With the passage of their budget bill behind them, members of the House are working their way through a number of bills left on their agenda this legislative session. West Virginia Public Broadcasting took a closer look at two of the bills approved in the chamber Thursday.
Seventeen Senate bills were on third reading in the House Thursday and put to a final vote.
One of those was Senate Bill 255, which changes how vacancies in political offices are filled. The bill would require the appointed person be from the same party as the previous office at the time of his or her resignation, not at the time of election.
As it came through the Senate, several senators pointed to former Sen. Daniel Hall as the bill’s motivation.
Hall was a Democrat when elected to the chamber in 2012, but after the 2014 election, the senator switched parties, giving Republicans the majority in that chamber for the first time in over 80 years. In 2016, Hall resigned from the body and the West Virginia Supreme Court was left to rule on which party would fill that vacancy.
The bill passed on a vote of 87 to 10 in the House. All the no votes were from Democrats and from the single Independent member in the chamber.
Another bill considered in the House, Senate Bill 636, requires the State Fire Commission to begin a pilot program to address any problems within the state’s volunteer fire departments. These issues would be in the areas of training, recruitment, or retention.
Delegate Joe Statler, a Republican from Monongalia County, says volunteer firefighters are the first line of defense in the state, but many struggle to keep their doors open.
Republican Amy Summers of Taylor County questioned Statler about whether this pilot program might end up hurting the volunteer fire departments instead of helping.
“You don’t think that there’s any way that this pilot project could then say to these volunteer fire departments…you can’t function anymore, because you’ve been proven that…you’re not effective, or something of that nature,” Summers asked, “you think this is gonna help the volunteer departments succeed?”
“I actually do believe that it will help,” Statler answered, “If everybody goes into it with the attitude that we’re going to do what we can do to see where we have all these rules and regulations and all this training, and everything else in place, that I believe that this can be a good thing. My biggest fear is, is how many might want to try to get on the pilot program, and we can’t sustain that many people trying to pilot.”
A bill to legalize medical marijuana in West Virginia is heading to Gov. Jim Justice for a signature.Members of the House accepted Senate technical…
A bill to legalize medical marijuana in West Virginia is heading to Gov. Jim Justice for a signature.
Members of the House accepted Senate technical amendments to the bill Thursday night, sending it on for gubernatorial approval.
Senate Bill 386 puts the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act under the control of the West Virginia Department of Public Health. It creates a 6 percent excise tax on marijuana and sets a July 2019 roll out date.
A doctor could prescribe marijuana for certain illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, or seizures.
The bill does not allow distributors to sell forms of the drug that can be smoked or eaten, but does include prescription oils, pills, or patch versions, and a form that can be vaped.
House leadership has said the bill would, however, allow patients to make their own baked goods using the oils.
Medical marijuana would not be covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
West Virginia's House has voted to make it a crime to publicly display, distribute or threaten to disclose sexually explicit or intimate images of someone…
West Virginia’s House has voted to make it a crime to publicly display, distribute or threaten to disclose sexually explicit or intimate images of someone else without their consent.
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Shott says the purpose is to criminalize “revenge porn.”
The Senate voted 31-0 in February to pass the bill.
It would establish a misdemeanor subject to fines of $1,000 to $5,000 and up to a year in jail.
A second offense would be a felony, punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.
The House has amended it to include language on intent so it applies to public posting of those private images intended to harass, intimidate, threaten or profit from it.
Members in the House of Delegates have approved their budget bill for fiscal year 2018 – bringing $140 million additional dollars in revenue and making $75 million in cuts to government agencies. The House’s budget is largely based on revenue brought in under a Senate bill that was drastically changed by the chamber’s finance committee.
That bill, Senate Bill 484, originally would have just captured some $12 million a year that goes into the state Road Fund, but while it still contains the provision, it’s been transformed into what House leadership is calling a tax reform measure. The House’s version looks to broaden the base of taxable goods and services in two phases, July and then October of this year. Under the plan, things like cell phones or personal services would become subject to the sales tax, bringing in some $140 million in additional revenue in the 2018 budget.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Daryl Cowles, R-Morgan, House Majority Leader.
The bill would also require that by July 2018, the state’s current 6 percent sales tax would be reduced to 5.5 percent, then to 5.25 percent in July 2019. Over time, if the fiscal climate is favorable in the state, the tax rate could go down to as low as 4.75 percent. That reduction of the overall rate will also lead to deficits in the state budget, that is if spending doesn’t increase in the state.
Majority Leader Daryl Cowles of Morgan County adamantly supports the measure, saying West Virginia’s border counties will see a boom in revenue.
“It’s tax relief for the people of West Virginia,” Cowles said, “It does capture revenue in the short-term, it is very quickly, within two short years, revenue neutral as the rate is lowered for everyone on every purchase, point of sale that’s taxed. And then, for another two years, the rate drops all the way down to 4.75. Imagine that. Imagine the growth our border counties could see if we have a competitive advantage at a tax rate of 4.75 considerably lower than all of our surrounding neighbors.”
But Minority Finance Chair Delegate Brent Boggs, of Braxton County, says he’s concerned this revenue idea lacks fairness.
“It seems like with this, when we’re talking about broadening the base, we’re really not broadening much, because it’s all the things that we’re not picking up, and we seem to be disproportionately hitting the people that are at the low income and middle income level, and possibly that takes in a lot of our seniors,” Boggs said.
After nearly two hours of debate, Senate Bill 484 passed 52 to 48.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, House Minority Finance Chair.
