Virginia taxable income; subtraction for certainactive duty military income. Provides a subtraction from Virginiataxable income starting with taxable year 2020 for income of activeduty military members for service outside of the United States.
Veterans and active duty members of the ArmedForces; teachers; credit for service. Requires each local schoolboard to give any veteran or active duty member of any of the ArmedForces of the United States or the Commonwealth who it employs asa teacher in the local school division credit for any time servedin any such forces in determining such teacher's step on the localschool division's teacher salary scale.
Children's Services Act; community policy and management teams; use of funds. Provides that the state pool of funds for community policy and management teams may be used for residential or nonresidential services in a public school setting and to provide services to children placed in public residential facilities or public special education day schools in addition to such private facilities and private special education day schools as provided in current law.
County and city precincts; required to be wholly contained within election districts; waiver for administration of split precinct. Requires each county and city precinct to be wholly contained within a single congressional district, Senate district, House of Delegates district, and local election district. In each year ending in one, the governing body of each county and city is required to establish the precinct boundaries to be consistent with any congressional district, Senate district, House of Delegates district, and local election district that was adopted by the appropriate authority by June 15 of that year, and if new districts have not been adopted by the appropriate authority by that date, the governing body is permitted to use the districts as they existed on June 15 of that year as the basis for establishing the precincts to be used in the November elections held that year. The bill requires a governing body to apply to the State Board of Elections for a waiver to administer a split precinct if it is unable to establish a precinct with the minimum number of registered voters without splitting the precinct between two or more congressional districts, Senate districts, House of Delegates districts, or local election districts, and the State Board is authorized to grant the waiver or to direct the establishment of a precinct with less than the minimum number of registered voters as permitted by current law. A governing body that is granted a waiver to administer a split precinct or is directed to establish a precinct with fewer than the minimum number of voters is permitted to use that precinct for any election held that year. This bill incorporates SB 119 and SB 121.
Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder;law-enforcement officers and firefighters. Provides that post-traumaticstress disorder incurred by a law-enforcement officer or firefighter iscompensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act if a mental healthprofessional examines a law-enforcement officer or firefighter and diagnosesthe individual as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result ofthe individual's undergoing a qualifying event, which includes an event occurringin the line of duty on or after July 1, 2020, in which a law-enforcementofficer or firefighter views a deceased minor, witnesses the death of a personor an incident involving the death of a person, witnesses an injury to a personwho subsequently dies, has physical contact with and treats an injured personwho subsequently dies, transports an injured person who subsequently dies, orwitnesses a traumatic physical injury that results in the loss of a vital bodypart or a vital body function that results in permanent disfigurement of thevictim. Other conditions for compensability include (i) if the post-traumaticstress disorder resulted from the law-enforcement officer or firefighter actingin the line of duty and, in the case of a firefighter, such firefightercomplied with certain federal Occupational Safety and Health Act standards;(ii) if the law-enforcement officer's or firefighter's undergoing a qualifyingevent was a substantial factor in causing his post-traumatic stress disorder;(iii) if such qualifying event, and not another event or source of stress, wasthe primary cause of the post-traumatic stress disorder; and (iv) if thepost-traumatic stress disorder did not result from any disciplinary action,work evaluation, job transfer, layoff, demotion, promotion, termination,retirement, or similar action of the officer or firefighter. The measureestablishes procedural requirements on employers that contest a claim for suchbenefits. The measure also establishes requirements for resilience and self-caretechnique training.
State correctional facilities; visitation. Sets visitation and search policies for visitors to state correctional facilities, including the circumstances under which visits may include or exclude personal contact. The bill prohibits strip searches and searches of any body cavity of any child under 18 years of age and provides that visitors will not be barred from future visits if they (i) stop a search prior to the discovery of contraband or (ii) refuse to be searched.
Utility easements; location of broadband facilities. Declares that it is the policy of the Commonwealth that (i) easements for the location and use of electric and communications facilities may be used to provide or expand broadband or other communications services; (ii) the use of easements to provide or expand broadband or other communications services is in the public interest; (iii) the installation, replacement, or use of public utility conduit, including the costs of installation, replacement, or use of conduit of a sufficient size to accommodate the installation of infrastructure to provide or expand broadband or other communications services, is in the public interest; (iv) the use of easements to provide or expand broadband or other communications services (a) does not constitute a change in the physical use of the easement, (b) does not interfere with, impair, or take any vested or other rights of the owner or occupant of the servient estate, (c) does not place any additional burden on the servient estate other than a de minimis burden, if any; (iv) has value to the owner or occupant of the servient estate greater than any de minimis impact; and (v) the installation and operation of broadband or other communications services within easements, appurtenant or gross, are merely changes in the manner, purpose, or degree of the granted use as appropriate to accommodate a new technology. The measure further provides that (1) absent any express prohibition on the installation and operation of broadband or other communications services in an easement that is contained in a deed or other instrument by which the easement was granted, the installation and operation of broadband or other communications services within any easement shall be deemed, as a matter of law, to be a permitted use within the scope of every easement for the location and use of electric and communications facilities and (2) subject to compliance with any express prohibitions in a written easement, any incumbent utility or communications provider may use an easement to install, construct, provide, maintain, modify, lease, operate, repair, replace, or remove its communications equipment, system, or facilities, and provide communications services through the same, without such incumbent utility or communications provider paying additional compensation to the owner or occupant of the servient estate or to the incumbent utility, provided that no additional utility poles are installed. The measure provides that, in cases of a prescriptive easement, such easement is deemed to exist and that any incumbent utility or communications provider may use a prescriptive easement to install, construct, provide, maintain, modify, lease, operate, repair, replace, or remove its communications equipment, system, or facilities, and provide communications services through the same, without such incumbent utility or communications provider paying additional compensation to the owner or occupant of the servient estate or to the incumbent utility, provided that no additional utility poles are installed.
Absentee voting; counting military and overseas absentee ballots received after close of polls on election day. Provides that absentee ballots cast by military and overseas absentee voters that are (i) received after the close of the polls on any election day but before 5:00 p.m. on the fourth business day before the State Board of Elections meets to ascertain the results of the election and (ii) postmarked on or before the date of such election are to be counted if the voter is found entitled to vote. The bill provides that a postmark includes any other official indicia of confirmation of mailing by the United States Postal Service or other postal or delivery service. Under current law, such ballots cast by military and overseas absentee voters would be counted in this manner regardless of the date of any postmark, but only if the absentee ballot had been requested on or before, but not sent by, the deadline for making absentee ballots available.
Child care providers; out-of-state backgroundchecks. Requires certain child care providers and employees orvolunteers thereof to submit to background checks that include acriminal history record information check and sex offender registrycheck in any state in which the applicant has resided in the precedingfive years.
Emergency and disaster law; political subdivisions; emergency medical services. Provides that except where a mutual aid arrangement for reciprocal assistance exists between localities, no locality shall prohibit another locality from providing emergency medical services across local boundaries solely on the basis of financial considerations.
