2016 Legislative Session Story Archives - Page 14 of 15

Child Programs Fight Governor's Cuts

Representatives from the Our Children, Our Future Campaign are lobbying lawmakers for the fourth year at the statehouse. The group, which has no paid lobbyists, advocates for children’s issues.

This year, their priorities include providing mental health services in public schools and increasing access to locally grown, healthy foods, but the campaign will also have to fight budget cuts to child and family services.

The Our Children, Our Future Campaign hosted their annual lobbying day Thursday just across from the state capitol at West Virginia’s Culture Center. More than 900 kids and their families from around the state joined various child advocacy groups at the event.

The campaign is advocating for ten policy issues this year:

Mental Health Services
Child Care Centers
Opposition to Right to Work
Second Chance for Employment Act & Driver’s Licenses
Tax Reform
Juvenile Justice
Combating Substance Abuse
Local Food Access and Profitability
Afterschool Programs
Expanding Broadband Access

But one of the major issues on the table are the budget cuts that could come to child and family services.
Governor Tomblin’s 2017 budget proposal includes cuts across the board for state agencies and even deeper cuts for other service programs. In the past, the governor has tried to cut family services that the Our Children, Our Future Campaign successfully lobbied lawmakers to restore.

This year, Senate President Bill Cole says he and his fellow legislators will continue to look for ways to keep these valuable programs whole.

“I’m proud to say that this is the first year that these programs have not seen a budget cut at the beginning of the legislative session. It is my hope that although we are facing one of the toughest times financially that our state’s ever seen, that we will be able to find a way to assure that we all work together to keep these programs funded and operational.” – Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer

But not all groups are safe.

Emily Chittenden-Laird is the Director of the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network. Her group works with kids who have been sexually abused, and it’s facing a cut this year.

“Right now, child advocacy centers in the budget had an 8.3 percent budget cut proposed,” Chittenden-Laird said, “What that looks like on the local level is about a $10,000 per program cut. Our programs run on very slim budgets, and given all the growth we’ve seen over the years and the budget situations, their budgets are very thin.”

Chittenden-Laird says the impact of child abuse over a lifetime is tremendous and that even though it’s a tight budget year lawmakers need to be investing in services to help kids, not cutting services.

“We’re seeing 83 percent more kids walk through our doors than we did six years ago. We have 15 percent more kids than last year. We can’t turn these kids away. Where do we send them? Where do they go? The alternative for them is that they don’t get help, and we just, we have to do right by our children.”

The budget cut is mostly affecting state agencies like Chittenden-Laird’s, but there are other groups who aren’t facing cuts – like Sam Hickman’s.

Hickman is the Executive Director of the West Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. While his association doesn’t receive state funding, Hickman says the budget cuts will still affect his group.

“The budget cut will have a trickledown effect,” Hickman noted, “for example, we provide continuing education for profession social workers, but a lot of state employees won’t be able to take advantage of that this year, because state agencies have been cut. Their travel, their ability to allow their employees to travel has been really severely limited.”

The Our Children, Our Future Campaign is working with lawmakers to find ways to lessen the cuts programs are facing.

Delegates Vote to Repeal Prevailing Wage

Members of the West Virginia House of Delegates voted 55 to 44 Wednesday to repeal the state’s prevailing wage as dozens of union members looked on from the gallery.

The prevailing wage is the hourly rate and benefits workers are paid on state construction projects. House Bill 4005 calls for a full repeal of the wage rate which could come as early as May.

Members debated the bill on the floor for more than two hours, arguing a repeal would save tax payer dollars. On the opposite side, members said a repeal will lower the wages of workers across West Virginia, both union and nonunion.

“No longer will our taxpayers be held hostage by big labor, no longer will our West Virginia taxpayers have to pay for an artificial wage rate set by unelected government bureaucrats who cater to big labor. You see today is that day you will decide to stand for the taxpayer or to stand with the union bosses.” – Delegate Eric Householder, R-Berkeley

Before the vote, the bill was only discussed by one committee, the House Committee on Government Organization, but was also the subject of a public hearing. At that hearing, two of 18 speakers spoke out in support of the repeal.

“Unions made this country a middle class that could afford to buy homes with people that could go to college, and now all of a sudden that’s somehow not popular. Let’s pile on. We’ve got coal miners that are worried about losing their jobs, and now we’re talking to the union trade people, and we’re saying we’re gonna cut your salary, too. Who do you think is gonna be left in West Virginia?” – Delegate Nancy Guthrie, D-Kanawha

The bill will now be sent to the Senate for the chamber’s consideration.

Senator's Broadband Provision Moves Forward Despite Industry Pushback

The Senate’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has approved a bill that aims to expand access to broadband internet services across West Virginia, even though industry representatives continue to express opposition to the bill.

