The West Virginia House Education Committee has advanced a resolution that could amend the state constitution. The amendment would reduce the number of state Board of Education members and call for the election of some members.
Current law dictates the governor appoint nine of the board’s 12 members — with the remaining three non-voting ex-officio members serving in the role of state superintendent of schools, chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, and chancellor of Community and Technical College Education.
House Joint Resolution 103, sponsored by House Education Chair Del. Paul Espinosa, could reduce the board to nine members — six of whom would be elected and three appointed by the governor. It would also give the the Legislature oversight of the Board of Education’s rule-making process.
The resolution passed the House Education Committee Wednesday and now heads to House Judiciary.
If approved by a two-thirds majority of each chamber and signed by Governor Jim Justice, the resolution would become a ballot measure as a constitutional amendment — with West Virginia voters having the final say on the matter.
Those opposed to the measure argue that the influence of money could give educators a lesser chance of serving and muddy the functions of the board with politics.
House Education staff counsel noted that future legislation would be necessary to dictate how and when the election of board members would take place.
A bill to repeal Common Core based education standards and assessments in West Virginia is making its way through the House of Delegates, but has slowed in the chamber’s Education Committee.
Members of the committee spent three meetings last week discussing a bill that would require the state to repeal Common Core. After hours of testimony, committee chair Del. Paul Espinosa pulled the bill before putting it to a vote, explaining he wanted to give members more time to digest the information shared. This morning, the committee put the bill back on the agenda, but didn’t discuss it.
In December, members of the West Virginia Board of Education voted to repeal the Common Core based standards they had in place, replacing them with a new set, the West Virginia College and Career Ready Standards. Those standards were the result of an 8-month study led by state Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano, consulting West Virginia teachers and higher education official as well as members of the public.
But lawmakers have continued to voice concerns over the standards, saying they are too similar to the previous Common Core aligned set.
Education Chair Del. Paul Espinosa says his committee will consider a committee substitute, a new version of the bill that makes changes to the introduced version.
“Essentially what the committee substitute would do is codify the repeal that the board makes last year,” Espinosa said. “Also, it calls upon the board to work continue to work collaboratively with the legislature to address remaining concerns that there are with the standards. The proposed committee substitute also deals with the question of testing. That is one of the things there seems to be the widest agreement on, the current summative assessment is perhaps do not best fit the needs of West Virginia.”
West Virginia House Speaker Tim Armstead has named Delegate Paul Espinosa chairman of the House Education Committee.
Espinosa, a Republican from Jefferson County, says the appointment prompted him to scrap his plan to run for state Senate. Instead, he will run for re-election to the House.
Espinosa will succeed Delegate Amanda Pasdon as head of the Education Committee. Pasdon announced last month that she is resigning from the House.
Since 1986, legislators from the Eastern Panhandle have been meeting with their fellow lawmakers from what they call the quad-state region – Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania – to discuss issues as well as accomplishments they share along the interstate 81 corridor. This year, the group focused on drug trafficking and what the four states can do to combat the problem.
Almost two-dozen legislators hailing from the four states met Friday to discuss the issues and achievements they share because of the closeness of their districts. They all live within minutes of each other thanks to interstate 81, which quickly connects the quad-state region.
The legislators invited many officials from their respective communities to speak about current and future projects the states are working on – from economic development to casino gaming to bridge building – all projects that connect the four states in some way. But there was one discussion that lasted longer than any other – drug trafficking.
In the Eastern Panhandle, Martinsburg is the leader in heroin overdoses. In fact, Berkeley County has the second highest number of heroin related deaths in the state just following Cabell County. Much of the heroin in the Eastern Panhandle comes down from Baltimore, and Maryland officials are well aware.
Lieutenant Michael Fluharty is commander of the Maryland State Police unit in Hagerstown. He and his fellow officers cover about thirteen miles along interstate 81, which he claims is one of the worst areas for heroin trafficking.
“Every trooper in, on the road in Maryland right now carries the Narcan that everybody’s speaking of. Just last night, we had an administration by a trooper to save somebody’s life. Just last week, one of my troopers, pulls to what he thinks is a disabled vehicle on the road, comes to find a young lady who’s decided that she wants to overdose on what we believe heroin – some kind of opioid drug,” Fluharty explained.
Fluharty says what would prevent the most drug trafficking in the region is if the data collected by each of the four states’ troopers would be shared through a database.
“That’d be an excellent opportunity for us as a group, as a quad-state to share information, so if you’re getting the southbound traffic, I’m getting the northbound, and we can share this information it’s going to help us all. It’s a partnership between obviously legislators to support law enforcement, law enforcement to get the information, the statistics needed, so we can get the help and the tool we need.”
Republican Delegate Paul Espinosa of Jefferson County says having quad-state meetings every year are important to combat the drug problem and others faced in the Eastern Panhandle.
