House Speaker Tim Armstead Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

House Speaker Armstead Resigns, Aims for Seat on Supreme Court

West Virginia’s Republican House speaker resigned Tuesday to run for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court, fueling accusations by Democrats that an unprecedented move to impeach state Supreme Court justices represents a power grab by GOP lawmakers.

Speaker Tim Armstead disclosed his plans on Twitter. Though the secretary of state’s office has said he’s not required to resign, Armstead said he was doing so to make sure his candidacy is above question.

House lawmakers recently impeached four of the court’s five justices, prompting one to resign. All four were ordered Tuesday to appear in the Senate on Sept. 11 to answer accusations against them. The impeachment probe was sparked by questions involving more than $3 million in renovations to the justices’ offices and expanded to broader accusations of corruption, incompetence and neglect of duty.

Armstead had recused himself from the House debate over impeachment because he had previously expressed interest in serving on the court. More recently, he and U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, a Republican who is not seeking re-election and lost in his bid for the U.S. Senate this spring, both applied to be considered for temporary appointments to the Supreme Court by Gov. Jim Justice. Those appointments would last until the November election is certified.

Jenkins has declared himself a candidate for a different seat on the court in the November election, which is officially nonpartisan.

The West Virginia Democratic Party said on Twitter of Armstead’s resignation, “No surprise here, more self-serving moves for political gain and abandoning the people of West Virginia in his district.”

In a statement announcing his resignation, Armstead said he intends “to spend as much time as possible meeting West Virginians and earning their trust and their votes to represent them on their Supreme Court of Appeals.”

Armstead filed by Tuesday’s deadline to run in the nonpartisan race for the vacancy created last month when Menis Ketchum retired and agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud related to his personal use of a state vehicle and fuel.

Robin Davis stepped down from the court Aug. 14 after lawmakers voted to impeach her and justices Allen Loughry, Margaret Workman and Beth Walker.

Davis and at least one Democratic lawmaker have accused the Republican-led legislature of turning what they said was a legitimate pursuit of charges against Loughry into a blatant attempt to take over the court. Democratic Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer of Monongalia County has called impeaching the other justices “a power grab … and using the impeachment process to take over another branch of government.”

Jenkins and six other candidates have filed to run for Davis’ seat in November. Armstead and nine other candidates have filed to run for the seat Ketchum vacated.

Loughry faces six charges related to accusations of spending $363,000 on office renovations, taking home a $42,000 antique desk owned by the state, and lying to a House committee. Loughry, Walker and Workman all face charges of abusing authority by failing to control office expenses and not maintaining policies about the use of state vehicles, office computers at home and other matters.

Workman faces two separate impeachment articles related to accusations that she allowed senior status judges to be paid higher wages than are allowed.

Armstead was appointed to a House seat from Kanawha County in 1998 to fill a vacancy and was elected later that year. He served as House minority leader and was named speaker in December 2014 after Republicans gained majority control of both the House and Senate for the first time in eight decades.

Some Democrats have said the impeachments were strategically timed by majority Republican lawmakers to allow the governor to name their temporary replacements.

“There’s never been any time in history where one branch of government supposedly controls another branch,” Senate Democratic leader Roman Prezioso said Monday. “And for the governor to be able to appoint people to be replaced, obviously there’s that apprehension by a lot of the Democratic senators and House members, too.

House Standing Its Ground on Tax Reform in New Bill

Members of the House are standing their ground when it comes to tax reform. At least, that’s what House Speaker Tim Armstead said Friday after a vote in the chamber on its own version of a revenue bill.

The bill does not include any of the changes to the personal income tax Senate Republicans and Gov. Jim Justice have agreed to, but Armstead said that doesn’t mean his chamber isn’t still willing to work on a compromise.

House Majority Leader Daryl Cowles, left, speaks with Del. Brent Boggs before Friday’s floor session.

Members of the House voted 74 to 17 in favor of the tax bill negotiated between House Democrats and Republicans.

It brings in an estimated $100 million in additional revenue to close a budget gap in the 2018 fiscal year, which isn’t enough according to members of the chamber, but is a start.

“You have to remember this isn’t in a vacuum and this isn’t the final step. We are still dealing with a budget gap, a less-than-cooperative Senate, some major cuts that still face us,” House Majority leader Daryl Cowles said Friday.

Cowles was defending one provision of the bill in particular, a three-year phase-out of the income tax assessed on Social Security benefits for individuals making less than $100,000 a year.

