Legislative Interims Story Archives - Page 6 of 6 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Lawmakers Hold First Remote Interim Legislative Session In 8 Years

In 2022, seven interim meetings are scheduled, usually held at the Capitol building. But this week, the legislative branch left Charleston and went on the road.

The West Virginia Legislature meets every January for a 60-day general session. Lawmakers also meet several times a year in smaller committees and commissions during what are called interim sessions. The three day interims give legislators a chance to hear from public and private leaders and experts. These meetings help Delegates and Senators draft legislation specific to their constituents’ needs.

In 2022, seven interim meetings are scheduled, usually held at the Capitol building. But this week, the legislative branch left Charleston and went on the road.

The remote three day interim session was hosted by West Virginia University in Morgantown. This is the first remote interim meeting since 2014 in Bridgeport.

Does going remote cost taxpayers more than staying at home?

House of Delegates Communications Director Ann Ali said lawmakers who stay overnight get $131 in daily per diem for hotel and meals. Those who commute get $55 a day per diem no matter where the meetings are held.

So, Ali said taxpayer costs should be about the same as meeting at the capitol.

Clerk of the House Steve Harrison’s rough estimate showed if all 134 lawmakers attended meetings all three days and all sayed overnight, there would be less than $38,000 in legislative costs for the remote interim. However, not all lawmakers attended every meeting or stayed three nights in hotels.

Other costs incurred include audio visual and information technology needs (all meetings were streamed with help from WVU), meeting room fees, House and Senate staff lodgings and mileage. Those bills are still being calculated.

Ali said taking interims back on the road for the first time in eight years stems from a desire among legislative leadership and members to get “up close and personal.” They wanted to see issues facing different areas of the state first hand, to hear directly from local residents and to see some state successes and challenges up close. On this trip, one committee took a field trip to see proposed WVU physical plant repairs, another surveyed the area around a proposed I-79 interchange.

The next remote legislative interim session will be in November at Cacapon State Park in Berkeley Springs.

Legislature Considers Bringing New Air Transportation Tech To W.Va.

Members of the West Virginia legislature met during an interim meeting Monday to discuss potential legislation that would promote economic development for Advanced Air Mobility in the state.

The concept includes the use of autonomous, low-altitude aircraft similar to drones to transport people and cargo. Industry leaders talked with the Joint Commission on Economic Development about future budget and infrastructure plans for the technology, potentially opening the state up to small businesses in the field.

Sean Frisbee, president of Vertx Partners, says West Virginia is an ideal place for the technology to be tested. The aircraft could help those in rural areas have better access to essential goods.

“I really believe that rural America has an outsize benefit to be gained with Advanced Air Mobility. Many of our elderly in the rural areas are unable to pick up their pharmaceuticals, for example,” Frisbee said.

This meeting comes after the legislature passed two bills during the 2022 regular session promoting its development: House Bill 4667, which prohibits cities, towns, municipalities, or counties from creating restrictions on advanced aircraft or systems, and House Bill 4827, which promotes the development of public-use vertiports (which work as helipads do for helicopters) as state policy.

Discussions with the legislature continued today as companies like Vertx look for funding to bring the technology to West Virginia.

“You’ve got public, private, nonprofit, academic entities that are involved in this. So this is this really complex system that no one entity owns. No one entity is going to be the leader, there’s going to be multiple leaders, and we believe West Virginia can be one of those leaders,” Frisbee said.

Economists are expecting Advanced Air Mobility to be a $100 billion industry by 2035. The industry is expected to add roughly 280,000 jobs to the nation’s workforce and $80 billion in tax revenue federally.

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.

Budget Cuts & Graduation Rates at November Interims

About a dozen education officials from around the state addressed the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability in an interim meeting Monday.

Budget cuts for higher education has been a topic many in the state find frustrating, and this feeling was no different at Monday’s interim meeting.

At least four speakers mentioned their concern over the 4% budget cut to higher education that has affected many programs across the state.

Rachel Harper is the Chair for the Advisory Council of Students. She has three young children and says she’s a non-traditional student at Bridge Valley Community and Technical College.

She says the budget cut is affecting aid and programs many students need.

“Tutoring programs are in jeopardy and even the necessary classes for our fields are being cut to once a year causing us to not finish on time or cut completely causing us to have to switch schools,” Harper said.

Concerns were also heard on cuts to PEIA recipients in education, and officials asked lawmakers to pay close attention to higher education cuts in the upcoming 2016 session.

The graduation rate at higher education institutions in West Virginia was also discussed.

Dr. Neal Holly, the Vice Chancellor for Policy and Planning at the Higher Education Policy Commission announced that in the 2013-2014 school year, Shepherd University and West Liberty University were above average in their peer group median, while the other nine institutions in the state were below.

These peer groups are statistically selected based on enrollment, location, and faculty size as well as other factors.

Is "Right to Work" Right for W.Va.?

Interim meetings at the state capitol are usually laid back. Lawmakers attend their meetings and sometimes meet with a spare group of lobbyists and constituents.

Sunday, however, the House Government Organization Committee Room was overflowing. Men and women in union t-shirts filled the audience seats, the hallway and even the stairwells outside. What drew the crowd? A proposed piece of legislation that would make West Virginia a Right to Work state.

Dozens of union members attended a joint committee meeting Sunday making their opposition for Right to Work legislation clear.

For two hours, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary met to discuss possible Right to Work legislation and how it might affect West Virginia.

Right to Work laws prohibit certain types of agreements between labor unions and employers. The most commonly used example would prohibit a union from collecting dues from people in a workplace who do not wish to be part of the union.

Currently twenty-five states in the U.S. have Right to Work laws including Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Michigan.

Even though union members turned out by the dozens Sunday in opposition, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch Carmichael of Jackson County believes Right to Work laws actually make unions stronger.

