Project labor agreements; prevailing wage; collective bargaining for employees of local governments. Provides that state agencies, when engaged in procuring products or services or letting contracts for construction, manufacture, maintenance, or operation of public works, paid for in whole or in part by state funds, shall neither require nor prohibit bidders to enter into or adhere to agreements with one or more labor organizations on the public works projects. The bill removes requirements for the payment of prevailing wage for work performed on public works contracts for state agencies. In addition, the bill removes the authority for a locality, by a local ordinance or resolution, to recognize any labor union or other employee association as a bargaining agent of any public officers or employees or to collectively bargain or enter into any collective bargaining contract with any such union or association or its agents.
Sponsored bills
Commending Virginia Polytechnic Institute andState University.
Commending Angels of Assisi.
Commending the Virginia Manufacturers Association.
Group health benefit plans; sponsoring associations; formation of benefits consortium. Provides that sponsoring associations, including self-funded multiple employer welfare arrangements, mayprovide health benefit plans for small employers in the form of atrust benefit consortium, subject to certain requirements. The billincludes conditions for qualifying as a sponsoring association, requirementsfor the formation of a trust benefits consortium, and provisionsto establish a board of trustees. Under the bill, such trust benefitsconsortium is subject to the federal Employee Retirement Income SecurityAct of 1974 (ERISA) and U.S. Department of Labor regulations and suchtrust shall not include certain words or terms in its name that areuniquely descriptive of insurance companies or business, and a statementto this effect is required to be included on the first page of thehealth benefit plan documents. A benefits consortium or sponsoringassociation is exempt from the requirements of the Virginia Life,Accident and Sickness Insurance Guaranty Association and exempt fromannual license taxes under the bill.
School principals; incident reports. Requiresthat school principals report to law enforcement certain enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense and report to theparents of any minor student who is the specific object of such actthat the incident has been reported to law enforcement. Under currentlaw, principals are required to make such reports only for such actsthat may constitute a felony offense.
Absentee voting; excuse required to vote absenteeby mail; excuse required to vote absentee in person prior to thesecond Saturday preceding an election. Requires a registeredvoter to provide a reason for being absent or unable to vote at hispolling place on election day in order to receive an absentee ballotto vote by mail. Registered voters offering to vote absentee in personare similarly required by the bill to provide a reason until thesecond Saturday immediately preceding an election, at which timean excuse is not required to vote absentee in person. The bill providesthat an application for an absentee ballot is required to receivean absentee ballot by mail and to vote absentee in person beforethe second Saturday immediately preceding an election. The bill alsorepeals the permanent absentee voter list and limits the special annual application to those voters with an illness or disability.
Elections; absentee voting; ballots to be sortedand results to be reported by precinct. Provides that absentee ballots processed at a central absentee precinct must be sorted bythe precinct to which the voter who cast the absentee ballot is assignedand that the resulting vote totals from such ballots must be reportedseparately for each voter precinct.
Sales tax; exemption for food purchased forhuman consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Exemptsfood purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygieneproducts (the grocery tax) from all state, regional, and local salestaxes.
William R. Harvey Day. Designates January29, in 2023 and in each succeeding year, as William R. Harvey Dayin Virginia.