House Speaker Roger Hanshaw Story Archives - Page 3 of 4

House Speaker: 'No Idea' Why Amendment 2 Is Controversial

In the tax reform battle between West Virginia’s governor and Senate president, the speaker of the House of Delegates has remained largely silent. Until now.

The 58th Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, supports passing Amendment 2. He said the constitutional provision is antiquated and needs revision.

“The provision of our state constitution, that’s at issue in Amendment 2, comes from the antebellum Civil War era of Virginia. We don’t do anything today the same way we did it in 1863, so we shouldn’t necessarily have the same tax structure that we had in 1863,” Hanshaw said. “The purpose of Amendment 2 is to just give the people’s elected representatives the opportunity to discuss what the proper tax structure for this state should be. I have no idea why that’s controversial.”

Hanshaw said he sees the state on a trajectory for fairly substantial sustained budget surpluses at least over the next three to five years. He said there is merit in considering the House Finance Committee’s hybrid plan of phasing in cuts of income, vehicle, and business and inventory taxes.

“You take the proposal that would eliminate, eventually, the tax on business, equipment, inventory and personal property tax on automobiles, as well as the governor’s proposed income tax cut, and phase that in over a period of years, which is actually how most states doing this successfully have done it,” Hanshaw said. “The plan that is out there under consideration now does work mathematically. The one place where we want to really be sure we’re careful and that we’ve thought the circumstances all the way through to their end is — to what extent do we rely upon our natural resource severance taxes?”

Hanshaw said he’s puzzled over comments of losses of county school and emergency services amid a Charleston power grab. He said most legislators live far from Charleston and need the same services for their families.

“We all still want water to come out of our faucets and fire service to come to our homes when we have an emergency. We have to be responsible enough to know that,” Hanshaw said. “If the legislature wanted to make life difficult for counties and municipalities, there’s plenty of room and opportunity to do that. The legislature has plenty of taxing authority and has the ability to push any number of mandates, well thought out or otherwise, off onto the counties. And we don’t do that because we live here too, so that argument is a bit misplaced, in my opinion.”

Hanshaw said he does get frustrated over lapses in communication among government leaders. He said three personal profiles show a “divergence of philosophy.”

“I’m a practicing attorney by trade, [Senate] President Blair is a contractor by trade, a master plumber, and electrician, and Gov. Justice is a businessman by trade. So your approach to government service is formed in significant part by how you’ve shaped your life and those other roles,” Hanshaw said. “The practice of law is a business of communication, it is about communicating your ideas or your clients position. So that’s always come pretty easy to me. Others who are in a position of having unilateral decision making authority in their business and are able to make things happen just by decreeing them, they approach government service differently.”

Hanshaw said the only job that the legislature has is to be a civil and deliberative body.

Audit Finds Job Vacancies; Inaccurate Budget Process

Tens of millions of dollars are appropriated to state agencies for vacancies, many of which remained unfilled for years — skewing the state budget process.

The West Virginia Legislative Auditor Performance Evaluation and Research Division (PERD) reviewed vacancies throughout the state in its latest report to the Post Audits Subcommittee during Sunday’s Interim Legislative Meetings. The report found that there are hundreds of positions open in the state that haven’t been filled, some dating back to 2014.

Lukas Griffith is the senior research analyst for PERD. He said the report found that there were 4,857 budgeted vacant positions, which comprise 12 percent of all authorized positions. The amount appropriated for all budgeted vacancies, including estimated benefits, is $226.9 million.

Some vacancies have been unfilled since 2014, and nearly 500 vacancies have been unfilled since at least 2018. Vacancies originating between 2014 and 2018 alone account for $22.9 million and appropriated salaries and estimated benefits.

A total of 106 different agencies had at least one vacancy, and the Division of Health and the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation had the highest number of vacant positions with more than 800 in each agency.

“The vacancies for the Division of Corrections are especially pertinent considering the governor’s recent state of emergency declaration to deploy the National Guard to fill critical staffing shortages at specific correctional facilities,” Griffith said. “Five hundred of the 812 corrections vacancies are correctional officer positions.”

The Division of Human Services had nearly 600 vacancies and the Division of Highways had 338 vacancies.

PERD also found that a total of 80 positions that have been vacant prior to 2018 were not being advertised to allow prospective workers the opportunity to apply for them.

The point that got legislators attention was that while some of the money for those budgeted, unfilled positions was used to pay for other needs in the various departments, like overtime and salary increases, contract employees and nurses, it was only a small fraction of the total.

Michael Cook, the director of the State Budget Office in the Justice Administration said the annual budget bill provides permissive language that allows those agencies to transfer those funds that the legislature has appropriated for personal services and employee benefits. It allows those cabinet secretaries to use their judgment and latitude to fulfill their mission by moving those funds into other items of appropriation.

“When I read the report, I didn’t want it to have the appearance that there were, as the Legislative Auditor mentioned, just millions and millions of dollars that could be swept into savings,” he said. “That’s not necessarily the case. If it were to be swept, then those positions would have to be deactivated. And then you would budget that money, as it should be reflected, there really wouldn’t be a significant savings at that point, you’re still maintaining that budget at the total legislative appropriation for each of those funds.”

