Special Legislative Session Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New W.Va. Vocational Aviation Program Expected To Stimulate High-Tech Job Growth

Twenty-five million taxpayer dollars will help build a new aviation maintenance training hangar at the North Central West Virginia Airport in Bridgeport.

Gov. Jim Justice signed Senate Bill 1029 into law Thursday. During the recently completed special legislative session, the proposal sparked contentious debate in the House of Delegates on whether this was a legislative priority.

“Everyone should be incredibly proud because this is an incredible moment for everyone here,” Justice said. “My dad was a captain in the Air Force in World War II and he always said, ‘It is an honor flying with you.’ That’s exactly how I feel today.”

The law provides funds for the new home of Pierpont Community & Technical College’s aviation maintenance technology program.

The 70,000 square-foot facility will give the Pierpont program a significant increase in space, allowing for a boost in annual enrollment from 130 to 200 students per year.

Currently, the program has a waitlist of students who are immediately recruited into high-paying jobs after earning a one- to two-year degree.

Pierpont Board of Governors Chair David Hinkle said this facility is a regional game changers.

“The importance of this school, to the businesses up here is just unbelievable,” Hinkle said. “Without this school, we wouldn’t have the industry and we wouldn’t have the growth that’s available. Our school right now is at capacity. It’s going to be a game changer for the airport and the industry that we’ll be able to bring in here.”

Pierpont President Dr. Milan Hayward said the investment in the college and region’s economic future goes beyond a private success.

“It’s a public good,” Hayward said. “The evidence of that is this significant investment in the future of aerospace technology in West Virginia.”

The proposed design features two high bay hangers, aviation-related specialty labs, including shops for turbine and reciprocating engine overhauls, flight controls and hydraulics, lecture classrooms, and a learning resource and testing center. Pierpont’s Advanced Welding program will also have shops and classrooms within the facility.

For more information on Pierpont Community & Technical College and its Aviation Maintenance Technology program, visit pierpont.edu.

Trans Activists: New Law Could Block Gender Affirming Care For Inmates

The West Virginia Legislature passed Senate Bill 1009 in a special session earlier this week. The law prohibits the use of state funds for certain medical procedures or benefits that are not medically necessary for inmates.

On Friday, the West Virginia Trans Coalition hosted a rally protesting the law.

According to the protestors, it could give the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Billy Marshall, not physicians, final say on what is medically necessary. Trans activists like Deives Collins fear this law could be used to deny gender affirming care to inmates.

“I perceive this as a threat to us specifically, trans activists, saying, ‘Hey, we found a way to legally de-transition you if you find yourself on the wrong side of the law,” Collins said.

A Federal District Court for the Southern District of Illinois deemed trans affirming care as medically necessary and set the precedent that non-exports should not be decision makers when it comes to health care for transgender inmates.

Post Special Session, Bills Passed And Failed

Earlier this week, 35 of 44 bills proposed in the recent special legislative session passed. But what about the bills that failed?

The special session included about $30 million to address the ongoing crisis in the state correctional system, $12 million for volunteer fire departments and EMS, and $45 million to help Marshall University establish a Cybersecurity Program. Several other passed bills will make a mark on the state.

Gov. Jim Justice, who called the legislature into special session to address the 44 bills, said corrections and roads were his top priorities. Senate Bill 1026 appropriated $150 million to the Department of Highways. Justice said in a media briefing that road maintenance funding makes more money for the state.

“We have made incredible progress there,” Justice said. “It’s an economic driver beyond belief.”

Other passed bills include allocating $4 million to help make the West Virginia Culture Center compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and $1 million dollars that will replace worn patient beds in state veterans’ hospitals.

In 2019, the legislature eliminated the state severance tax on timber. But that left the state forestry department without a source of income for fire suppression. That’s according to Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam.

“So we went back in and put in about $4 million for fire suppression equipment for forestry,” Tarr said.

Find a complete list of passed special session bills here.

The nine bills that did not pass included funding denied for the Attorney General’s technology litigation staff, some state park repairs, mine reclamation emergencies and rejected appropriations to the Department of Revenue.

Tarr said there was nothing inherently wrong with the bills that did not pass. He said when the House of Delegates rejected a procedural funding bill that incorporated a rainy day fund “smoothing” mechanism, it greatly reduced the surplus money available to allocate.

“Fixing that problem would have reduced the rainy day transfer from $231 million to about $87 million,” Tarr said. “So you have to go through and prioritize some of these spends. It really comes down to ‘Do you take the the miser ideology, or do you take an entrepreneurial approach, and invest in the state?’”

