Lottery Board; regulation of casino gaming. Authorizes casino gaming in the Commonwealth to be regulated by the Virginia Lottery Board. The bill specifies the requirements for licensure of casino gaming operators and the conduct of casino gaming and imposes criminal and civil penalties for violations of the casino gaming law. The location of casino gaming establishments shall be limited to eligible host cities that meet specified criteria: the Cities of Portsmouth, Richmond, Norfolk, Danville, and Bristol. The bill requires each eligible host city to hold a referendum on the question of whether to allow casino gaming in the city and, with the exception of the City of Richmond, to hold such referendum at the November 2020 general election. The bill imposes a tax ranging from 18 to 30 percent of the adjusted gross receipts of licensees, based upon a licensee's annual adjusted gross receipts, and provides for disbursement of the tax revenues. The bill requires the Board to establish a voluntary exclusion program allowing individuals to voluntarily list themselves as being barred from entering a casino gaming establishment or other facility under the jurisdiction of the Board. The bill establishes the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund, administered by the Commissioner of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, and the Virginia Indigenous People's Trust Fund, both of which are funded by proceeds from the casino gaming tax revenues. The bill also establishes the Regional Improvement Commission, consisting of a representative of each jurisdiction composing the transportation district in which the City of Bristol is located, to receive disbursements of gaming tax revenues and to prioritize and fund improvements in those jurisdictions. The bill requires the Virginia Racing Commission to authorize an additional 600 historical horse racing terminals each time a local referendum held by an eligible host city is approved, provided that the total number of additional machines does not exceed 2,000 statewide, and includes other provisions relating to the placement of historical horse racing terminals in the Commonwealth. The bill incorporates SB 102, SB 374, SB 609, SB 743, and SB 1083 and is identical to HB 4.
Sponsored bills
Shared solar programs. Requires the State Corporation Commission to establish by regulation a shared solar program that allows customers of Dominion Virginia to purchase electric power through a subscription in a shared solar facility, which is defined in the bill as a facility that, among other criteria, generates electricity by means of a solar photovoltaic device with a nameplate capacity rating that does not exceed 5,000 kilowatts. Under the program, a subscriber receives a bill credit for the proportional output of a share solar facility attributable to that subscriber. Subscribers are required to pay a minimum bill, established by the Commission, that includes the costs of infrastructure and related services. The bill provides that the Commission shall approve a shared solar program of 150 megawatts with a minimum requirement of 30 percent of low-income customers and that the Commission will approve an additional 50 megawatts upon determining that at least 45 megawatts of the shared solar capacity have been subscribed to by low-income customers. This bill is identical to HB 1634.
Parole; exception to limitation on the application of parole statutes. Provides that a person is eligible to be considered for parole if (i) such person was sentenced by a jury prior to the date of the Supreme Court of Virginia decision in Fishback v. Commonwealth, 260 Va. 104 (June 9, 2000), in which the Court held that a jury should be instructed on the fact that parole has been abolished, for a noncapital felony committed on or after the abolition of parole going into effect (on January 1, 1995); (ii) the person remained incarcerated for the offense on July 1, 2020; and (iii) the offense was not one of the following: (a) a Class 1 felony; (b) if the victim was a minor, rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration, or aggravated sexual battery or an attempt to commit such act; or (c) carnal knowledge. The bill requires the Parole Board to provide at least 60 days' notice to the attorney for the Commonwealth in the jurisdiction where the offense occurred and where the person resided prior to conviction that such person is being considered for parole prior to any review and parole decision on such person. The bill requires the Parole Board to establish procedures regarding extension of time within which to review and decide a case for reasonable cause.
Public utilities; energy storage capacity in the Commonwealth. Provides that it is the objective of the General Assembly that 2,700 megawatts of aggregate energy storage capacity be placed into service on or before July 1, 2030. The bill provides that energy storage facilities with an aggregate capacity of 2,700 megawatts are in the public interest and that prior to January 1, 2030, (i) the construction by a public utility of one or more energy storage facilities located in the Commonwealth, having in the aggregate a rated capacity that does not exceed 2,700 megawatts, or (ii) the purchase by a public utility of energy storage facilities described in clause (i) owned by persons other than a public utility or the capacity from such facilities is in the public interest. The bill requires that at least 65 percent of the energy storage capacity placed in service on or after July 1, 2020, located in the Commonwealth and found to be in the public interest is from the purchase by a public utility of energy storage facilities owned by persons other than a public utility or the capacity from such facilities. The bill provides that such purchases shall be subject to competitive procurement, provided that a public utility may select energy storage facilities without regard to whether such selection satisfies price criteria if the selection of the energy storage facilities materially advances non-price criteria, including favoring geographic distribution of generating facilities, areas of higher employment, or regional economic development, if such facilities do not exceed 25 percent of the utility's energy storage capacity. The bill provides that an integrated resource plan (IRP) should include recommended plans for utilizing energy storage facilities to meet forecasted demand and assure adequate and sufficient reliability of service and requires that in preparing an IRP, each electric utility shall systematically evaluate and may propose developing a long-term plan to integrate new energy storage facilities into existing generation and distribution assets to assist with grid transformation. Finally, the bill requires the State Corporation Commission, in the annual report required by legislation enacted in the 2018 Session, to assess the aggregate annual new construction and purchase of energy storage facilities.
