion

Commending the Honorable William C. Mims.

Commending Daphne Tamara Fulson.

Tourism improvement districts. Authorizesany locality to create a local tourism improvement district plan, consisting of fees charged to businesses and used to fund tourismpromotion activities and capital improvements. Under the bill, thelocality is authorized to contract with a nonprofit entity to administerthe activities and improvements.

Local school divisions; in-person learning.Requires each local school division to make in-person learning availableto all students by choice of the student's parent or guardian. Thebill contains an emergency clause.

Board of Wildlife Resources; quitclaim andconveyance of easement; Tazewell County. Authorizes the Boardof Wildlife Resources to quitclaim any interest in a parcel of landand convey a right-of-way easement to the Valerie H. MacDowell Trust.The quitclaim is a result of a boundary line correction of an acquisitionby the Board and applies to an unimproved parcel of land containing about 13.6 acres on the watershed of Little Tumbling Creek. The easement,which will follow an existing road and bridge across a portion ofthe Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area, will allow ingress and egress to the MacDowell Trust property from State Route 607. TheMacDowell Trust shall be solely responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the easement.

Tourism Development Authority; name change.Renames the Tourism Development Authority, also known as the VirginiaCoalfield Regional Tourism Development Authority, as the Heart ofAppalachia Tourism Authority. The bill contains technical amendments.

Sales and use tax exemption for data centers. Reduces the job creation requirement to qualify for the sales and use tax exemption for data centers in a distressed locality from 25 to 15 jobs. Under current law, such data centers must create at least 25 new jobs. The bill also redefines what criteria are used to identify a distressed locality; under the bill, a locality qualifies as distressed if it has an unemployment rate that is greater than the statewide unemployment rate and a poverty rate that exceeds the statewide poverty rate. The bill requires all data centers claiming the exemption to report certain information to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority (the Authority). The Department of Taxation, in collaboration with the Authority, would aggregate and publish such information biennially.

Trout fishing in stocked waters. Equalizesfor residents and nonresidents requirements to fish in designatedstocked trout waters. The bill requires either such person to possess(i) a regular season state or county fishing license or a trip fishinglicense valid for at least five days and (ii) a trout license ora special lifetime trout fishing license.

Sales tax; exemption for personal protectiveequipment; emergency. Establishes a retail sales and use taxexemption for personal protective equipment, defined in the bill.The exemption would be available to any business that has in placea COVID-19 safety protocol that complies with the Emergency TemporaryStandard promulgated by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industryand that meets other criteria. The exemption would sunset one dayafter the first day following the expiration of the last executiveorder issued by the Governor related to the COVID-19 pandemic andthe termination of the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard andany permanent COVID-19 regulations adopted by the Virginia Safetyand Health Codes Board. The bill contains an emergency clause.

Disposition of property previously used by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services as the Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute. Authorizes the Governor to lease a portion of property previously used by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services as the Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute to Smyth County for a term of three years. The bill also corrects tax map references contained in Chapter 678 of the Acts of Assembly of 2019, which also involved conveyances of property in Smyth County.