Content manufacturing tax credit. Removes the sunset for the motion picture tax credit, which currently is set to expire after taxable year 2026, and expands and redesignates the tax credit as the content manufacturing tax credit. The bill increases the total amount of credits that can be allocated to taxpayers to $46.5 million beginning in fiscal year 2024; however, should less than $100 million worth of certain new investments, as described by the bill, occur in Virginia by January 1, 2027, the cap will be reduced to $10 million per fiscal year. The bill also amends the definition of the "qualifying expenses" eligible for the content manufacturing tax credit to mean certain amounts spent in connection with the production of an eligible project filmed in the Commonwealth. The bill defines "eligible project" to be the production of a motion picture or an episodic television series.

Health insurance; coverage for therapeutic day treatment services. Requires health insurers providing health care plans to provide coverage for therapeutic day treatment services for children with serious emotional disturbances, defined in the in bill as children who have a mental illness diagnosis and have experienced functional limitations due to emotional disturbance, including experiencing a school shooting or the loss of a loved one in a school setting, over the past 12 months on a continuous or intermittent basis. Under the bill, "therapeutic day treatment services" are treatment programs that combine psychotherapeutic interventions with education and mental health and may include evaluation; medication education and management; opportunities to learn and use daily living skills and to enhance social and interpersonal skills; and individual, group, and family counseling. The bill applies to plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2025.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; professional services; definition. Adds to the definition of "professional services," for use throughout the Virginia Public Procurement Act, services of an investment and financial advisor procured by the Department of the Treasury.

Insurance; Fire Programs Fund; purposes. Provides that the portion of the Fire Programs Fund allocated to localities may be used for the additional purposes of (i) constructing, improving, or expanding fire station facilities, (ii) providing mental health resources, or (iii) hiring additional fire personnel and funding recruitment and retention programs. The bill also prohibits such funds from being used, except as provided, for the purposes of investments, operating expenses, debt repayment, taxes, or fees.

Constitutional amendment (first reference); qualifications of voters; right to vote; persons not entitled to vote. Provides that every person who meets the qualifications of voters set forth in the Constitution of Virginia shall have the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth and that such right shall not be abridged by law, except for persons who have been convicted of a felony and persons who have been adjudicated to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting. A person who has been convicted of a felony shall not be entitled to vote during any period of incarceration for such felony conviction, but upon release from incarceration for that felony conviction and without further action required of him, such person shall be invested with all political rights, including the right to vote. Currently, in order to be qualified to vote a person convicted of a felony must have his civil rights restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority. The amendment also provides that a person adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction as lacking the capacity to understand the act of voting shall not be entitled to vote during this period of incapacity until his capacity has been reestablished as prescribed by law. Currently, the Constitution of Virginia provides that a person who has been adjudicated to be mentally incompetent is not qualified to vote until his competency is reestablished.

Zoning; civil penalties; commercial uses. Allows enhanced civil penalties for zoning violations involving nonpermitted commercial uses. The bill also requires that for any violation involving nonpermitted commercial uses, a person who admits liability shall be required to abate or remedy the nonpermitted commercial use violation within a period of time specified by the locality that is no less than 30 days but no more than 24 months from the date of admission of liability.

Pilot program for captured coal mine methane; renewable energy portfolio standard. Directs the State Corporation Commission to establish a pilot program for American Electric Power (Phase I Utility) and Dominion Energy (Phase II Utility) to submit proposals to deploy electricity generation from captured coal mine methane. Under the bill, reasonable and prudent costs incurred under the captured coal mine methane project shall be recovered through utility base rates. Additionally, the bill provides that electricity generated using captured coal mine methane with a non-combustion electric generator under the captured coal mine methane project shall be considered an eligible resource for purposes of the renewable energy portfolio standard program.

Constitutional amendment (first reference); marriage between two individuals; repeal of same-sex marriage prohibition; affirmative right to marry. Repeals the constitutional provision defining marriage as only a union between one man and one woman as well as the related provisions that are no longer valid as a result of the United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015). The amendment provides that the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of persons and prohibits the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions from denying the issuance of a marriage license to two parties contemplating a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of such parties. The Commonwealth and its political subdivisions are required to recognize any lawful marriage between two parties and to treat such marriages equally under the law, regardless of the sex, gender, or race of such parties. The amendment provides that religious organizations and clergy acting in their religious capacity have the right to refuse to perform any marriage.

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; emergency dispatchers. Extends membership in the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System (VaLORS) to emergency dispatchers who are employed by the Department of State Police and agencies whose law-enforcement officers are eligible for membership in VaLORS. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025, and provides that such membership would apply only to service earned on or after July 1, 2025.

Income tax subtraction; professional firefighter pension. Establishes an income tax subtraction for up to $20,000 of firefighter benefits in taxable year 2024, up to $30,000 in taxable year 2025, and up to $40,000 in taxable year 2026 and each year thereafter. The bill defines firefighter benefits to include retirement income related to firefighting services and benefits paid to the surviving spouse of a firefighter whose death occurred in the line of duty.

Fire and Emergency Medical Services Grant Fund; funding for fire and emergency medical services. Increases the vehicle registration fee used to provide support for emergency medical services from $4.25 to $6.25 for each pickup or panel truck and each motor vehicle. The bill also creates the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Grant Fund to provide funding (i) to increase the number of firefighters and emergency medical services personnel to help communities meet industry minimum standards and attain 24-hour staffing to provide adequate assistance and (ii) to purchase heavy apparatus necessary for fire and emergency medical services.

Public education; dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment; high school graduation. Makes several changes relating to graduation from a public high school in the Commonwealth, including (i) eliminating the requirement for a student to complete one virtual course in order to graduate from high school and (ii) specifying that various options and requirements relating to earning career and technical education credentials for the purpose of satisfying high school graduation requirements are required to be high-demand career and technical education credentials. The bill also defines and thereby distinguishes the concepts of dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment in the context of high school students' participation in college-level coursework and requires the agreements for postsecondary attainment between school boards and comprehensive community colleges to specify the credit available for dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment courses.

Public school staffing ratios; school counselors. Decreases from one to 325 to one to 250 the ratio of full-time equivalent school counselors required to be employed by each local school board per student enrolled in the local school division.

Advertisement of legal notices; website. Allows a locality to advertise legal notices on the locality's website instead of, or in addition to, publishing such notices in a newspaper having general circulation in the locality.

Study; Board of Workforce Development; adequacy of the funding model for noncredit workforce credential programs; work group; report. Requests the Virginia Board of Workforce Development to study the current funding model for noncredit workforce credential programs offered at comprehensive community colleges in order to identify areas of inadequacy and make recommendations on options for reforming the funding model to address those inadequacies and improve the sustainability of offering and providing noncredit workforce credential programs to ensure that the Virginia Community College System as a whole is capable of continuing to meet the increasing demand for highly skilled credentialed workers in the Commonwealth.