Senate Bill 315 would created a government constructed, government owned middle mile network paid for with federal grants and, possibly, a bond.

The committee’s chair and the bill’s lead sponsor Sen. Chris Walters explains a middle mile like a state highway system made up of internet fiber. Internet providers would be able to hook up to that interstate at the cost to maintain the system, creating their own off ramps into rural communities.

While Walters maintains the proposal won’t take any money from the state’s budget to complete, industry representatives say lawmakers should be concerned with cost.

“We believe that the last mile is the challenge and it is. It is far more expensive to try to connect people to their homes than it is to connect people on the middle mile network,” Frontier Government and External Affairs Manager Kathy Cosco said.

Cosco said she thinks lawmakers should be focused on providing tax credits to companies who expanded their last mile, the connection directly to a customer’s home.

“I think there may be opportunity to work out a better solution or at least a compromised solution that really does immediately improve broadband delivery in West Virginia,” Senate Majority Leader, and Frontier employee, Senator Mitch Carmichael said.

Carmichael would like to see a bill passed that incentivizes the private sector to expand rather than creating the government owned middle mile.

“If there is enough interest within the body to put the state in the broadband business than it certainly will come to a vote,” he added.

Sen. Walters’s bill will next be considered by the Senate Committee on Government Organization.

Will W.Va. Lawmakers Back Broadband Expansion?

AARP and Generation West Virginia co-hosted a press conference at the capitol Tuesday focused on the future of broadband in the state.

AARP is a group that represents retired West Virginians and Generation West Virginia is a group aimed at getting young people engaged in West Virginia’s future.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, 56 percent of West Virginians as a whole lack access to broadband. But in rural communities, 74 percent of West Virginians lack access.

“In order to create a vibrant and growing economy, our state needs to invest right now in the infrastructure of the future; high speed broadband,” said Senate President Bill Cole, “so the businesses can grow and thrive, local county and state government can operate more efficiently, and schools at all levels can provide better opportunities to their students.”

Cole says he wants to get all of the stakeholders in the state involved to figure out what’s the best step forward for West Virginia.

Gaylene Miller is the State Director for AARP and Natalie Roper is the Executive Director for Generation West Virginia. Both women say broadband is not a generational issue and that young and old should come together to support legislation that would expand broadband access.

“It’s a complicated issue, but we need to be sure that we’re talking about bringing people together, so whether it’s private industry, state government, all of those working together to make broadband a reality in West Virginia is what’s really important,” Miller explained.

“We have to focus on the fact that broadband is an economic development issue;” Roper noted, “this is about keeping jobs here, bringing jobs here, and ensuring that all generations can work from home being able to work for employers, talk to employers in the state, access to healthcare, access to education; it’s about access and economic revitalization for the state. And when we focus on those things, it’s really hard to say no.”

Senator Chris Walters of Putnam County has proposed a bill this legislative session that focuses on constructing a statewide, fiber optic broadband infrastructure network. One that would be government funded and government owned.

Tomblin Appoints Republican Sue Cline to Fill Senate Vacancy

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin appointed Brenton, W.Va., resident Sue Cline to fill the vacancy left in the West Virginia Senate after Daniel Hall’s resignation.

Cline’s appointment comes after a decision from the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Friday ordering Tomblin to appoint a Republican to the seat.

A Republican, Hall resigned from the Senate in January, but because he switched party affiliations in 2014, the West Virginia Democratic Party questioned the appointment. Democrats argued a member of their party should be appointed to the seat because Hall was a Democrat at the time of his election to office.

Cline is a realtor in the Beckley area and served as the vice president of the Pineville Area Chamber of Commerce. She has also been a member of the Wyoming County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Cline will likely take her oath of office Monday.

Right-to-Work One Step Closer to Becoming Law in W.Va.

West Virginia is one step closer to becoming the 26th state with a Right-to-Work law after a vote in the state Senate today. Senators approved the West…

West Virginia is one step closer to becoming the 26th state with a Right-to-Work law after a vote in the state Senate today. Senators approved the West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act on a vote of 17 to 16, on party lines.

The proposed Right-to-Work law makes it illegal for collective bargaining agreements in the state to require workers in a union workplace to be a member of that union or pay union dues or fees.

It is currently illegal under federal law to fire a worker for either joining or refusing to join a union, but nonunion members in union workplaces do have to pay fees for the representation they receive in contract negotiations. This bill would make the required payment of those fees illegal in West Virginia.

Senate President Bill Cole had to repeatedly ask members of the audience to refrain from cheering or expressing distaste with the floor speeches given by members during the nearly two hours of debate.

