2016 Legislature Story Archives - Page 8 of 8 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Three Major Bills Coming in 2016

While Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s legislative proposals this session focus largely on the budget, it will be legislators who make the final decisions on what gets approved. And members of both the House and the Senate have some pretty big issues they want brought to the table.

While proceedings for the first day mostly deal with housekeeping issues, nearly 300 bills were introduced between both the House and Senate, many that contained the Republican majority’s top legislative priorities.

1. Charter Schools

Newly appointed House Education Chair, Paul Espinosa of Jefferson County, says the way to a successful charter schools bill is through good quality legislation and strong accountability.

“I really see a good strong public charter school bill of not only being to establish public charter schools that will fit the unique needs of school districts around our state, but it will provide that engine for change that I think’s very important to our students,” Espinosa said.

2. Forced Pooling

A bill that caused a major fuss on the final night of the 2015 session is already generating a lot of discussion around the rotunda.

Forced pooling allows companies to force owners to sell their minerals if they can get 80 percent of the owners in a specified land area to agree to the drilling. Last year’s bill died on a tie vote.

“We already have forced pooling on the books today,” said House Energy Chair Delegate Woody Ireland of Richie County, “If we don’t do something to modify that, we are leaving millions and millions of dollars on the table that will flow out of state as opposed to come to the mineral owners of the state.”

Ireland noted lawmakers didn’t understand what last year’s bill was attempting to do, and he said he hopes lawmakers hear him out this year.

3. Right to Work

Right to Work laws prohibit certain types of agreements between labor unions and employers. The most commonly used example would prohibit a union from collecting dues from people in a workplace who do not wish to be part of the union.

“I don’t see the real reason for controversy,” said Senate President Bill Cole, “I mean we’re looking for solutions; we’re looking for ways to put people to work in West Virginia. We lead the nation in unemployment; we’re last in workforce participation at 48 percent of our adult able-bodied workforce working, so, you know, if this is an opportunity to induce companies to want to be here and bring jobs here, then I think it’s something we ought to look at.”

Lawmakers have sixty days to pass bills during the 2016 legislative session.

W.Va. Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Senate Case

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments in the case over replacing a state Senator who resigned earlier this month.

Sen. Daniel Hall of Wyoming County resigned from his seat on Jan. 3. Hall, a Republican, had switched his party affiliation after the 2014 mid-term elections giving the West Virginia GOP a majority in the upper chamber for the first time in more than 80 years.

Republicans maintain Hall’s seat should be filled by a member of their party, but the West Virginia Democratic Party argues since Hall was a Democrat at the time of election, the governor should choose from a list of Democrats to replace him.

The state Democratic Party filed a petition with the Supreme Court Friday asking for an answer to the question, saying West Virginia code is ambiguous on the issue.

The Justices will hear oral argument Tuesday on the matter. Justice Brent Benjamin has recused himself from the case, leaving Chief Justice Menis Ketchum to name a replacement.

When asked Wednesday if he would follow an order handed down by the Supreme Court, Senate President Bill Cole said he had no comment on the matter before it was decided.

The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the local Republican Executive Committee, and Senate President Bill Cole all filed briefs on the issue this week.

W.Va. Supreme Court to Decide How to Fill Vacant Senate Seat

UPDATE: Watch the recording of the oral arguments here.

As West Virginia lawmakers head to the state Capitol Wednesday morning for the first day of the Legislative Session, it’s still unclear if the GOP will maintain its majority in the Senate after Republican Sen. Daniel Hall resigned from his seat earlier this month.

Hall, elected to the Senate in 2012 as a Democrat, switched his party affiliation after the 2014 mid-term elections, giving the GOP a majority in the Senate for the first time in more than eight decades, but his resignation is now causing both parties to question who will be appointed to take his place.

The West Virginia Democratic Party is asking the state’s Supreme Court of Appeals to answer that question. Democrats say because Hall was a member of their party when elected, a member of their party should also replace him.

“We believe that what the statute is trying to do is preserve the mandate of the voters,” Anthony Majestro, a Charleston attorney representing the state Democratic Party in the case, said Tuesday.

Majestro explained the state’s election statutes are ambiguous on the issue, not clearly stating if an appointee should come from the party a politician belonged to at the time of election or at the time of resignation, because lawmakers likely didn’t contemplate affiliation changes when they wrote the law.

Still, Majestro maintained the intent of the law is to replace the politician with an appointee most like the one the voters elected, one of the same party. So, in this case, a Democrat.

Republicans, however, disagree with the stance.

“This is the last gasp effort of a party trying to hold on to the vestiges of power,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael said of the pending litigation.

In fact, Carmichael believes it is not the Supreme Court’s place to decide who should replace Hall at all, unless, he said, Governor Tomblin attempts to seat a Democrat.

“Then we will call upon the Supreme Court to follow the law,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler says the intent of the state’s elections laws are clear: lawmakers who resign from their posts should be replaced by a member of the party they belonged to at the time of election.

Response briefs were filed in the case Tuesday and both parties have asked the court to come to an expedited decision because the Legislative Session begins Wednesday.

Justice Brent Benjamin has rescued himself from the case, likely because he’s the only justice up for re-election this year.

Should the Justices side with the Democrats, though, Carmichael said there are other ways to prevent a Democrat from taking the seat.

“We judge the qualifications of the members and we do not believe that a Democrat in that seat after it’s being vacated by a Republican is qualified to hold it,” he said.

It takes just a simple majority vote, according Carmichael, to determine an appointed Senator is not qualified, but Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler said Tuesday disqualifying an appointee just because there’s a D after his or her name is a dangerous precedent to set and also leaves an entire senatorial district with only one of its two constitutionally provided Senators.

“If he’s ordered by a court to do it, I’d be interested to see him try to disobey a court order,” Kessler added.

Tomblin Appoints Blackwell to House

Governor Tomblin has appointed a new member to the West Virginia House of Delegates, filling just one of three vacancies in the chamber the day before the 2016 legislative session is set to begin.

Tomblin appointed Frank Blackwell to represent the state’s 25th House of Delegates district. Blackwell replaces former Del. Linde Goode Phillips who had held the post since 2008.

A Mullens resident, Blackwell currently serves as the superintendet of Wyoming County schools, and has spent nearly 50 years working as a teacher, prinicipal and administrator in West Virginia. He’s held the position as superintendent for 34 years and is currently the longest serving in the state, but plans to retire in June.

Governor Tomblin will appoint two additional members to the state House of Delegates in the coming days to replace Monongalia County Republican Amanda Pasdon and Logan County Democrat Harry Keith White. Both resigned from their positions in the House in the past few weeks.