Tarr said “I can’t say that what we did aren’t the end all solutions, but they are really big steps toward comprehensive solutions that we do with these issues.”

The nine failed bills include:

HB 101 – Relating to combining the totals of the Revenue Shortfall Reserve Fund and Revenue Shortfall Reserve Fund

HB102 – Supplementing and amending the appropriations to the Department of Revenue

HB 108 – Relating to pretrial release

HB 111 – Authorizing agreements for reimbursement for certain training costs and to authorize the division to cooperate with the Supreme Court of Appeals on developing a comprehensive transportation plan

HB 113 – Relating to making West Virginia an agreement state with the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

HB 118 – Supplementing and amending the appropriations to state board of education

HB 135 – Supplementing and amending the appropriations to the Department of Environmental Protection

HB 136 – Supplementing and amending the appropriations to the Department of Commerce, Division of Natural Resources

HB 140 – Supplementing and amending the appropriations of public moneys out of the Treasury from the balance of moneys remaining as an unappropriated surplus balance in the State Fund, General Revenue, to the Attorney General

W.Va. Corrections Crisis Finds Legislative Fixes, Justice Faces Corrections Lawsuit

Lawmakers say bills passed in the special session to help solve the state’s corrections employment crisis lay a foundation but are not a cure-all.

The measures come as a lawsuit demands the state spend more than 10 times the funds allocated to upgrade conditions in the state’s jails and prisons.

Three key corrections bills provide more than $25 million to increase the starting pay and change pay scales for correctional officers and offer retention payments to non-uniformed corrections workers.

SB 1005 earmarks $21.1 million to increase starting pay and change pay scales for correctional officers. SB 1003 and SB 1004 provide nearly $6 million for one-time bonuses for correctional support staff, divided into two payments that begin in October.

Del. David Kelly, R-Tyler, is the Chair of the House Jails and Prisons Committee. He said the bills create a foundation for relief and a pathway forward.

“I was pleased with the way everyone worked together,” Kelly said. “We started detailed conversations with the Senate in May, and met weekly and bi-weekly, through the months that preceded this call. We know it’s not going to solve the problem, but it’s a piece of the puzzle.”

Kelly noted that the passed legislation also includes $5,000 bonuses for critical vacancy pay, re-named from locality pay. He said the stipend will address worker shortfalls statewide.

“The Eastern Panhandle is dealing with losing officers to other states. But there are other areas that are just as in need as the Panhandle because there are different needs,” Kelly said. “It’s the same outcome, they are short officers.”

A lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday named Gov. Jim Justice and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia as defendants. It demands the state spend $330 million for deferred maintenance and worker vacancies in state corrections. The suit asks Justice to call for a special session and submit bills correcting a number of issues to the legislature to correct these issues. The suit, filed by Beckley attorney Steve New who represents the plaintiffs who are inmates of the state, prohibits Justice and Sorsaia from housing inmates in what the suit calls “unconstitutional conditions.”

“Most troubling, is what’s called deferred maintenance in these correctional facilities,” New said. “Mr. Douglas has testified to the legislature to the point that he recently said he’s tired of sounding like a broken record when he comes before the legislature on the issue of deferred maintenance that needs done in West Virginia’s correctional facilities.”

New referred to current state Division of Corrections Chief of Staff Brad Douglas.

New noted several sworn statements that come from a separate lawsuit regarding conditions at the Southern Regional Jail. He said former state Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy, former state Corrections Commissioner Betsy Jividen, and Douglas, were all frank in depositions on how severe understaffing and overcrowding conditions for more than a decade have grown worse with no government relief.

“People have testified that $50 to $60 million dollars is needed to correct the over 1000 staffing shortages in West Virginia’s corrections,” New said. “The bill only provides for $25 million. The rub is nowhere in deferred maintenance to the tune of $270 million mentioned.”

In his Tuesday media briefing, Justice said he was pleased with the outcome of the special session regarding corrections pay raises.

“To get the pay raises to the folks that we had sent up for two consecutive years,” Justice said “Basically the net of the whole thing, fix the corrections dilemma.”

In response to the lawsuit, Justice said the state is working to catch up with corrections challenges and do better.

“There’s $100 million that went into deferred maintenance in the last session,” Justice said. “Right now, we’ve got $25 million dollars, or whatever the number may be, $30 million, of stuff that’s going to corrections. Folks, right now, it can’t be absolutely dead level perfect.”

