                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION (§ 3.2-3111)

A. The Commission shall hold in confidence the personal and financial
information supplied to it, or maintained by it, concerning tobacco farmers,
including names, addresses, and payment information. The Commission may require
any tobacco farmer or other applicant for payments from the Fund to provide his
social security or taxpayer identification number.

B. Notwithstanding the foregoing, personal and financial information supplied to
or maintained by the Commission relating to tobacco farmers may be used,
exchanged, and disclosed at the Commission&#8217;s discretion as may be
necessary or appropriate to make payments under, administer, or enforce this
chapter and related state and federal laws, any other state or federal tobacco
indemnification or loss assistance program, or a national tobacco community
trust fund.

C. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the Commission, in its discretion,
from releasing any information that has been transformed into a statistical or
aggregate form that does not allow the identification of the person who supplied
particular information or the sum of money received by a particular recipient.

D. Personal and financial information supplied by or maintained on persons or
entities applying for or receiving distributions from the Fund for economic
growth and development, as well as specific information relating to the amount
and identity of recipients of such distributions, shall be subject to disclosure
in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (&#xA7; 2.2-3700 et
seq.). The provisions of that Act applicable to records or meetings of the
Virginia Economic Development Partnership or other state or local economic
development entities shall apply mutatis mutandis to the Commission and the
Manager selected pursuant to subdivision A 9 of &#xA7; 3.2-3103.

E. The provisions of this section shall also apply to any department, agency,
institution, political subdivision, or employee of the Commonwealth or a
political subdivision that receives personal or financial information from the
Commission in order to process checks for payments from the Fund or to assist
the Commission with the administration and enforcement of this chapter.

HISTORY: 2001, c. 757, § 9-389.1; 2001, c. 844, § 3.1-1114.1; 2008, c. 860;
2015, cc. 399, 433.