HB 30 A

Summary

As amended 6/19/2026: - FY 27-28 budget bill. ++Technology++ - Provides funding to evaluate a framework for entities seeking to act as independent verification organizations that assess AI models and applications against safety standards. (p.9) ++Chemical++ - Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to conduct a statewide PFAS disposal analysis, including consideration and estimates of available landfill capacity, future landfill or monofill capacity, incineration, PFAS destruction technology, environmental impacts of alternatives, costs estimated at the state, locality or utility, and household levels, and loss of biosolids land applications benefits to farmers. - Appropriates $500,000 from the general fund in fiscal year 2027 for the Department of Environmental Quality to conduct the analysis of PFAS disposal alternatives. - Appropriates $650,000 from the general fund each year and establishes five positions to support the additional workload of PFAS Action Plan Development and permit administration. - Establishes that mandatory testing of marijuana and marijuana products shall include a testing for, among other things, heavy metals and pesticide chemical residue. - Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to conduct a statewide PFAS disposal analysis, including consideration and estimates of available landfill capacity, future landfill or monofill capacity, incineration or other available and innovative PFAS destruction technologies, environmental impacts of alternatives, costs estimated at the state, locality or utility, and household levels, and loss of biosolids land applications benefits to farmers. ++Tax++ - Increases the total amount available for the historic preservation tax credit from $5 million to $7.5 million. (p. 599) - Maintains the sales and use tax exemption for bullion and coins until July 2028. (p. 601) - Establishes a new sales and use tax exemption for machinery, equipment, and supplies used directly in advanced recycling. (p. 601) - Enacts several individual income tax changes from the OBBBA, including subtracting income from tips, overtime, and interest on motor vehicle loans. (p. 658) - Extends the pass-through entity tax and the credit for pass-through entity taxes paid to another jurisdiction indefinitely. (p. 662-3) - Extends the 20% earned income tax credit indefinitely. (p. 662) - Extends the sales and use tax exemption for certain data center equipment from June 30, 2035, to June 30, 2050. (p. 665) - Modifies the corporate income tax apportionment formula by replacing the cost-of-performance method with market-based sourcing, effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2027. Contains exemptions for telecommunications companies and defense contractors. (p. 665-669) - Requires the Joint Subcommittee on Tax Policy to study the data center sales tax exemption and other data center impacts during the 2026 interim session. (Conference Amendments, p. 10) - Creates a tax on all electricity consumed by a data center operator at the rate of $0.011/kWh. (Conference Amendments, p. 320-321) - Decreases the deduction for disallowed business interest from 50% to 20% of the deduction taken under §163(j). (Conference Amendments, p. 332) - Extends the refundable portion of the earned income tax credit to from 2027 to 2030. (Conference Amendments, p. 334) - Permits any county or city to levy a local sales tax up to 1% for school capital projects or public transportation (counties in Planning District 8 only), subject to voter approval. (Conference Amendments, p. 340-354) - NOTE: Conference language no longer contains environmental/energy requirements for data center exemption recipients or decoupling language related to §168(n), R&E expenditures, or §179. ++Education++ - Provides funding for instructional services, including career and technical education for the Virginia Community College System (pg. 96). - Provides funding for the Virtual Virginia program and the school lunch program (pg. 55). - Funds the AI Innovation in Education Pilot Program. (pg. 71) - Funds career and technical education student organizations (p. 96). ++Broadband++ - Appropriates $424,000 for a statewide broadband availability map (p. 110) - Authorizes funds from the federal BEAD program to be used on unserved and underserved areas, community anchor institutions, for broadband resiliency, mobile wireless expansion, multi-dwelling unit deployment, and disaster-resilient connectivity solutions. (p. 111) - Note: 6/19/2026 Conference report makes the following additions: - Establishes a program to provide grants for unexpected costs incurred by broadband providers related to the expansion of broadband. (pg. 51) - Restores telecommunications infrastructure damaged by a storm that was approved for a major disaster. (pg. 52) - Establishes a program to reimburse broadband providers for costs associated with relocating facilities located in public rights-of-way when relocation is mandated by the Commonwealth or the federal government and the relocation includes infrastructure supported by a state general fund grant from the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative