Governor Youngkin announced on Monday, March 24, that he has offered amendments to 159 bills that were sent to him by the 2025 General Assembly. The legislature will consider these amendments at the April 2 reconvened session along with the Governor’s 205 budget amendments, eight budget vetoes, and vetoes of 157 additional bills. In order for the Governor’s amendments to be incorporated into a bill and enacted into statute, both chambers must vote to approve the amendments by a majority vote of the members present. If the General Assembly rejects amendments to a bill, the measure is returned to the Governor, who then has 30 days to take final action and may sign or veto the bill, or allow it to become law without his signature.
The Governor offered amendments to several bills of interest to local governments.
Reporting of equipment failures at waterworks: HB 2749 (LeVere Bolling) and SB 1408 (Reeves) require owners of waterworks to report any critical equipment failure or malfunction or contaminant release to the Department of Health as soon as practicable, but no more than six hours after discovery. The Governor’s amendment shortens this reporting period to two hours. VACo has asked the bills’ patrons to reject this amendment, which would impose a significant administrative burden on local staff by requiring evaluation and reporting of issues in a very limited timeframe, and retain the more reasonable six-hour requirement agreed to by the General Assembly.
Emergency Medical Services and prescription drug boxes: SB 1318 (McPike), as passed by the General Assembly, directs the Board of Pharmacy to convene a work group to advise the Board on issues related to emergency medical services providers. The Governor’s amendment rewrites the bill to direct the Board of Pharmacy, in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Health and the Office of Emergency Medical Services, to report on the progress made by EMS agencies in implementing Board of Pharmacy regulations and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency requirements that replaced the hospital drug box exchange program.
Data centers: HB 1601 (Thomas)/SB 1449 (Ebbin), as passed by the General Assembly, requires an applicant for a rezoning, or special use permit, for a data center (defined as a “High Energy Use Facility” or HEUF) to submit a sound study on potential impacts to any housing or schools within 500 feet of its property boundary. The legislation also requires a locality, when considering such application, to require the electric utility providing power to the proposed data center, to submit a report on (1) any new or existing electric substations that will be used to serve the HEUF; and (2) the anticipated transmission voltage required to serve the HEUF. The Governor’s proposed amendments remove these mandates and instead leaves it to the discretion of the locality to require them. The Governor also proposes a reenactment clause, effectively nullifying the legislation by requiring the General Assembly to adopt it again in 2026 to make it effective. Given such, the proposed amendments do not impact local authority in the review of such applications.
Affordable housing: HB 2153 (Carr), as passed by the General Assembly, requires localities to incorporate into their comprehensive plans strategies to support affordable housing development by property tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. The legislation also grants localities the authority to adopt a variety of strategies to facilitate the development of affordable housing on property owned by property tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. These include (1) the adoption of an ordinance to reduce, or waive, the requirements for certain zoning permits; and (2) the creation of site plan application incentives. The Governor’s proposed substitute removes these provisions and instead requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to develop a document describing options for alteration or waiver of requirements for zoning permits, site plan application incentives, and other considerations that a locality may consider when implementing an ordinance to stimulate affordable housing and include strategies on property owned by a property tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. In the development of the document DHCD shall (1) consult stakeholders, including local governments, nonprofit organizations, and other expert resources; and (2) publish the document on the Department’s website no later than December 31, 2025. The proposed substitute does not impact counties.
Photo speed monitoring devices: HB 2718 (Leftwich) deals with the use of photo speed monitoring devices in school crossing zones. As passed by the General Assembly, the bill provides that a sworn certificate or facsimile affirmed by a law-enforcement officer based on inspection of images produced by a photo speed monitoring device is not prima facie evidence of a vehicle speed violation unless the images document the presence of signage indicating a school crossing zone at the time of the violation. The Governor’s amendments are clarifying in nature.
Recordation and property tax exemptions:
- HB 1699 (Askew) eliminates the recordation tax exemption for the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and eliminates the real and personal property tax exemption for this group and several other entities. The Governor’s amendments would add a reenactment clause to the bill and direct the Department of Taxation to study the impact of exemptions to the state recordation tax on state government revenues and the exemptions to real and personal property tax by classifications set or designations made on or before July 1, 1971, and the impact of such exemptions on local government revenues.
- HB 1970 (Watts)/SB 1202 (Deeds) respond to a specific case in the City of Winchester and clarify that the Constitutional property tax exemption for property owned by “institutions of learning not conducted for profit, so long as such property is primarily used for literary, scientific, or educational purposes or purposes incidental thereto” includes institutions licensed by the Department of Education that provide special education and related services pursuant to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The Governor’s amendments stipulate that these provisions are declarative of existing law.
- HB 2302 (Sickles) relates to the Constitutional exemption for real and personal property owned by churches and religious bodies and stipulates that property on which a new structure is being built to replace or rebuild a church or other building for religious worship qualifies for the exemption. The bill contains certain guardrails; as passed by the General Assembly, the bill included a requirement that construction will commence no later than six months after discontinuation of the property’s previous use. In order to address the situation that prompted the legislation, the Governor’s amendment extends this window to five years. Given the guardrails included in the legislation and the specificity of the situation it aims to address, VACo had no position on the bill.
Recovery residences: SB 838 (VanValkenburg) directs the establishment of a process for state oversight of recovery residences, to include credentialing guidelines and a process for investigation of complaints, and authorizes the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to issue provisional certification on a temporary basis to a recovery residence that has indicated an intent to receive accreditation by or membership in a credentialing agency. The Governor’s amendments revise the language regarding “provisional” certification to instead provide for “conditional” certification and specify that conditional certifications may be revoked for serious health and safety concerns.
Towing: SB 1332 (Marsden), as passed by the General Assembly, increases the maximum hookup and initial towing fee of a passenger car from $150 to $210 and makes provisions that authorize a towing and recovery operator to charge a fuel surcharge fee of $20 for the removal of certain vehicles permanent; however, a towing and recovery operator is prohibited from charging such a fee in any locality where the governing body has adopted an ordinance setting reasonable limits on fees in accordance with existing law and has conducted a review considering an adjustment of such limitations by December 31, 2025. The Governor’s proposed substitute includes only the language increasing the maximum hookup and initial towing fee; this action allows the current fuel surcharge fee to expire on July 1, 2025.
Employer liability: HB 1730 (Delaney) and SB 894 (Perry) establish an expansive legal framework for holding employers liable in civil actions involving victims who have been harmed by an employee’s actions. This would have created a great burden on public employers, who by the very nature of providing services for the public would be subject to claims and liability related to the acts of employees that they may not be able to foresee or anticipate. The Governor’s recommended amendments are helpful to localities as employers, as they create more feasible standards of employer responsibility for employees’ actions. The amendments also narrow the definition of “vulnerable victim.”
VACo Contacts: VACo Legislative Team