House of Delegates Story Archives - Page 2 of 34 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

House Debate On Human Trafficking Bill Notes Immigration Crisis

The proposal defines “illegal alien” and “human smuggling,” noting that people being transported, or harbored, are, under the bill’s terminology, illegal aliens. Smugglers either knowingly transport these individuals into West Virginia or transport and harbor those already in West Virginia.

Human traffickers may face new penalties for smuggling humans into West Virginia if a bill on third reading in the House of Delegates Monday, House Bill 5031, becomes law.

Human smuggling does not include any person hired by another state who transports an undocumented immigrant through West Virginia, so long as that person will not remain in West Virginia.

The bill also states that victimized undocumented workers are not eligible for restitution.

House Democrats like Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, opposed the bill, concerned over unfair victim treatment, and unintended consequences for a possible Good Samaritan.

“We’re talking about the difference between a Good Samaritan situation,” Garcia said. “Somebody gives somebody a ride, when they know that that person might be an illegal immigrant, versus when somebody puts another person in a situation for sexual exploitation, for other types of damages that they can do to hurt that person. And that penalty is going to be exactly the same in each situation. And that’s just a matter of fundamental unfairness right there.”

Del. Mark Zatezalo, R-Hancock, was among the House Republican supermajority that supported the bill they said helps combat a national immigration crisis.

“It’s very important for people to understand that the smuggling of illegal aliens, such as what’s happening along the border, in certain instances, is nothing less than the reintroduction of slavery to the United States,” Zatezalo said. “People basically are indentured servants who come here and they have to give their money to whoever their smugglers are. I don’t think this country can afford that. I don’t think we need to go back to those days. God knows we’ve had enough trouble with that. It’s something that I feel very strongly about. And I wish when we vote on this bill, we all think about that.”

Under the bill’s penalties, someone who smuggles an adult, or assists in smuggling an adult, is guilty of a felony. upon conviction they would be sentenced to 3-15 years, and fined up to $200,000, or both. For a minor, the penalties run 5-20 years, with fines up to $300,000, or both.

HB 5031, the human trafficking bill, passed 83-13 and now goes to the Senate.

Mon Power, Consumer Groups Settle Solar Net Metering Case

The sides settled on a compromise of roughly 9 cents a kilowatt hour. The new credit takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

Mon Power has settled a case with consumer groups that will affect households that have rooftop solar panels.

Existing customers receive a retail rate of 11 to 13 cents per kilowatt hour for the power their solar panels send back to the grid, a process known as net energy metering.

Mon Power and Potomac Edison proposed to cut that credit in half to 6.6 cents per kilowatt hour, the wholesale price.

The sides settled on a compromise of roughly 9 cents a kilowatt hour. The new credit takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Existing customers will still receive the higher credit for 25 years.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) must still approve the settlement.

A bill moving through the House of Delegates would protect the higher net metering credit.

The parties to the settlement include the PSC, the West Virginia Consumer Advocate Division, Citizen Action Group, Solar United Neighbors, Energy Efficient West Virginia and Solar Holler.

“While we continue to believe that the retail rate is fairest for residential solar customers to receive as a credit, we think that this is a fair settlement in the context of this case,” said Leah Barbour, state director for Solar United Neighbors. “There are some important protections for current customers and clear guidelines to ensure solar will continue to work going forward.”

Mon Power serves 395,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties. Potomac Edison serves 155,000 customers in the Eastern Panhandle.

Teachers Could Carry Guns In W.Va. Classrooms Under Bill

A bill under discussion in the West Virginia House of Delegates would allow teachers to carry guns on school property if they complete a state-mandated training.

Teachers could soon be authorized to carry firearms in West Virginia classrooms, provided that they complete state-mandated training.

The House Judiciary Committee reviewed House Bill 4299 on Wednesday. The bill would create a position in schools known as a school protection officer.

The position would be a secondary role available to any school administrator, support personnel or elementary or secondary school teacher. These individuals would have to complete security and firearm safety training and could then receive authorization to bring a gun to school.

The bill received majority support from committee members, but only after more than an hour of impassioned debate.

Proponents of the bill said it would provide immediate support to school staff when students face the risk of an active shooter.

Under the bill, “we won’t have teachers, as in one instance, laying her body over top of her students,” said Del. Laura Kimble, R-Harrison, who sponsored the bill.

“Instead, she will have something to defend herself,” she said. “That’s why I’m a sponsor of this bill.”

Kimble also said it reaffirmed the state’s concealed carry law, which allows residents over age 21 to carry a firearm in public without a license.

Currently, West Virginia residents including teachers are prohibited from bringing guns onto school property, regardless of whether they have a permit for it.

Under the bill, teachers would be required to keep their firearm within their “personal control while that firearm or device is on school property.”

Critics of the bill, however, expressed doubts that increasing the number of guns in West Virginia schools would reduce gun-related injuries or deaths.

Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, noted that the bill would create a new armed position in addition to other armed roles like prevention resource officers and school resource officers.

He added that another pending bill, House Bill 4851, would allow school security officers to carry firearms on school property.

“So, there’ll be four different types of people with guns in the schools?” he asked.

Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, expressed concern over a potential limit on training for school protection officers in the bill. The text of the bill states that school protection officers must complete “initial instruction and training that shall not exceed 24 hours.”

Also during the meeting, Del. Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, proposed an amendment to the bill that would have required school districts to designate an eligible school employee to serve as a school protection officer.

Counsel and committee members expressed concern that this would contradict the voluntary nature of the position, as established under the bill. Ultimately, Foster withdrew his amendment.

