House advances multiple education, tax and transparency bills; several moved to third reading
Summary
The Virginia House of Delegates on Jan. 22 advanced a package of bills — including measures on school mental‑health training, lab‑school transparency, retirement savings eligibility, and local tax options — moving many to third reading or engrossing them for final passage.
RICHMOND — The Virginia House of Delegates on Jan. 22 advanced a broad set of bills affecting education, local taxation and program transparency, moving several measures to third reading or engrossing them for final passage.
House members voted to pass House Bill 13 84, a measure related to submitting proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution and changes tied to Code section 30‑13; the Clerk recorded the vote as 'Aye 62, No 34' and the bill passed. In a series of uncontested and regular‑calendar actions, the chamber advanced bills addressing veterans' and surviving‑spouse tax exemptions (HB 175), changes to the state‑facilitated retirement savings program (HB 176), expanded mental‑health awareness training for school personnel (HB 38), and updates to school grievance and internet‑safety instruction rules (HB 116, HB 171), among others.
Speakers described the bills and their intent on the floor. Delegate Fagan (Virginia Beach) said HB 175 "ensures that the surviving spouses of service members who died in the line of duty are not unintentionally burdened with real property taxes" and moved the bill to its next stage. Delegate Torre explained HB 176 would expand access to the Commonwealth Savers Plan to more than 350,000 Virginia workers.
Other measures advanced included HB 199 (extending certain local assessment arrangements), HB 206 (requiring parental contact and governance information for K‑12 lab schools administered by third parties), HB 210 (improving reporting on school meal debt), HB 282 (allowing certain local property tax classifications and a committee substitute that was adopted), HB 288 (authorizing a Virginia Tribal Education Consortium placeholder on the Virginia Department of Education website), HB 334 (permitting statewide referenda on additional local sales and use tax for school capital needs), HB 341 (clarifying distributions of disposable plastic tax revenues to towns), and HB 414 (aligning certain tuition assistance and selective service rules to federal regulations to preserve grant eligibility).
Where specific tallies were recorded, the clerks announced them on the floor; many other motions were voice votes in which members responded 'aye' or 'no' when asked. Committee substitutes and engrossments were adopted where noted on the calendar; memorial and commending resolutions listed on the printed calendar were adopted en bloc, with a small number pulled for separate handling.
The House also handled procedural requests: delegates moved to re‑refer HB 367 and HB 368 to the Appropriations Committee at the request of members seeking additional consideration, and the membership agreed to those re‑referrals.
The House concluded by announcing committee meeting schedules to occur immediately upon adjournment and set its reconvening time for noon the following day.
