---
type: "Bill"
title: "Tourism improvement districts; authorizes any locality to create."
description: "Tourism improvement districts. Authorizesany locality to create a local tourism improvement district plan, consisting of fees charged to businesses and used to fund tourismpromotion activities and capital improvements. Under the bill, thelocality is authorized to contract with a nonprofit entity to administerthe activities and improvements."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1298"
citation: "Virginia SB 1298 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["John J. Bell"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 26
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2021-01-11"
last_action: "2021-03-31"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d75dbf74-8bcf-42c0-a86c-639617b01371"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1298"
source_hash: "4e4946b622b91809d3ee297e47a87aa364e0a602f848a860e2f28c19b2c46051"
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 1298 (2021) — Tourism improvement districts; authorizes any locality to create.

Tourism improvement districts. Authorizesany locality to create a local tourism improvement district plan, consisting of fees charged to businesses and used to fund tourismpromotion activities and capital improvements. Under the bill, thelocality is authorized to contract with a nonprofit entity to administerthe activities and improvements.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0500** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0500)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102381D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1298)
3. **SB1298ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1298ER)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed Senate (37-Y 0-N) — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage #2 (62-Y 36-N) — **61–36** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (16-Y 0-N) — **16–0** (pass) · upper
- Continued to Special Session 1 in Counties, Cities and Towns — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- VOTE: Passage (64-Y 35-N) — **63–35** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Local Government (14-Y 1-N) — **14–1** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (21-Y 1-N) — **21–1** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- John J. Bell — primary (person)
- David A. Reid — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer B. Boysko — cosponsor (person)
- L. Louise Lucas — cosponsor (person)
- Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Martha M. Mugler — cosponsor (person)
- Steve E. Heretick — cosponsor (person)
- Suhas Subramanyam — cosponsor (person)
- T. Montgomery "Monty" Mason — cosponsor (person)
- Todd E. Pillion — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102381D `introduction`
- **2021-01-11** Referred to Committee on Local Government `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Reported from Local Government (14-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-18** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-26** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (16-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-27** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-28** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-01-29** Read third time and passed Senate (37-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-02** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Counties, Cities and Towns
- **2021-02-12** Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (21-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-16** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-17** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-17** Passed House (64-Y 35-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-17** VOTE: Passage (64-Y 35-N)
- **2021-02-17** Reconsideration of House passage agreed to by House
- **2021-02-17** Passed House (62-Y 36-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-17** VOTE: Passage #2 (62-Y 36-N)
- **2021-02-19** Enrolled
- **2021-02-19** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-22** Signed by President
- **2021-02-24** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 24, 2021
- **2021-02-24** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-31** Approved by Governor-Chapter 500 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d75dbf74-8bcf-42c0-a86c-639617b01371`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).