After extensive debate, a majority of committee members voted in favor of the bill, sending it to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.

Landowners Say They Are Being Taxed Unfairly At Public Hearing

The House of Delegates held a public hearing on a bill that would remove a sunset clause from the current oil and gas personal property tax assessment.

A sunset clause is a note in the bill that gives it an expiration date, unless other legislative action is taken to extend the bill.

The House of Delegates held a public hearing on a bill that would remove a sunset clause from the current oil and gas personal property tax assessment.

A sunset clause is a note in the bill that gives it an expiration date, unless other legislative action is taken to extend the bill.

House Bill 2581 in the 2021 session created the formula for how gas operators and property owners are taxed. The bill had a sunset clause, which comes due in July of 2025

House Bill 4850 would remove that sunset clause from the bill, making the tax formula permanent.

Del. Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said the bill would help create tax predictability for landowners and well operators.

“If we do not do this, then there will be no tax collected by the counties,” Criss said. “That is how the law is set up now. So the sunset clause needs to be taken off so that the counties can continue to collect their personal property tax on oil and gas in those counties.”

However, landowners taxed by this bill gathered at the Senate to express opposition.

They said that the 2021 bill taxes them unfairly and lacks transparency.

Scott Sondo receives royalties for land he owns that has a well on it.

“Now, one of the major problems is there’s no transparency in the industry,” Sondo said. “So they (well operators) could actually sell the products for a higher price. Tell me, they sell them for a lower price.”

He said that part of the formula for what he is taxed on is based on the prices that the gas actually sold for. The gas operators submit that information to the state but landowners like Sondo never know what that number is.

“When the operators turn these numbers in, they’re used to calculate my boundaries, well, we just would like to know what that value is. And so far, we’ve not been successful in getting that,” Sondo said.

He said, after taxes, landowners barely have enough to pay the taxes from the royalties they are paid by well operators for the use of their land.

The code also has proven to be complicated for the state Tax Division. It has come under scrutiny since the tax code was passed in 2021 for things like providing incorrect assessments and then taking so long to get the correct assessment back to property owners that they don’t have time to appeal the assessment.

Younger Teens Would No Longer Need Work Permits Under Bill

A bill under review in the West Virginia House of Delegates would eliminate work permits for 14 and 15-year-olds, instead requiring the teenagers to receive a state-issued age certificate and parental consent.

The West Virginia House of Delegates is considering a bill that would eliminate work permits for 14 and 15-year-olds.

Currently, 14 and 15-year-olds must obtain a permit to work in West Virginia. These permits are ultimately under the purview of the state superintendent of schools.

But House Bill 5159 would eliminate these work permits, and instead require that 14- and 15-year-olds just receive proof of their age in the form of an age certificate.

Additionally, it would be up to the state Commissioner of Labor to distribute those certificates.

At a meeting of the House Committee on Government Organization Monday, Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, expressed concern that the bill would remove parental authority over youth employment.

During the meeting, members of the committee proposed an amendment that would require parental consent for an age certificate to be issued to a teenager.

The amendment passed, and Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, said it “tightens up a loophole” in the pending legislation.

For the most part, members of the committee spoke favorably of the bill, citing drawn-out experiences of helping their own children secure employment.

Young, however, voiced concern that removing work permits would still place employers and teenagers at risk.

Young pointed to an incident in Alabama in which a 15-year-old fell off a ladder on his first day at a roofing company and died. Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor found that the company had violated child labor laws.

“The parental consent absolutely helps. However, I still just think this is too onerous, and repealing laws that I think are good laws to have,” she said.

The bill ultimately received majority support from members of the committee, with delegates voting to send it to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.

House Bill Would Cut Ties To ‘Antithetical’ Nations

A bill under consideration in the West Virginia House of Delegates would ban the state and its political subdivisions from engaging in certain forms of business with nations that hold values deemed “antithetical” to the state.

A bill in the West Virginia House of Delegates would restrict the state’s financial ties with foreign nations that hold values “antithetical” to its own.

House Bill 4364 would bar the state from contracting goods or services from foreign companies that could benefit the governments of China, Cuba, Iran, Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia or Vietnam.

The bill states that restrictions would be imposed upon these nations because they either “align with communist ideology” or have caused “nonmilitary deaths” of U.S. citizens without proper governmental response.

In the bill, lawmakers cited a growing globalized economy as the cause of its creation, stating that “a company may obfuscate the beneficiaries of the proposed commercial activity that are in fact foreign entities.”

At a meeting of the House Committee on Government Organization Monday, some lawmakers expressed concern that the bill could limit the competitiveness of the state economy, or that it could violate preexisting contracts with foreign organizations.

Counsel for the committee said retroactively rescinding agreed upon contracts is often disapproved of by state and federal judiciaries.

Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, who sponsored the bill, confirmed that the bill would work retroactively, affecting contracts implemented before its passage.

In response, Del. Chris Pritt, R-Kanawha, said that state lawmakers should have authority to interpret whether or not the bill adhered to the state constitution.

“It is up for us to make determinations and give our input in terms of what’s constitutional and what’s not,” he said.

Pritt added that he viewed the pending legislation as a “very, very good bill” that is “perfectly in conformity with the constitution.”

He also said that the bill marked an important step toward protecting the values of the state and country. “There are certain countries that are hostile not only to the interests of West Virginia, but that are hostile to the interests of the United States,” he said.

Ultimately, the committee voted in favor of the bill, recommending that it pass but first be referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.