House Budget
In an evening floor session Wednesday, delegates also took up the chamber’s budget bill, House Bill 2018, which relies on $75 million in cuts to state agencies to balance the budget. The House’s budget no longer includes the 2 percent pay raise to classroom teachers first proposed by Gov. Jim Justice. It reduces funding for West Virginia four-year higher education institutions by 6 percent and the state’s community and technical colleges by 5 percent.
The budget also grants the Higher Education Policy Commission the authority to decide how the state’s higher education dollars will be divided between institutions.
It was this part of the budget that had some delegates in the House concerned. Several Democrats argued the provision is unconstitutional, including Delegate Rodney Miller, a Democrat from Boone County, who says the House had even considered getting rid of the organization at one point.
“It’s interesting that we are giving them the pot of money to let them be the arbitrator, the disseminator of this funding; letting them be the ultimate choice when at the same time,” Miller said, “during this legislative session, we had, if I’m not mistaken, we had some legislation proposed to actually either get rid of or completely alter, significantly change the CTCs and HEPCs in our state. Now we’re going to give them all this power and authority and money. It’s very confusing with the consistency of what we have going on in this body.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Mike Caputo, D-Marion.
Democrat Mike Caputo, of Marion County, says allowing the HEPC to control higher education spending will result in a lack of accountability.
“These folks, they’re appointed for a certain term. They don’t have to account to the people; they don’t put their name on the ballot. We put our name on the ballot. And that bothers me,” Caputo explained. “I don’t know who come up with this crazy idea to throw all the money in one pot and just let some people toss it out how they feel without any accountability. Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, that to me is just absolutely irresponsible.”
Republican Delegate Mark Zatezalo, of Hancock County, spoke in support of the budget bill, and suggested the HEPC work more closely with the state’s colleges and universities than the Legislature does.
“We are allocating resources to two groups who have the most interface with higher education, and I’m wondering if they might have more insight into how things are spent at the higher education level than we do,” Zatezalo noted. “I certainly, you know, I can see money go in and out of here, and I can see money allocated for schools; frankly I’m not in the weeds enough for each school to understand exactly what they need and exactly who needs the money.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Mark Zatezalo, R-Hancock.
House Finance Chair Eric Nelson argued this was a tough budget year all around, but when it came to giving the HEPC the authority, it makes the most sense.
“I mentioned we had a bunch of agencies come before us to give budget presentations. The presentation for Higher Ed and CTC was made by HEPC and the CTC chancellors,” Nelson said. “It was not the individual colleges. You know what, we had very tough choices, and we’ve been in some unchartered territory. It’s been a balancing act. This balance is structurally sound; difficult decisions had to be made. Without a doubt, this has been an all-inclusive and a very transparent process.”
The House’s budget bill passed on a vote of 58 to 42.
Senators voted 20-14 Wednesday, approving their Senate plan for the 2018 fiscal year.
The bill, which contains no new revenue or a draw down from the State’s Rainy Day Fund according to Senate Finance Chair Mike Hall, relies on about $160 million in cuts to government spending.
Hall explained to his chamber Wednesday that the bill takes into account the additional $43 million the state will save from smoothing payments to the teachers retirement system—a process that allows for a smaller payment next year in return for larger payments in the following two.
The bill relies on a Senate Bill yet to be approved by the House that cuts public school spending by almost $80 million, replacing the revenue by increasing property taxes at the local level.
It maintains the 2 percent across the board cuts to many state agencies implemented by former Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in November, but also cuts the Department of Health and Human Resources by almost 4 percent, higher education by $41.5 million, and zeros out some state agencies and programs, including West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
“I’ve been here a long time and I’ve never seen a budget so cruel,” Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso said on the floor Wednesday. The former finance chair says the Senate’s budget proposal hurts some of the state’s most vulnerable populations: children, seniors, and the disabled.
The cuts to the DHHR were criticized by several Democratic members of the body because most of those dollars are matched by the federal government.
The Senate budget reduces programs like the home health care reimbursements for seniors and disabled West Virginians, zeroes out the tobacco cessation program, and will result in the loss of more than $100 million in federal funding, according to Prezioso.
“There’s nothing that stabilizes our budget or protects our bond rating,” Democratic Sen. Ron Stollings said during a floor speech. “This does not grow or diversify the economy or fix our roads and this budget accelerates the growth of future healthcare costs.”
Hall said he understands the cuts are difficult, but the bill is the start of the budget negotiating process.
“These are not things that I personally want to see happen, but at this point, it’s just a matter of the constraint of the numbers,” Hall said. “I just heard you all describe a myriad of cuts that are painful. I don’t disagree with that at all and pretty Draconian, I don’t disagree with that. That’s why I said this is not the final destination and I know it’s not a pretty picture to make it the Senate budget.”
Other Republican members of the chamber argued that the budget does exactly what the people of West Virginia want- forces the state to live within its means.
“This budget does impose some burdens, either way we do it, right? Whether we raise taxes or try to live within our means,” Senate President Mitch Carmichael said in a floor speech Wednesday.
“We could make the argument that we could spend more. We could continue to spend more and it would alleviate the pain and suffering of more people. Where do we stop as a society? We have to control the spending.”
The Senate approved its budget on a 20 to 14 vote with two Republicans, Senators Mike Maroney and Jeff Mullins, joining Democrats to oppose it.
The bill, which is very different from the House’s approved version, will likely go to a conference committee.