“A lot of the concerns that we have here in eastern West Virginia, very similar to some of our surrounding jurisdictions in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia,” Espinosa noted, “so it really provides an opportunity to not only discuss common concerns but also to hear about some of the approaches that our colleagues in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are taking to address those issues.”
Delegate John Overington, a Republican from Berkeley County, hosted this year’s Quad-State Legislative Conference, and he says working together with the other states should be a no-brainer.
“We have constituents that live in one area, that work in another area, and shop in a third state, so the area is sort of connected,” Overington said, “and I-81 is that connecting factor that is good in terms of jobs and economic development. It’s sort of a negative in terms of heroin distribution.”
The closeness of the states makes it easy for drug dealers to ship their drugs from one state to another, but Overington, and his fellow lawmakers from all four states, are hopeful they can work together to find a solution.
In the House Small Business Committee this week, House Bill 2385 was discussed. The bill has to do with brewer, resident brewer, and brewpub licensing and operations in the state. The bill was introduced at the request of Governor Tomblin who noted the issue in his state of the state address last month. The bill is finally receiving some legislative attention.
The bill was introduced to address the concerns of the eleven resident brewers in the state. Four of those brewers do not have brewpubs on their premises; this limits the amount of product sold to strictly on-site consumption or in kegs to bars and restaurants. This legislation would allow those four brewers that don’t have brewpubs a limited function to sell their product in a growler, or large jug, from the premises increasing the amount brewers can sell and increasing their revenue.
“The problem, as I understand it relates to canning, if you’re a small brewer, you may not have the capacity to afford a canning operation,” said Dave Gilbert, counsel to the House Small Business Committee, “so if you want to market your wares, you’ve got to pretty much sell it like in kegs to establishments that can sell it, I guess by the drink, this would open it up for them to sell for off premises consumption from their premises.”
After more discussion and a few amendments to clear up some technicalities, the bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
In connection to breweries and other small businesses, earlier this week a popular distillery in the Eastern Panhandle that has attracted over 50,000 tourists to the state, closed its doors because of legislative issues.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery in Jefferson County makes all of its products on-site, provides tastings, and sells its products directly from the premises. The organization, however, says it’s been misclassified since it opened in 2011 as a retail liquor store. The distillery owners say due to this misclassification, its cost them too much money and has been killing their business. They say they won’t reopen again until this issue is addressed by legislators and the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration.
Delegate Paul Espinosa, vice-chair of the House Small Business Committee, as well as Delegate Stephen Skinner, the minority chair of the same committee, both from Jefferson County, were concerned when they heard of the distillery’s closure.
“You know, obviously in a week when we heard some very good news from the panhandle with the announcement from Proctor & Gamble, while we’re very excited about that, you know we certainly are concerned anytime a small business indicates that perhaps they’re not going to continue operating in West Virginia,” said Espinosa, “I do know that Delegate Skinner and I, and our colleagues; we have introduced legislation in the past to try to address some of the concerns that the Bloomery Plantation Distillery has, and we are working together along with Delegate Upson and others to introduce legislation this year that will address some of the issues they have, such as the ability to operate on Sundays. I think one of the bigger challenges we have is dealing with some of the tax concerns that the distillery has, and working with Delegate Skinner others to look at some legislation and talk with other groups that are involved.”
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Espinosa says the reason the tax issue is so complicated is because it would require a lot of reevaluating of the current tax structure not just for the Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery but for other retailers as well.
Delegate Skinner says he currently has two bills he’s eager to introduce. Delegate Espinosa is a supporter of both.
“The two bills specifically that we’re on together, one would deal with the Sunday issue. I mean, in various ways, they deal with being open on Sundays and able to operate a business on Sundays that deals with alcohol,” Skinner said, “The other bill that we’re still discussing is dealing with the punitive nature of Bloomery selling from their premises, and the interaction between that and retail liquor stores. Right now, Bloomery Distillery has to pay a fee to a liquor store for the privilege of selling its own product, and the liquor store that receives that fee doesn’t even necessarily have to market the Bloomery’s product. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Nowhere else in the country do we see this, and if we want to have a flourishing distillery business, wineries in West Virginia, we have to eliminate that.”
Delegate Espinosa says he’s hopeful the bill allowing distilleries and wineries to be open on Sundays will have a lot of support from both sides of the aisle, but he’s not sure there’s time this session to address the tax issue.
“I’m concerned that because of the short amount of time we have trying to address the tax issue is going to be more challenging than perhaps addressing the ability for those establishments to operate on Sundays. But we’re committed to doing everything we can, if possible, to address it this year,” Espinosa said.
Delegate Skinner says the issue, however, is not a partisan one.
“Oh I think that these issues are not partisan at all,” Skinner said, “and especially because when we’re dealing with distilleries and wineries and breweries all across the state. And there’s nothing partisan about how we’ve been dealing with this, and working together we can find a solution.”
