The General Assembly adjourned sine die on March 12. The House and Senate were not able to come to an agreement on the budget and had a number of bills in conference that were not finished. As a result, the General Assembly will be coming back for a special session to finish all unresolved business. At this point, it is unclear exactly when this session will occur but it will happen sooner rather than later. When the legislature does reconvene, they will be limited to only working on the budget and any other bills that were still pending in conference committees at the time of adjournment.
Below is a list of the key bills that AIA Virginia worked on during this Session and the respective results:
HB 429 – Bulova and SB 225 – McPike – Virginia Public Procurement Act; architectural and professional engineering term contracting.
[AIA/ACEC Bill – Signed by President of Senate]
This legislation provides that the sum of all projects performed in an architectural and professional engineering contract term shall not exceed $10 million, and the fee for any single project shall not exceed $2.5 million. The bill allows a contract for multiple architectural or professional engineering projects to be renewable for up to three additional terms at the option of the public body. Current law limits the sum of all projects performed in a one-year contract term to $750,000, with up to four additional one-year terms at the option of the public body, and limits the fee for any single project to $150,000, with numerous specific exceptions to those limits, including a limit for total projects for rail projects of $5 million and for highway projects, $8 million. This bill simplifies the code section so that there is continuity between jurisdictions regarding limits on term contracts while providing more access for firms. Both of these bills have been signed by the President of the Senate and are on the way to the Governor’s desk.
HB 971 – Byron – Commonwealth’s taxation system; conformity with the Internal Revenue Code, etc.
[Signed by Governor]
Governor Youngkin signed this bill into law that ensures aid granted to businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and Rebuild Virginia grants during the pandemic will not be treated as taxable income.
For a complete list of legislation that AIA Virginia was monitoring and weighing in as appropriate at the following link>>