10.1-2128.1 - Virginia Natural Resources Commitment Fund established.
§ 10.1-2128.1. Virginia Natural Resources Commitment Fund established.
A. There is hereby created in the state treasury a special nonreverting fundto be known as the Virginia Natural Resources Commitment Fund hereafterreferred to as "the Subfund," which shall be a subfund of the VirginiaWater Quality Improvement Fund and administered by the Department ofConservation and Recreation. The Subfund shall be established on the books ofthe Comptroller. All amounts appropriated and such other funds as may be madeavailable to the Subfund from any other source, public or private, shall bepaid into the state treasury and credited to the Subfund. Interest earned onmoneys in the Subfund shall remain in the Subfund and be credited to it. Anymoneys remaining in the Subfund, including interest thereon, at the end ofeach fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund but shall remain in theSubfund. Moneys in the Subfund shall be used as provided in subsection Bsolely for the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-ShareProgram administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
B. Beginning on July 1, 2008, and continuing in each subsequent fiscal yearuntil July 1, 2018, out of such amounts as may be appropriated and depositedto the Subfund, distributions shall be made in each fiscal year for thefollowing purposes:
1. Eight percent of the total amount distributed to the Virginia AgriculturalBest Management Practices Cost-Share Program shall be distributed to soil andwater conservation districts to provide technical assistance for theimplementation of such agricultural best management practices. Each soil andwater conservation district in the Commonwealth shall receive a shareaccording to a method employed by the Director of the Department ofConservation and Recreation in consultation with the Virginia Soil and WaterConservation Board, that accounts for the percentage of the availableagricultural best management practices funding that will be received by thedistrict from the Subfund;
2. Fifty-five percent of the total amount distributed to the VirginiaAgricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program shall be used formatching grants for agricultural best management practices on lands in theCommonwealth exclusively or partly within the Chesapeake Bay watershed; and
3. Thirty-seven percent of the total amount distributed to the VirginiaAgricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program shall be used formatching grants for agricultural best management practices on lands in theCommonwealth exclusively outside of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
C. The Department of Conservation and Recreation, in consultation withstakeholders, including representatives of the agricultural community, theconservation community, and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts, shalldetermine an annual funding amount for effective Soil and Water ConservationDistrict technical assistance and implementation of agricultural bestmanagement practices pursuant to § 10.1-546.1. Pursuant to § 2.2-1504, theDepartment shall provide to the Governor the annual funding amount needed foreach year of the ensuing biennial period. The Department shall report theannual funding amount to the Chairmen of the House Appropriations and SenateFinance Committees by October 15 of each year.
(2008, cc. 643, 701; 2009, cc. 209, 263.)