“Are there actually savings to be had by eliminating the vacancies?” House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, asked. “Or is the aggregate dollar value of that amount being used elsewhere? And it just doesn’t reflect reality?”

Cook agreed it was the latter.

“They’re not in the budget bill itself, and the appropriations are not accurately reflected, but the bottom line is not changing,” he said.

Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, questioned that assertion and noted that even with those transfers, there is a lot of money being given to agencies that isn’t being spent.

“If I’m reading this right, table five is the reallocation. It’s only $15 million out of $216 million,” he said. “That’s $200 million we’ve got floating in the wind out there. And I don’t know how often people are looking at the news, but $200 million dollars roughly covers everybody’s disagreement with taxes these days. So if I’m reading that, right, where’s the other $200 million bucks?”

Hanshaw agreed with Steele’s concerns.

“In other words, you’re telling us the budget process, as we know it, just doesn’t reflect reality,” he said. “In four years of sitting on this committee, this has to be one of the most informative reports I’ve ever received. I think it’s fair to say we will ratchet this up to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance for further consideration.”

An additional point raised by the report was that approximately 400 state employees qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

W.Va. House Speaker Defines Goals For Upcoming Interim Meetings, Special Session

Under normal circumstances, the speaker of West Virginia’s House of Delegates crafts legislation, sets agendas and defines rules. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said next week’s interim legislative session is the first in two years headed into what most would consider a normal environment.

Hanshaw said interim meetings are conducted to study topics and then arrive at draft legislation to be considered next January when the legislature convenes in 2023.

“That includes items left unfinished during the course of the 2022 session,” Hanshaw said. “As well as several things that surfaced during the course of the regular session that we now need to take up but just didn’t have time due to the lack of information or lack of timing or any number of reasons.”

One goal the speaker points out deals with PEIA, the state employees insurance provider.

“How are we reimbursing hospitals and health care providers under PEIA in West Virginia, how are we still competitive?” Hanshaw said. “What changes do we need to make in order to make sure we don’t become uncompetitive? How do we make sure PEIA remains an insurer of choice for the health care providers in West Virginia. That’s a complex topic.”

Another of Hanshaw’s goals – tax rollbacks.

“I look forward to working with our counties and local governments to roll back some of the equipment and inventory tax that we have here in West Virginia,” Hanshaw said. “A tax that makes us uncompetitive against a number of other jurisdictions from an economic development perspective.”

Hanshaw said the major economic development push that began this legislative session will continue.

“There will be a comprehensive review this interim period and all summer long. A review of economic incentives and tax incentives and tax structures that we have in place as a state that are available to our secretaries of commerce and economic development from a business recruitment and retention perspective,” Hanshaw said. “We want to know which ones are working well, which ones are not working well, which ones do we need to fund? Even more, which ones can we do away with so that we’re getting the biggest bang for our economic development buck.”

During the 2022 regular session, Hanshaw sponsored a bill that would have put additional assistant teachers in all of West Virginia’s first and second grade classrooms. That bill failed, but he said it will be revisited.

“One of the biggest reasons we didn’t get that bill done was that we needed to understand the financial implications of the bill, and look a little more closely at how we fund that proposal,” Hanshaw said. “Our committee on education is going to be doing that this year. They’ll start that process very soon.”

The legislature routinely holds interim meetings like this. But Gov. Jim Justice has also called the legislature into a special session in the middle of the interim meetings to address several specific pieces of legislation left unfinished during the regular session.

Hanshaw said new proposals to split the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) into two agencies will be key in the upcoming special session.

House Bill 2020 would have divided DHHR into a health department and a human resources department. The legislation was vetoed by the governor, even though he agreed an DHHR overhaul was still needed.

DHHR comprises the Bureau for Behavioral Health; Bureau for Child Support Enforcement; Bureau for Family Assistance; Bureau for Medical Services; Bureau for Public Health; Bureau for Social Services; Office of Inspector General; and West Virginia Children’s Health Insurance Program (WV CHIP). Hanshaw said it’s a Herculean task to operate all those agencies.

“We need to help provide services in a better manner for a little over $7 billion worth of our state budget every year,” Hanshaw said.

He said the bill’s problems were from a budget and management perspective. After working closely with the governor, new proposals on splitting DHHR into two or more agencies may come to the legislature as early as next week.

“Several DHHR secretaries have struggled to implement what the legislature has expected to be done,” Hanshaw said. “And, frankly, struggled with what the law requires of both state and federal policies affecting our various healthcare sectors of the DHHR.”

Hanshaw noted that the foster care reforms not passed in the regular legislative session would be revisited in the legislative oversight committee on health and human resources interim meeting next week.

Justice Asking Legislature For Raises, Bonuses For State Employees

Flanked by Senate President Craig Blair and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, Gov. Jim Justice announced that he will seek a five percent raise for all state employees in 2022.

Additionally, Justice announced that all state employees will receive a one-time 2.5 percent bonus to combat the rising costs of inflation. The governor said the bonus will be known as the “Inflatocine” – short for inflation vaccine.