Prohibited discrimination; public accommodations, employment, credit, and housing: causes of action; sexual orientation and gender identity. Creates causes of action for unlawful discrimination in public accommodations and employment in the Virginia Human Rights Act. Currently, under the Act there is no cause of action for discrimination in public accommodations, and the only causes of action for discrimination in employment are for (i) unlawful discharge on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, or childbirth or related medical conditions including lactation by employers employing more than five but fewer than 15 persons and (ii) unlawful discharge on the basis of age by employers employing more than five but fewer than 20 persons. The bill allows the causes of action to be pursued privately by the aggrieved person or, in certain circumstances, by the Attorney General. Before a civil cause of action may be brought in a court of the Commonwealth, an aggrieved individual must file a complaint with the Division of Human Rights of the Department of Law, participate in an administrative process, and receive a notice of his right to commence a civil action. The bill prohibits discrimination in public and private employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill also codifies for state and local government employment the current prohibitions on discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, or status as a veteran. Additionally, the bill (a) prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran; (b) prohibits discrimination in credit on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, disability, and status as a veteran; and (c) adds discrimination on the basis of an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran as an unlawful housing practice. The bill makes technical amendments. This bill incorporates SB 66 and SB 159.
Virginia Minimum Wage Act; domestic service. Eliminates the exclusion in the Virginia Minimum Wage Act for persons employed in domestic service. The bill requires the Secretary of Commerce and Trade to convene a work group consisting of representatives from the Department of Labor and Industry, the Virginia Employment Commission, the Workers' Compensation Commission, organizations representing domestic workers, and such other stakeholders as the Secretary of Commerce and Trade deems appropriate to make recommendations, including any necessary statutory and regulatory changes, with regard to protecting domestic service employees from workplace harassment and discrimination, providing remedies for such employees for the nonpayment of wages, ensuring the safety and health of such employees in the workplace, and protecting such employees from loss of income as a result of unemployment or employment-related injury by including coverage of such employees in the Virginia Unemployment Compensation Act and the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act.
Distributed renewable energy. Promotes the establishment of distributed renewable solar and other renewable energy. The measure (i) requires the State Corporation Commission to establish by regulation a shared solar program that allows multifamily customers of investor-owned utilities, other than American Electric Power, to purchase electric power through a subscription in a shared solar facility; (ii) raises the cap on the total amount of renewable energy that can be net metered in a utility's service territory from one percent to six percent, five percent of which is available to all customers and one percent of which is available only to low-income utility customers; (iii) raises the cap for net-metered nonresidential generation facilities from one megawatt to three megawatts; (iv) allows certain localities to install solar or wind facilities of up to five megawatts on government-owned property and use the electricity for government-owned buildings; (v) increases the cap on the capacity of generation from facilities from the customer's expected annual energy consumption to 150 percent of such amount for customers in Dominion Energy Virginia's service territory; (vi) prohibits standby charges for any residential customer-generator or agricultural customer-generator of an investor-owned utility other than Dominion Energy Virginia; and (vii) increases the cap on third party power purchase agreements to 500 megawatts for jurisdictional customers and 500 megawatts for nonjurisdictional customers of Dominion Energy Virginia and to 40 megawatts for customers of American Electric Power. The measure also amends the Commonwealth Energy Policy to include provisions supporting distributed generation of renewable energy. This bill is identical to HB 572, HB 1184, and HB 1647.
Visiting state correctional facilities; strip searches of those entering. Provides that no child under the age of 18 who is seeking entrance to a state correctional facility shall be strip searched or subjected to a search of any body cavity under any circumstances. The bill also provides that the Department may not permanently ban any person, or insinuate that any person will be permanently banned, from seeking entrance to a state correctional facility on the basis of such person's refusal to consent to a strip search or a search of any body cavity when such person is seeking to enter the interior of any state correctional facility. The bill provides that the Department may deny such person entry to the facility, unless otherwise provided by law, but may not deny such person any future entry on the basis of a prior refusal to consent.
Absentee voting; no excuse required. Permits any registered voter to vote by absentee ballot in any election in which he is qualified to vote. The bill removes the current list of statutory reasons under which a person may be entitled to vote by absentee ballot and removes references to those reasons from other sections of the Code. This bill incorporates SB 45, SB 137, SB 696, and SB 879.
Hate crimes; gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation; penalty. Adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bill also adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of hate crimes that are to be reported to the central repository of information regarding hate crimes maintained by the Virginia State Police. The bill provides that a person who is subjected to acts of intimidation or harassment, violence directed against his person, or vandalism to his real or personal property, where such acts are motivated by gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, may bring a civil action to recover his damages. The bill also provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. The bill also eliminates the mandatory minimum terms of confinement for such hate crimes. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.