---
type: "Bill"
title: "Commercial fishing vessels; classifies vessels as a separate class of property."
description: "Classifies commercial fishing vessels and property permanently attached to such vessels as a separate class of property for the purpose of local personal property tax."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1205"
citation: "Virginia SB 1205 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Fisheries and Habitat of the Tidal Waters", "Personal Property and Personal Property Tax", "Taxation"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr."]
version_count: 3
action_count: 16
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-10"
last_action: "2017-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/906b9b76-8e8c-4a97-9691-decdb69066b6"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1205"
source_hash: "f791798c762c29bf30a59db8e4aa866d4d9d93335893b32cbde14f14a03a47ca"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1205 (2017) — Commercial fishing vessels; classifies vessels as a separate class of property.

Classifies commercial fishing vessels and property permanently attached to such vessels as a separate class of property for the purpose of local personal property tax.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0447)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0447)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1205ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1205ER)
3. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103826D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1205)

## Votes

- Reported from Finance — **16–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House — **97–1** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **8–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed Senate — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Finance — **21–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-10** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103826D `introduction`
- **2017-01-10** Referred to Committee on Finance `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-26** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-01-31** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-01-31** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-31** Referred to Committee on Finance `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-03** Assigned Finance sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Passed House (97-Y 1-N 1-A) `passage`
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled
- **2017-02-17** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-20** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 447 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/906b9b76-8e8c-4a97-9691-decdb69066b6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).