The bill would also exempt military retirement pay from the tax, and increases the standard deduction from $2,000 to $2,500 – again, for individuals making less than $100,000 a year.

House leaders on both sides of the aisle say that’s the kind of income tax reform they’re willing to go along with in this special session—provisions that benefit low-income and working West Virginians.

“This House body, against the Senate, is looking after the overwhelming majority of the people of West Virginia. Not the wealthy. Not the well to do, which seems like the only concern that they have over there,” Democrat Isaac Sponaugle said Friday in a floor speech.

That Senate plan restructures the personal income tax, creating four new income brackets and lowering the overall rate by 15 percent in 2018. In exchange, the Senate plan would raise the consumer sales tax to 6.95 percent, something House Republicans have said they are not willing to do.

The House bill does make some changes to the consumer sales tax, though. It brings in additional revenue by getting rid of a number of exemptions, keeping the rate at 6 percent.

Under the House bill, cell phones, electronic data usage, gym memberships, primary opinion research, and purchases communications businesses make would be subject to the tax. Also, the cost of labor up to $40,000 on new construction would be taxed—a provision that was amended on the floor Friday.

Del. Stephen Baldwin presented his amendment to offer some relief to flood victims Friday.

“You exclude folks who are rebuilding from natural disasters from paying the sales tax on construction labor,” Greenbrier County Democrat Stephen Baldwin explained. His amendment, also sponsored by Fayette County Republican Kayla Kessinger, was adopted by the chamber.

Those natural disasters have to be declared emergencies by the state or federal government, but in the wake of the June 2016 flooding, Baldwin said victims deserve the relief.

The House bill increases the amount of money dedicated to the historic rehabilitation tax credit—a credit offered to investors who restore historic buildings.

It also removes Justice’s provisions to restructure the coal severance tax, tiering the tax rate based on the price of coal per ton. The governor owns several coal mines in the state.

Armstead said the vote Friday should send a clear message to the governor and Senate Republicans—that members of the House are going to stand their ground when it comes to tax reform.

Senate Republicans have criticized Armstead for not backing a plan that cuts taxes for all West Virginians. Gov. Justice has also said his caucus has been blocking progress, but the Speaker said his caucus is now leading the way to a compromise.

“We want to work with the governor and we want to work with the Senate, but as you recall, the governor portrayed this as it was only the House Republicans that were standing in the way of what he wanted,” Armstead said after the vote.

“We have now had the House Republicans, the House Democrats and the Senate Democrats that have sent this message,” he said.

Senate Democrats voted against the tax reform plan backed by the governor and Senate Republicans as an attempt, according to the Senate minority leader, to protect working West Virginians from a larger tax burden.

With the passage of their revenue bill, Armstead is sending his members home until Tuesday. That’s when they’ll return to likely begin the work of finding a compromise with the Senate, whose members return Monday morning.

Gov. Justice has yet to present either chamber with a budget bill for the 2018 fiscal year that begins July 1 and without adding it to the special session call, lawmakers cannot introduce a version of their own.

Senate President Still Hopeful for Compromise with House in Budget Deal

Senate President Mitch Carmichael believes lawmakers are getting close to a budget deal after taking a 10-day recess from the special budget session called by Gov. Jim Justice at the beginning of the month.

The Legislature returned to session May 4 for two days, but when they were unable to reach a compromise, recessed and will return Monday, May 15.

Although the final numbers are still being negotiated, Carmichael said the basis of the budget plan is still the tax reform bill members of the Senate approved on a 32-1 vote May 5.

As approved by the chamber, the bill decreased the number of tax brackets for the personal income tax and lowered the tax rate for each bracket, setting benchmarks for its eventual repeal.

It also increased the sales tax by 1 percent statewide, and restructured the coal severance tax in accordance with a Justice plan that assesses the rate based on the price of coal per ton.

House Speaker Tim Armstead before a floor session during the special budget session.

Members of the House, led by House Speaker Tim Armstead, voted to reject the bill twice last week. In a press conference following the first vote, Armstead said his caucus was “making a clear statement” of their unity against the plan.

But according to Carmichael, that thought in the House might be shifting. Maybe.

The President said his leadership team, their counterparts in the House and the Governor’s Office are working to adjust the personal income tax rates and lessen the proposed sales tax increase to appease apprehension in the House.

“I am very optimistic that our friends in the House will see the value of a pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-economy proposal,” Carmichael said. “It just astounds me that they wouldn’t.”

