Crossover Point in General Assembly

Tuesday, February 14, marks what is referred to as Crossover in the General Assembly. All bills, except budget bills, have to be passed by the Senate and sent to the House or by the House and sent to the Senate to have a chance for final passage into law.

Nine of the bills that I introduced have passed the Senate without any opposition and now must be passed by the House of Delegates to become law. These bills include:

SB 540 Real estate tax exemption for disabled veterans – Allows the inclusion of primary residences held in trust clarifying the bill passed last year. 

SB 657 Fraudulent train ticket; penalty – Increases the fine for boarding or riding a district transportation train without paying the posted fare. The Virginia Railway Express (VRE) requested this legislation because of the growing problems they are having with this issue.

SB 136 Virginia Retirement System; retirees hired as police chief in certain towns. Enables a town such as Dumfries, which asked for this bill, to hire a retired person as police chief.

SB 139 County precincts; separate precinct for certain towns. Allows the Town of Quantico to have its own separate precinct to enable voters to cast ballots in the town. During the past election, they had travel out of the town to vote.

SB 539 Forward energy pricing; public body to use mechanism for budget risk reduction.  Grants a public entity such as the Potomac and Rappahannock Transit Commission (PRTC) to buy and sell diesel fuel to make operations more efficient and fiscally sound.

SB 551 Counties may establish discount for real estate payments. Permits entities to give a discount if owners pay property tax in full in the first one-half of the year but with no greater than a 5% discount. 

Another bill I introduced, SB 434 Funeral protests; penalty, would limit protests at funeral and memorial services that may lead to disruption of peace. This bill was requested by Fairfax County. I have attended a funeral in the Mount Vernon area where such a protest was held. SB 434 is expected to pass the Senate either Monday or Tuesday of this week.

Please continue to contact me on interests of concern:

Senator Linda T. “Toddy” Puller

P.O. Box 396
Richmond, Virginia 23218
Phone: (804) 698-7536
Fax: (804) 698-7651
Email: district36@senate.virginia.gov