The bill will now be sent to the House of Delegates for further consideration.

Floor speeches from the debate on the Right-to-Work Bill included:

Sen. Charles Trump:

“Before discussing precisely what the bill does, let me tell you what this bill does not do. This bill does not in any way prohibit collective bargaining. This bill does not, does not prevent any person from joining a union if he or she chooses to do so. It preserves, and it expressly preserves, that freedom. The bill does not and would not affect any existing collective bargaining agreements. What this bill does do is simply enshrine into law, into the law of our state a fundamental principle of freedom. The freedom that a person may not be compelled to join a union or to pay dues to a union as a condition of having a job.”

Sen. Herb Snyder:

“The chairman said, that the WVU, pristine university, that that report said there will be an uptick in the economy and there will be a lowering of unemployment. Wow, that sounds great to me. You’ve got my attention, but I’m going to tell you the whole truth. The whole truth is that report said that uptick, lowering unemployment and increasing the possibility that we will grow in West Virginia, that we will grow our economy is four tenths of one percent. Less than half a percent uptick. The downside in that report, in that report and we had many speakers from a different vantage that all agreed, that when other states went to right to work, their state’s overall pool of wages went down 17 percent. With the possibility of less than half a percent growth, these reports all say the likelihood that our state’s wages will go down 17 percent. That’s for your children. That’s for your grandchildren.”

Sen. Ron Miller:

“What are we saying if we pass this legislation? We’re saying that all of the problems of the state of West Virginia, without us taking any blame for it, all of the problems in the state of West Virignia are on the backs of working men and women because it is their fault we’re having this issue. This bothers me more than anything, we’re going to pass this legislation today without even a full body of members here to address this issue. Every district has two Senators except the 9^th district here today. Every district has two members here to address this issue. It’s unfair to the people of the 9^th District, and I contend that it’s unfair for the Senator from Raleigh County to be the only one to speak for 109,000 people. I don’t know how the court rules. I can’t take care of that, but it’s unfair that we push this through today with newspeak what we’re wanting to pay people, what we’re wanting to do to people and we’re not all even here to do it.”

Sen. Greg Boso:

“But the one thing that I’ve not heard discussed thus far is a word that I’ve heard as I’ve travelled through my district and as I’ve had conversation with people back home and that’s hope. Our people right now are struggling because they feel there is no hope. Our kids feel like there is no hope because there are no jobs. With the decline in our mining industry, the situation that we’re having in the northern oil and gas fields, we just have to look around throughout West Virginia, businesses are closing. Why? Because they feel there is no hope. It’s time for change. Change means that we have to leave the direction that we’ve been going, turn and go a different direction. Change is hard. I will tell you as I look around this gallery, as I look around the balcony above this gallery, change is hard, but change is necessary. Change is necessary now.”

Sen. Robert Karnes:

“People who support right-to-work, they’re out working. The free riders are right up there. What the unions have done, as it relates back to newspeak, is the UAW forced members of the UAW to support Planned Parenthood even though many of their members are Christian people who are opposed to that issue. What we saw in Wisconsin whenever they recently passed Right-to-Work, was a reduction in union membership, but what does that represent? That represents people who were tired of being misrepresented by the union so they dropped out. Now, that doesn’t mean that they destroyed the union. Unions still exist in Wisconsin and in some states, for example, the fastest growing union membership in the country is Indiana which is a right-to-work state. So right-to-work doesn’t kill unions, but what it does is force unions to represent the members in a real way and not in a contrived way.”

Sen. Doug Facemire:

“You know back home in the country where I come from there’s a saying that says a lie well told and stuck to is better than the truth. That’s what just heard. As members of this body, shame on any one of us who disrespects the people who come down here to represent the things that are near and dear to their heart and I want to apologize to every one of you for that. Now look, whenever we start trying to get political gains off the backs of the people that are only guilty of one thing, trying to go to work, make a living and do the right thing, shame on us. We’ve lost our purpose of being here. Our purpose of being here is to represent everybody, to try to give everybody a better lifestyle and life, and what we’re witnessing here today is the dismantling of the working class of this state and these United States and I certainly apologize to you people for that.”

Sen. Mitch Carmichael:

“At the end of the day, as the Chairman of Judiciary began the comments, this does not prevent anyone from joining a union. Does not prevent anyone from joining a union. It does not prevent anyone from paying union dues. It does not outlaw collective bargaining. What is the problem with this bill? You’ve got evidence, PhD economists that say it will create jobs, improve income, not reduce wages and create more state product for West Virginia versus opinions that say might hurt, could be scary. What we’re doing now is not working. It’s been said over and over and over, what we are doing now does not work. We’re last.”