“This is not an anti-union bill at all, Right to Work,” Carmichael said, “It does not in any way inhibit a person’s ability to join a union, to support it financially; all it does is give the individual the choice, the choice, the freedom to choose whether they want to be a part of the union.”

But Kenny Perdue disagrees. Perdue is the President of the West Virginia AFL-CIO and says Right to Work laws have hurt not just union workers, but all workers in the states that have approved them.

“There is a lot of evidence that a worker will make $6,000 less on a year in a Right to Work state,” Perdue noted, “There is evidence out there at the Bureau of Labor Statistics that an individual that works in a Right to Work state is 54.4 percent more likely to get hurt or killed on a job. We look at other states that like Kansas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota and they’re not doing well at all.”

Senator Herb Snyder, a Democrat from Jefferson County, says there isn’t enough evidence that a Right to Work law would help West Virginia progress economically.

“There’s absolutely no guarantee there would be any benefit whatsoever. That clearly, analytically showed that there are so many factors and drawing in keeping businesses, topography, age, education levels, and everything else,” Snyder explained, “It was very clear that wages go down, go down significantly statewide. We’re already second from the bottom, and why we’re having a discussion about lowering wages is just…perplexes me.”

Senate Majority Leader Carmichael says the laws will not lower wages in the state, but instead promote job growth. He says he’ll support passing a Right to Work law.

“What’s good for everyone for the majority of people is what we’re interested in,” Carmichael said, “and we hope that airing this issue out and discussing it in more detail will provide an education to the entire population that shows Right to Work gives another tool in the economic development box in West Virginia to keep our families together, to provide jobs and hope and opportunity for our citizens.”

Right to Work, like last session’s debate over prevailing wage, is likely to be at the forefront of controversial issues during the 2016 session.

Will West Virginia Legalize Medical Marijuana?

After three failed attempts to get a bill passed that would make marijuana available to those who would benefit from its medicinal properties, Del. Mike Manypenny (D-Taylor) continues to press on. With three republicans cosponsoring his bill this past session, a public hearing on the issue late in the Regular Session, and a successful resolution to study the issue sponsored by House Health Committee Chair Don Perdue (D-Wayne), Manypenny and other advocates appear to be gaining some traction on the issue.

Members of both legislative houses met Wednesday for a hearing with the Joint Committee on Health to learn more.

The committee began with a presentation via Skype from Karmen Hanson in Denver of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Hanson pointed out that 20 states and the District of Columbia currently permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

However, the drug remains outlawed on the federal level and is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food & Drug Administration, which means it’s seen as having a high potential for abuse with no medical purpose.

The floor was then turned over to Marijuana Policy Project Legislative Analyst, Matt Simon, a Parkersburg native who holds a master’s degree from WVU currently living in New Hampshire.

“To be clear, what patients are asking for with a state-level medical marijuana law is, really, two things,” said Simon. “They want to be protected from arrest if their doctors have recommended that they use this substance and they want to have a way to access it safely and legally.”

Simon pointed to states like California and Montana where limited regulations allow for too much access and create as many problems as they solve. He said Maine’s laws might provide a better model worth consideration.

Amongst other criticisms, Simon attempted to quell concerns that the passing of a medical marijuana law might increase use of the drug among young people. He said 15 states can provide before and after research on medical marijuana legislation where use by young people has remained the same or even dropped.

He also talked about another sticking point that often gums up legislation: the potential state revenue marijuana sales could garner.

“Some state medical marijuana programs do bring in significant revenue,” said Simon. “Others are revenue neutral. Many are written to be revenue neutral; fees are set to cover the cost of administering the program so that taxpayers will not bear the burden.

“And a few states were primarily concerned with patients and were not concerned with revenue at all, so they actually operate at a loss to those programs.”

Simon also pointed to a Pew Research study from March that shows an upswing in Americans that favor full on legalization of the drug. In fact, the study suggests that 52% of Americans are in support of legalization. He attributes these results to an increase in states with medical marijuana laws and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement of a change in the policy of enforcing marijuana related crimes.

Regarding the new change in policy with the Department of Justice, Joint Committee on Health Minority Chair Del. Ellington (R-Mercer) asked whether a a change Administrations on the federal level might change the DOJ’s approach to enforcing related laws.

Hanson responded with: “No one can predict the future.”

The committee finished the hearing by watching an excerpt of a video released in August from CNN and Dr. Sanjay Gupta titled Weed that details the benefits an epileptic child received from the drug as well as research being conducted in Israel.

Perdue, who also chairs the Joint Committee on Health, called Gupta’s report and some of the information provided during the meeting “compelling” but said major hurdles remain in dealing with medical marijuana legislation.

“How do you get away from the fact that—and I do believe that—marijuana is a gateway drug? Well, so are a lot of other medicinals,” said Perdue. “So, again, if you view it only for its medicinal value that’s not a hurdle you should have to overcome. Yet it’s going to be back there. That’s the thought process.

“That’s kind of the synchronization of the people who oppose marijuana. I understand that. But, in the understanding that, the discussion has to be framed in terms of medicinal value. Not in terms of recreational use or what might or what could happen.”

As for Manypenny, he’s working now on building provisions into a new version of this past session’s bill.

“One of the things that is proposed in my bill is that the taxes generated, after the cost of regulating the industry, would go to treating substance abuse in the community and drug prevention programs in the schools,” he said.

“If there’s enough money generated, then, a percentage of that will go to build a veteran’s nursing home in the southern part of the state,” Manypenny added.

Despite past and planned efforts on the issue, no specific legislation that would allow the medicinal use of the drug in West Virginia was discussed during the hearing. Manypenny hopes to firm up potential legislation during interims in December and have it ready for introduction at the beginning of the 2014 Regular Session.