This was a busy session for animal welfare and animal care issues, for both companion animals and agricultural animals. First of all, the General Assembly passed a VDACS-requested bill that gives the Board of Agriculture the ability to assess a civil penalty of up to $1000 for animal disease violations; currently the only option for these violations is a criminal misdemeanor.

Another bill gives judges more options for sentencing of dogs that have been proven to be repeat killers of poultry. The current law states that the dog must either be put down or sent out of state, and the new law allows the dog to be fitted with an identifying microchip and transferred to a new owner or confined to a kennel. This arose out of an issue with backyard chickens and the Council worked with the patron to ensure livestock and poultry owners' rights to defend their own animals are protected. Two bills which the Council supported change the time period in which Animal Control Officers must be trained to ensure that they are trained in a timely manner.

There were also a few bills which the Council strongly opposed. One, sponsored by Senator Bill Stanley (R-Moneta), would have required farmers to certify that new-born calves had received a certain amount of colostrum after birth. This bill was handily defeated in the Senate Agriculture Committee. Another bill, sponsored by Del. Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke), had to do with the use of bull hooks for animals. The bill originally dealt only with elephants, but it was amended to cover all animals. We had concerns that this could affect farmers and youth who show livestock, and this bill was also handily defeated in subcommittee. 

There were many bills this year that dealt with energy, and especially renewable energy. These included various bills that provided different incentives for renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, and some that dealt with net metering as well. The General Assembly decided to hold all of these bills until next year and to convene a group to study all of these issues throughout 2016.

Two bills to require the General Assembly to approve the state's Clean Power Plan, which it is required by the EPA to develop, were passed on party line votes in the legislature, but they were both vetoed by Governor McAuliffe. It is unlikely there will be enough votes to override these vetoes.

This year was not as contentious as last year for hunting issues, as last year saw the debate and passage of the new Sunday Hunting law. However, there were a few bills this year. One proposal which passed both Houses unanimously, will allow state and federal government agencies to attempt a pilot program in Virginia Beach to shoot feral hogs out of aircraft. This bill only applies to False Cape State Park and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Another bill that passed allows for the hunting of certain animals with a slingshot. And we supported both a bill and a budget amendment that would allow Virginia to cooperate with federal and local agencies for the control of black vulture populations, similar to how these agreements already exist for coyotes. 

On the tax front, there were a few different bills that we worked on this year. Notably, we supported successful bills, sponsored by Del. Ben Cline (R-Lexington) and Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath), to establish a tax credit for farmers who donate crops to food banks. The bills cap this credit at $5,000 per entity with a total allowance of $250,000. We also supported a bill which extends many port-related tax credits for the next four years.

We opposed a returning bill from Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Moneta) that would have imposed a tax on all pet food distributed in the Commonwealth to fund a surgical sterilization program for companion animals. This bill was carried over until the 2017 Session at the request of the patron, and he has mentioned a desire to discuss the topic in the interim.

                

Other bills that did not advance include a study on local tax rates and a bill to cap BPOL, merchants' capital, and machinery and tools taxes.

As always, there were also a few bills dealing with the tobacco industry. The Council opposed a bill from Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington) that would have prohibited children under the age of 18 from working on tobacco farms. We also opposed a bill to increase the state tax rate on tobacco products-to $1.50 per pack on cigarettes and to 50% of price on roll your own tobacco. This bill failed to advance in subcommittee.

On the transportation front, there were a few bills we followed this session. A bill to increase allowable widths for transporting watercraft was approved unanimously. Another unanimous bill amended the definition of "truck" within the code not to include pickup trucks not in excess of 10,000 pounds.

 

A bill to disallow commercial motor vehicles from traveling in the left lane on Interstate 64 across Afton Mountain was defeated in subcommittee. And another bill increasing certain allowable truck weights also did not advance.