or federal funds. (pg. 52) - Develops and establishes criteria and application process for broadband providers to seek discretionary reimbursement for relocation expenses. - Develops and implements an annual process identifying recently approved Virginia BEAD program projects against transportation projects in the annual Six-Year Improvement Program to help broadband providers avoid potential right of way conflicts. (pg. 52) - Expands and upgrades postsecondary education broadband and technology in order to close the digital divide and provide students with additional tech job training. (pg. 105, 117) ++Energy++ - Conditions data center equipment tax exemptions on requirements that data center not use co-located generating facilities that emit CO2, other than backup generators, beginning July 1, 2027. (Committee-approved amendments p. 257) - Requires data center, beginning July 1, 2029, to contract for energy, capacity, and renewable energy certificates (RECs) from clean energy resources in same percentages as required by utilities under the RPS program, in order to retain tax exemptions. - Establishes deadlines for data centers to switch to non-CO2 emitting back-up generators in order to retain tax exemptions. ++Environment++ - Funds proof of concept research in Rare Earth Mineral Salvage and Recycling business plan development. - Appropriates $200,000 the first year from the general fund pursuant to House Bill 1011, which expands an existing litter tax study to include the diversion of compost and other organic waste materials from landfills. - Requires all agencies to take actions necessary for the state to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. (p. 452) - Appropriates funds for litter control and recycling grants in FY2026. (p. 449). - Requires the Virginia Waste Management Board's Financial Assurance Regulations for Solid Wate Disposal, Transfer and Treatment Facilities to be revised to ensure that financial assurance is sufficient for design, construction, and operation of a landfill cap, leachate management, gas collection and management and other activities necessary to maintain the landfill in a manner that protects human health and the environment. ++Healthcare++ - Directs the Office of Children's Services (OCS) to assist in increasing Medicaid reimbursement and treatment services and decreasing denials for medically necessary and utilization review-related Medicaid services for eligible children (p. 309 - 310). - Directs the Virginia Department of Health and the Department of Health Professions to issue risk mitigation guidelines on the prescription of extended-release and long-acting (ER/LA) opioid analgesics to include a co-prescription of an opioid antagonist (p. 319). - Creates the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee to develop and administer the Preferred Drug List program. Directs the committee to recommend which therapeutic classes of drugs should be subject to the Preferred Drug List program and prior authorization requirements (p. 342). - Removes State Plan for Medical Assistance Services coverage for weight-loss medications except when individuals have either a body mass index (BMI) of 35, a BMI of 30 with a weight-related comorbid condition, a BMI of 27 with pre-diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obstructive sleep apnea, or if the medication is a FDA-approved traditional weight loss medication (p. 365). - Authorizes the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) to make MCO contract changes and pursue rebate or value-based purchasing agreements negotiated by the federal government and manufacturers of GLP-1s (p. 365). - Prohibits DMAS from listing GLP-1s on the Common Core Formulary for weight loss if the net price for a one-month supply exceeds $245 (p. 365). - Directs DMAS to seek federal authority to eliminate inflation adjustments for hospital rates, nursing facilities, graduate medical education payments, and any other provider rates for FY 2027 and FY 2028 (p. 370). - Directs DMAS to develop a request for proposal for the Medicaid single PBM. (p. 370). - Updates reimbursement methodology for rehabilitation hospitals (p. 370). - Sets the reimbursement rate for DME to 100% of the Medicaid fee schedule (p. 370). - Increases the income limit for Medicaid Works eligibility to 300% of the Social Security Income level (p. 370). - Imposes reporting requirements on hospitals receiving state supplemental graduate medical education funding (p. 355). - Requires the Commissioner of Health to establish a workgroup on childhood immunization schedules and immunizations associated with public health emergencies (p. 318). - Directs DMAS to update medicaid reimbursement methodology for rehabilitation hospitals (p. 370). - Requires DMAS to defer scheduled nursing facility rebasing and examine the methodology used to rebase Medicaid rates (p.370). - Requires MCOs to adopt performance metrics for Medicaid Non-Emergency Medical Transport brokers consistent with those used in the fee-for-service program (p. 370). - Provides medicaid coverage for gene therapy used to treat sickle cell disease through the Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Access Model (p. 370). - Lowers the assumed underwriting gain from 1.25 percent to 1.0 percent of Medicaid adjusted premium revenue in the development of capitation rates for MCOs (p. 370). - Excludes pharmacy 340B covered claims from Medicaid (p. 370). - Requires DMAS to consider prioritizing Shenandoah Valley when considering expanding the PACE program (p. 370). - Provides $2.5 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to competitive grants for Community Action Agencies for a Two Generation/Whole Family Project and for the evaluation of the program (p. 420). ++Criminal Justice++ - Provides funding for to support a software database to address organized retail crime. (p. 496) ++Transportation++ - Provides funding for a grant program for localities to plan, establish, and maintain microtransit services in rural Virginia (p. 481). - Transfers funding to support the continued development of Advanced Air Mobility. (p. 503). - 6/19/2026 conference report makes the following additions: - Provides general funds for a one-time transit capital investment. (p. 508) - Requires the evaluation of consolidating DASH Alexandria Transit, Fairfax Connector, ART Arlington Transit, and CUE Fairfax City into a unified bus system. (p. 509) - Provides share of state funding for WMATA and requires WMATA to produce capital plans and performance reports. (p. 509) - Provides general funds for the development of an inland port in Washington County, Virginia. (p. 509) ++Tobacco++ - Includes JUUL settlement fund allocations. (p. 20) ++Ethics++ - Appropriates $3.3 million to replace the state's Campaign Finance Management (CFM) systems (p. 81.) - Eliminates the requirement for campaign treasurers to retain all bank statements from the date the candidate was sworn into office until July 1 of the year following the election (p. 668.) - Repeals the requirement for the Virginia Department of Elections' authority to conduct audits of candidate campaigns (p. 668.) ++Marijuana++ (pg. 401) - Legalizes the sale, distribution, manufacture, and use of recreational cannabis. - Permits adults to purchase up to 2oz of cannabis in a single transaction. - Establishes a start of July 1, 2027 for legal sales. - Establishes a 6% tax on sales. - Allows localities to establish an additional tax of up to 3.5%. - Starting July 1, 2029, the state excise tax rate on cannabis sales increases to 8%. - Gives the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority over licensing and regulation of recreational cannabis and hemp. - Narrows the definition of legal hemp by removing a provision that allows products containing more than 2mg of total THC per package if the yalso have a ratio of CBD to THC that is 25:1 or more. - Prohibits localities from opting out of allowing marijuana businesses to operate in their jurisdiction. - Permits the operation of delivery services. - Limits serving sizes to 10mg of THC and 100mg of THC per package. - Requires cannabis establishments to establish labor peace agreements with their staff. - Prohibits the use of cartoons, animals, shapes, fruits, humans, or other images that are appealing to children on advertisements and packaging. ++Alcohol++ - Clarifies that a person who is convicted of driving while under the influence of marijuana is not eligible to prepay court costs without court appearance. - Directs the state to determine the proper methods for detecting the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in substances, including for the purposes of enforcing impaired driving violations. ++Automotive++ - Removes the exemption that a manufacturer of all-terrain vehicles or off-road motorcycles does not need to obtain a state license. (p. 284) - Identify federal funds to support the deployment of rural electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the state of Virginia. (p. 501) ++Gaming++ - Requires the Lottery to develop an implementation plan to require all lottery terminals to possess proper age verification software to ensure that a consumer is 18 years of age or older. - Requires a phased schedule to implement age verification software in terminals, establish a completion date for implementation, include cost estimates for such plan, provide alternative implementation schedules for consideration, and recommend any necessary changes to statute or the appropriation act to implement the plan. (p. 551) ++Workforce Development++ - Directs the Department of Education to review funding for regional career and technical education schools, including identifying funding sources and proposing recommendations for alternative funding mechanisms. (pg. 67) - Increases funding for the New Economy Workforce Credential Grant Program and establishes additional requirements for participating institutions. (pg. 91) - Establishes a pilot program with Norfolk State University and other universities to provide workforce credentials in the healthcare and trade sectors. (pg. 104-105) ++HR++ - Appropriates funds for the Employee Child Care Assistance Pilot Program, prioritizing small businesses. (pg. 88)

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