Carmichael has previously criticized House leaders for not agreeing to what he says is a Republican ideal—cutting taxes.

Previous iterations of the bill, though, showed out year deficits of hundreds of millions of dollars, essentially buying the state one or two years of positive earnings before returning to a similar budgetary state.

Carmichael fully believes economic growth and job creation generated by the tax reform plan will make up for any of those predicted deficits.

“For the last several years we’ve come in and had these horrible deficits, we’ve had to backfill our budget, and the out years, the projections with no changes in our code look terrible,” he said. “The changes that we’re putting in place will generate the jobs, growth and opportunity to make a better situation.”

“So, you really have a binary choice here, either you stay on the current path which you know is bad, or you make a change which you think is going to be better.”

Senate President Mitch Carmichael gavelling in to a floor session during the 2017 special budget session.

The negotiated version of the bill will not include heightened requirements to reassess taxes once they have been cut like previous version, according to Carmichael.

Other states in the recent past have cut taxes and implemented strict assessment rules, like requiring a vote of the people or a super majority to create or raise a tax, which has resulted in major deficits. Carmichael said those types of measure will not be in this bill.

“We’re not going to lock ourselves in like Kansas and Oklahoma did. We’re providing ourselves some flexibility,” he said.

Carmichael added those states also missed a key piece to the personal income tax repeal process, resulting in their current budgetary difficulties: they did not reduce government spending.

“West Virginia spent $4.3 billion last year, and the Senate and the Governor are committed to not spending any more,” he said.

The compromises, which have largely been agreed to by Democratic members in both chambers, have drawn criticism from outside groups, though, like the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Ted Boettner, the group has penned several op-eds and blog posts calling the plan a “bad deal for West Virginia.”

The group maintains the restructuring of the income tax places a larger burden on low income and working West Virginians, while giving a hefty tax break for the top 20 percent of earners in the state.

That paired with an increased sales tax, which Boettner has previously testified before lawmakers burdens low income families because they spend a higher portion of their wages on goods, results in a regressive policy.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Charleston Monday. Carmichael said he’s “optimistic” they will have an agreement by then.

“I think we’ll get this done,” he said.

Budget on Hold as Legislature Adjourns for a Week of Negotiating

Lawmakers are postponing work on the 2018 state budget another week after the House of Delegates voted to kill a tax reform measure presented by members of the Senate and Gov. Jim Justice.

The Senate voted 32 to 1 Friday afternoon in favor of the tax reform bill that was then killed in a 59 to 34 vote in the House shortly after.

The bill as approved by the Senate would have:

restructured and lowered the personal income tax, setting benchmarks for a potential repeal
increased the consumer sales tax by 1 percent and gotten rid of several exemptions, including cell phones, electronic data processing services and gym memberships
increased the corporate net income tax by 1 percent
restructured the coal severance tax, charging a range of 2.5 to 8 percent based on the price per ton

The Governor’s version of the bill included changes to the natural gas severance tax, but those were amended out of the bill before it was approved in the upper chamber.
Leadership in both chambers, however, agreed to adjourn the session until May 15, when they hope to return with a budget deal.

The other bills presented to lawmakers by Justice during the special session are still outstanding in both chambers. They include a teacher pay raise, increasing the gasoline tax, and extending the tolls on the state turnpike.

9 Months after Flood, Lawmakers Presented with Protection Plan

On June 23, 2016, West Virginia experienced some of the worst flooding in the state’s storied history. During the past 52 years, 282 West Virginians have died in floods, including the 23 who perished last summer after historic water levels led to a federal disaster declaration in 12 counties.

Nine months later, communities are still recovering from the high water.

During a budget hearing in February, Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Jimmy Gianato told lawmakers once the state reaches a damage estimate of $150 million, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will begin funding recovery efforts at a 90-10 match, with 90 percent of the funds coming from the federal government, 10 percent from the state.

“The current numbers, we’re at about 53 percent of that,” Gianato said. “The schools are the big-dollar factor involved here, which will probably go close to $200 million when we finish that out.”

Five schools were destroyed and students are largely still in temporary classrooms.

Del. Stephen Baldwin, left, is a co-sponsor of the Speaker’s flood protection bill.

Lawmakers in the House, however, are not waiting for those totals to move forward with plans to help mitigate the level of damage the state could face in the future, including Del. Stephen Baldwin from hard-hit Greenbrier County.

“After the flood, I found out that there had been a flood protection [plan] sitting on the shelf for years and like everybody else, I was floored,” he said.

