The new year brings tax relief to some Tennessee farmers and a raise for Virginia minimum-wage workers. New state laws go into effect either Jan. 1, or July 1, and some may affect you.

“Dallas’s Law” is now on the books in Tennessee, named for Dallas Barrett, who died of asphyxiation after a fight with security guards in Nashville. Six guards were indicted on reckless homicide and aggravated assault charges. The law revises required training necessary for someone working as a security guard or officer, adding de-escalation and safe restraint techniques, and emergency first aid/CPR training.

Another law requires a health insurance entity, a health services provider or a health care facility to notify a patient of internal communication concerning a patient’s medical claim, and yet another requires a business that allows someone to sign up for a service or subscription online to provide the option to cancel the service or subscription online without additional steps.

And then there’s the “Tennessee Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act,” which makes it a felony to receive abortion-inducing drugs by mail.

Persons such as law enforcement officers may now restrict access to their home address in searchable databases, and Tennessee farmers are now exempted from sales taxes on items and services used for agriculture production, including building materials, repair services and labor.

Another new law will reimburse eligible relatives of foster youth to help support the cost of raising them. And cemeteries with small trust funds may now share banking and trustee costs with other cemetery trust funds.

In Virginia, the state minimum wage has been increased $1 to $12 an hour. Since May 2021, the minimum wage has steadily increased in the commonwealth, and according to the Code of Virginia, will continue to do so for years to come. The next jump will be Jan 1, 2025.

The federal minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25, a rate that hasn’t changed since 2009. As of last fall, 15 states have minimum wage rates that match the federal minimum wage. In this new year, 27 states have increased their minimum wage.

Tennessee is not among them because it and four other states have no state minimum wage and rely on the federal minimum wage.

Virginians also are seeing some taxes cut. Effective Jan. 1, taxes at the grocery store for certain products have dropped from 2.5% to 1%. That includes essential hygiene products like diapers, bed sheets and feminine hygiene products.

Virginia’s new Consumer Data Protection Act adds new consumer privacy rights, a broader interpretation of “personal information,” a separate “sensitive data” category, and data protection assessment obligations into the mix with the commonwealth’s three major preexisting privacy and data protection laws.

Last year, Virginia became the second state after California to pass a comprehensive consumer privacy law, which gives Virginians new consumer privacy rights over their “personal information,” including the right to access, the right of rectification, the right to delete, the right to opt out, the right of portability, and the right against automatic decision making.

Tennessee should follow suit.

-Kingsport Times News