“As we’ve gone through this horrible pandemic, we’ve continued to kick out surplus after surplus,” Justice said. “Our state is doing really good. I commend everybody that’s made all the right moves on the chessboard. We want to reward our people for a lot of great work that they’ve done and we also want to continue to help our teachers and make education our centerpiece in West Virginia.

“In addition to this, we have a situation going on in this country with this runaway inflation,” Justice continued. “So we’re going to do a one-time supplement to try to help our teachers and state employees who are contemplating how they’re going to fill their cars up with gasoline and buy groceries with the inflated prices.”

The pay raise and “Inflatocine” bonus will be submitted to the West Virginia Legislature in the form of a bill, which legislative leaders announced they intend to support during the 2022 Legislative Session.

Both leaders indicated their support.

“We are rowing the boat in the same direction, working together as a team, and the coach of this team is the governor. He’s leading the way,” Blair said. “He talks about that rocketship. We’re on the rocketship. We just need to keep going and take West Virginia from 50th to first place in every category. We’re getting there, and it’s time for us to reward and pay the dividends to these state employees. I’m confident that we’ll have no problems getting this through the Legislature.”

Hanshaw was also optimistic..

“We’re happy to be able to join with the governor today and indicate that, as the House, we do have support for the across-the-board pay raise,” Hanshaw said. “We know that it’s been a stressful time over the course of these past two years, when people have had to deal with remote work situations that they normally wouldn’t have been accustomed to or have had to work in environments that have not necessarily been conducive to the usual performance of their jobs. We have chronic turnover in some of our most important state jobs here in West Virginia. We have to deal with that, and dealing with it in the form of compensation is an important part of that process.”

Justice did not discuss how much the raise and the bonus would cost the state or how it would be paid for. He did not take questions from the media during the announcement.

Justice referenced the bonus in terms of helping employees with the holidays, but both measures will require the approval of the legislature, which won’t meet until January 2022.

Legislative Leadership Joins The Legislature Today

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, (R) Clay, and Senate President Craig Blair, (R) Berkeley, join The Legislature Today from the Capitol building.

Friday evening’s discussion focuses on the challenges and goals of a legislative session in the middle of a pandemic. The 6pm broadcast also highlights the week’s floor debates and updates the status of multiple bills as the session reaches day 10 of 60.

W.Va. Lawmaker Who Resigned Over Slurs Returns To Statehouse

A Republican lawmaker in West Virginia who resigned after posting an anti-gay slur is set to elude political consequences now that he has won back his seat in the Statehouse.

John Mandt stepped down as a House delegate in the heat of his reelection campaign last October after screenshots emerged of him using the slur in a Facebook Messenger group. It had been the latest in a series of discriminatory remarks the state delegate had made about gay people and Muslims.

Then the conservative small business owner reversed his decision to bow out of the race, going on to win re-election to represent Cabell County. The November election produced a supermajority for Republicans in the legislature after several upset victories over Democrats. Lawmakers open a 60-day session on Feb. 10.

The Republican House speaker, Roger Hanshaw, has changed his stance on Mandt. In October, he had declared bigotry has no place in the state and said Mandt had taken the “the best course of action” in resigning.

Now that Mandt is back, Hanshaw picked him to be vice chair of the committee on small businesses and economic development. He did not say Mandt would face any repercussions.

“I don’t know what I can say, beyond Delegate Mandt does have committee assignments,” Hanshaw said Wednesday.

Mandt also will serve on committees that deal with energy and manufacturing, substance abuse, and senior, children, and family issues.

The owner of a hot dog vendor popular in Huntington, Mandt had a first term marked by controversies.

In 2019, he took to Facebook to attack a vigil honoring the victims of a mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand. “Anything Muslim is going to be associated with Democrats. It’s better to stay away than be associated with them,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Hundreds denounced his comments in a petition calling on Marshall University to cut ties with the restaurant Mandt owns, Stewart’s Original Hot Dogs. The university’s food contractor soon after dropped his business.

“When people get badgered or you are called a bigot, racist or a hater, I am none of those things but those things are said to try and discourage you from what you are doing,” he told WV Metro News at the time.

Screenshots of Mandt using a gay slur in a Facebook Messenger group chat in early October prompted his resignation. He first claimed his comments were fabricated, then said he meant them as a joke.

“I do apologize if anything was put out there that hurt any of you watching this right now,” Mandt told news channel WSAZ at the time. But he said his social media posts shouldn’t preclude him from serving if he won. He finished third among six candidates in a contest that gave the top three vote-getters seats in the 16th District.

He did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Mandt has described himself as “Pro-God.” And he has tangled with advocates for the LGBT community.

He has opposed a measure to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and in the public sphere. Similar protections exist in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

But the proposal, known as the Fairness Act, has picked up more support since Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo co-introduced it in 2019. Republican Gov. Jim Justice said in a candidates’ debate last year that he would sign the bill if it passes.

Del. Joshua Higginbotham, a Republican from Putnam County, announced on Twitter last week he would be the lead sponsor of the legislation.