Baldwin is talking about a 2004 flood protection plan, the product of a 26-agency task force developed to respond to flooding in the state.

Del. Brent Boggs said he remembers when the 365-page document was presented to the Legislature.

“I know it was a comprehensive document, several hundred pages, and it had a lot of good recommendations,” he said, “but like a lot of things in government, a lot of it was shelved.”

After the 2016 floods, interest in that shelved document re-ignited, from Speaker Armstead in particular whose hometown of Elkview experienced its highest level of flood waters in nearly 100 years.

Armstead said that’s why he’s introduced House Bill 2935, to implement the recommendations of the 2004 report.

“We know we can’t prevent them, but there are things we can do to lessen the blow of flooding, to make sure people are well advised when a flood is about to occur and to really just learn from the things we’ve learned from these disasters,” he said.

Armstead’s bill creates a state Flood Protection Planning Council made up of representatives from the Division of Natural Resources, state Conservation Agency, Department of Environmental Protection and others. Its chair would be required to report quarterly to a new interim legislative committee on flooding.

Armstead approached several members of the chamber from flood-affected areas to join him in sponsoring the legislation, including Baldwin who said the communication portion of the bill to him is key.

“In our experience in Greenbrier County, communities were literally cut off from one another by the water. There was no power or phone lines, there was no good way to communicate with one another,” he said.

“So what we were lacking form both a governmental and a nongovernmental perspective was the ability to coordinate and communicate in terms of our flood relief efforts.”

With bipartisan support, Armstead believes the bill will make it through the legislative process, despite the fact that it has yet to be taken up by a committee.

Del. Brent Boggs, left, and House Speaker Tim Armstead, right, at the podium during a House floor session.

“We may have disagreements on other issues, but I think when it comes to protecting our citizens form natural disasters like this, I think we all work together,” he said.

Boggs, a Democrat from Braxton County and a sponsor of the bill, said even though his district wasn’t impacted by the 2016 flood, all of the state’s 55 counties have been affected by high water at some point.

“So, I think that we need to really get on board with this and provide a legislative mechanism to work with all of the entities, pull out the flood plan again and then go over it jointly and implement as much of it as we possibly can and make the citizen aware, make the counties aware and let the state know that we are doing our job,” he said.

Armstead’s bill has been referred to the House Government Organization Committee, but hasn’t been placed on an agenda so far this session. The last day to approve bills in the originating chamber is March 29.

Republican Leadership Unveils Budget Plan, Not Bill

While Republican legislative leaders haven’t unveiled an actual bill, they have unveiled a more detailed plan for balancing the state’s budget. Senate President Mitch Carmichael and House Speaker Tim Armstead announced those plans during a press conference Monday

The plan is based on a premise Carmichael calls “novel” in state government: spending only the amount of money the state actually has.

That’s why Republican legislative leaders say they’ll put forward a budget that spends just slightly more than $4 billion for 2018. Because that’s how much money the state collected in 2017.

“This state, to put it on the path of progress, prosperity and responsible budgeting, finally to resolve these annual budget crises, must live within our means,” Carmichael said in a room packed with Republican Senators and Delegates who largely hadn’t seen the proposal themselves.

Their $4 billion budget will cut several of Gov. Jim Justice’s proposed spending increases.

House Speaker Tim Armstead during Monday’s press conference.

Justice presented that plan to lawmakers in the form of a $4.5 budget during his State of the State Address in February.

The legislative plan cuts his $105 million Save Our State Fund for business development, his 2 percent across-the-board teacher pay raise, and eliminates a $5.6 million increase in tourism advertising.

Republican leaders also plan to smooth out the state’s payments into the teachers retirement program, essentially pushing some obligations down the road.

They plan to eliminate subsidies to greyhound racing and casinos, and will maintain the 2 percent mid-year cut former- Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin implemented in the fall.

Those, along with some other provisions and increases in the taxes on beer and liquor, will keep spending in line, according to Armstead.

“The idea that if we just spend more in government and somehow that’s going to make us prosperous is not true, Armstead said, “and now we’re talking about a proposal that would spend the greatest amount this state has ever spent in general revenue funds, funded by the greatest tax increase in the history of our state. That is not the answer.”

Armstead and Carmichael also pledged Monday to do something they say has never been done in the history of the state: pass a budget by day 60, or the final day of the legislative session.

They say they’re making it a priority to get all of the bills that could impact the budget passed quickly, allowing the Finance Chairs time to put the bill together and put it to a final vote on April 8.