2026 General Assembly update from the TJPDC’s legislative liaison

The end is within sight for the latest session of Virginia’s bicameral legislature and the deputy director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has an update on where things stand two and a half weeks before a scheduled adjournment.

One of the required tasks for the House of Delegates and the Senate is to agree on a budget for FY27 and FY28 to present to Governor Abigail Spanberger.

“The respective plans will be approved by the full House and Senate on Thursday, then a conference committee of budget writers will be named to hammer out a compromise over the final weeks of the session,” writes David Blount in his February 24 update.

Blount provided a link to the House version and a link to the Senate version for anyone who wants to go through the details.

The Senate version contains a provision to move up the expiration date for an exemption data centers can receive for sales and use tax for computers and equipment. The sunset had been scheduled for 2035 but the Senate version would see that move up to January 1, 2027. That will would an additional $317.1 million in FY27 and $778.2 million in FY28 according to a presentation made in a February 22 committee meeting.

A Senate bill to allow localities to hold a referendum on a one-cent sales tax failed to make it out of committee before Crossover, but HB334 is awaiting action in the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.

There are also a pair of bills from each chamber that would require localities to create areas where multifamily development is allowed by-right. SB454 passed the Senate and awaits a vote in the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee. HB816 would passed the House and awaits a vote in the Senate Local Government committee.

For more information, sign up for the TJPDC’s legislative updates. You can also take a look a the website.

Some pieces of legislation came up at the February 24 meeting of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority.

SB386 would place restrictions on the application of sewage sludge including allowing localities to require testing of materials made as a by-product of wastewater treatment plants.

The bill passed the Senate on a 27 to 13 vote on February 17 and an amended version passed out of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee today.

“We didn’t have a strong stake in this issue,” said RWSA Executive Director Bill Mawyer. “However, if this bill would go into effect and it would cause other wastewater treatment plants to not be able to be allowed to land-apply, then everyone wants to go to… landfills, then it could cause an issue for all of us.”

More from the RWSA meeting in future editions of the newsletter.

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