Sen. Mark Peake

Commending William H. Goodwin, Jr.

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.

Constitutional amendment (voter referendum); personal property tax exemption; motor vehicle owned by a veteran who is disabled. Provides for a referendum at the November 3, 2020, election to approve or reject a personal property tax exemption for a motor vehicle that is owned and used primarily by or for a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States or the Virginia National Guard who has a 100 percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability.

Utility easements; broadband or other communicationsservices. Declares that it is policy of the Commonwealth that (i) existingor future easements for the location and use of electric facilities be used to provideor expand broadband or other communications services; (ii) such use of sucheasements is in the public interest; (iii) the use of such easements for theprovision of broadband or other communications services, where no additionalpoles are erected, does not constitute a change in the physical use of theeasement, interfere with or impair any vested rights of the owner or occupierof the servient estate, nor does it place any additional burden on the servientestate; and (iv) the installation and operation of broadband or othercommunications services within an existing or future electric easement aremerely changes in the manner, purpose, or degree of the granted use asappropriate to accommodate a new technology. The measure also establishes that inthe absence of any express prohibition on the installation and operation ofbroadband services in an existing electric easement, the installation andoperation of broadband services within the existing electric easement shall bedeemed as a matter of law to be permitted uses within the scope of everyeasement for the location and use of electricity facilities. The measure alsolimits the damages that a landowner may be awarded in any trespass actionagainst a public utility or a broadband service provider or any of itsemployees, agents, officers, attorneys, directors, representatives, orcontractors arising from the installation, maintenance, or operation of anyutility poles, wires, conduit, or other infrastructure or fiber optic cablingto the lesser of actual damages or $2,000 per tract of land.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable Mary T.Christian.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; public institutionsof higher education; disclosure required by certain offerors; civilpenalty. Requires every offeror who submits a proposal to a public institution of higher education for any construction project that(i) has a total cost of $5 million or more and (ii) uses a procurementmethod other than competitive sealed bidding to disclose any contributionsthe offeror has made within the previous five-year period to the public institution of higher education or any private foundation that existssolely to support the public institution of higher education. The bill imposes a $500 civil penalty on any offeror that knowingly failsto submit the required disclosure.

Expungement of certain offenses. Allows a person to petition for expungement of a deferred disposition dismissal for underage alcohol possession or using a false ID to obtain alcohol when the offense occurred prior to the person's twenty-first birthday, all court costs and fines and orders of restitution have been satisfied, and the person seeking the expungement is at least 21 years of age and has no other alcohol-related convictions. The bill provides that any person seeking expungement of an alcohol-related charge shall be assessed a $150 fee, which shall be paid into the state treasury and credited to the Department of State Police. This bill was incorporated into SB 608.

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.

Individual and corporate income tax credit;employers of military spouses. Provides for taxable years 2020through 2024 a nonrefundable tax credit against individual and corporate income taxes for (i) wages paid by an employer to the spouse of an active member of the United States armed forces or (ii) income ofa self-employed spouse of an active member of the United States armedforces. The amount of the credit shall be 25 percent of such wagesor income. The bill allows a taxpayer to carry unused credits overfor up to five taxable years.

Income tax; subtraction for low-income military veterans with a permanent service-connected disability. Provides an income tax subtraction for the military retirement income received by a veteran who has been rated with a 100 percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability. The bill provides that the subtraction is available only to those taxpayers whose federal adjusted gross income is no greater than 150 percent of the federal poverty level for a four-person household.