Also responding to the lawsuit, West Virginia Commissioner of Corrections and Rehabilitations Billy Marshall called it “an insult to our employees and DCR.” Marshall also said “a lot of the complaint has already come to its conclusions in regards to several of the allegations all of which have been investigated.”

He said the evidence didn’t support the claims listed in the complaint.

“We even have gone as far as having recorded inmates’ conversations that went to family members who asked those family members to lie and give false information to try to create some problems for DCR, forcing us to waste our time and money,” Marshall said.

As to jail and prison maintenance, Marshall said “It’s much like owning a home and if you live in a home long enough, there’s going to be things no matter how well you take care of it, there’s going to be things that pop up that you’re gonna need to fix and replace.”

Fast Tracking Special Session Bills Cause Concern

With concerns from members of both parties over the lack of standard consideration and debate on dozens of proposed bills, the August special West Virginia Legislative session continued into day three on Tuesday.

On day one, lawmakers introduced the same 44 bills in each chamber as presented by Gov. Jim Justice. The Senate and the House have routinely suspended the rules requiring three bill readings on three separate days, pushing bills through by limiting discussion and debate. Many bills never saw the light of a Finance or Judiciary committee.

House Finance Committee member Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, said a lot of the proposed projects are valuable, helpful and need to be completed, but not “in this overwhelming manner.”

“Finance [Monday] met for 10 hours and we voted $500 million worth of supplemental appropriations to this year’s budget,” Rowe said. “So yeah, there’s windburn. It’s very uncomfortable to vote on bill after bill after bill when there hasn’t been proper vetting.”

Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said in a statement that the legislature often convenes at the end of a fiscal year to make appropriations for one-time expenditures.

“We have been having those discussions very publicly for weeks,” Hanshaw said. “Legislators and the public have heard plenty of discussion in the past few weeks about the anticipation of an extraordinary session and should have had some awareness this was coming.”

Del. Scot Heckert, R-Wood, said the need for action now outweighs the need for extended debate.

“Anytime anything like this is going on, everybody should be concerned,” Heckert said. “But we’re trying to do what’s best for everybody and trying to make something happen for the betterment of the state and create more jobs in the state.”

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, and West Virginia Democratic Party Chair, said that fast-tracking decisions on spending millions of taxpayer dollars leaves out the taxpayers.

“It shuts the public out of the process,” Pushkin said. ”If the delegates and the senators don’t have enough time to familiarize themselves with the legislation, the public definitely does not.”

Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, said that setting up consideration and debates over something like funding airplane hangers, instead of a sole focus on solving the corrections crisis, was an administration ploy.

“They’re like at Kinkos down there, they can crank one of these out fast,” Steele said. “You can’t tell me this wasn’t planned a long time ago and we were kept in the dark the same way we always have been for the five years I’ve been here. Keep them in the dark, put them in there, put them under pressure.”

However, Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said planning in advance is the point. He said months and years of meetings have ended, and now is the time to fulfill well made plans.

“We get it to where it’s easier to go in and discuss it after we’ve been discussing it for years and get everybody around the solution when we finally have revenue to be able to apply the solution,” Tarr said.

Not everyone, even within the same party, seems to agree with that idea, but the introduced bills are slowly passing through both chambers.

Firefighters Receive One-Time Legislative Funding, EMS Gets Zero

Many counties cannot raise enough money to properly fund their Emergency Medical Services, even though the state has a $1.8 billion dollar budget surplus. Most ambulance agencies are either non-profit or private entities that receive little, or no funding from state, county and local governments.

West Virginia Code establishes that counties have a duty to fund EMS — if and to what extent they can afford to. In areas where tax revenues are diminishing due to the decline in the coal industry, local governments struggle to provide adequate funding to EMS.

The West Virginia EMS Coalition notes that at least 15 EMS organizations have ceased operations since 2022 and anticipates more closures without additional funding for EMS. Trish Watson, director of Services at Lincoln EMS, said some counties go 24 hours without an ambulance available and those wait times can lead to significantly reduced patient outcomes.

“Every county is short at this point,” Watson said. “That can very easily mean death. If you have an auto accident and you’re thrown out of your car, and the closest ambulance is an hour away obviously we know how that’s gonna turn out.”

Watson says there is a golden hour, that vital time period that a patient needs to receive care to survive a medical trauma.

“If you’re having a heart attack you can’t wait an hour for an ambulance to get there from another county — or maybe there’s not even one in the next county. Maybe those guys are all out too because we are all short staff,” she said.

In some areas of West Virginia ambulance wait times can be long due to staffing shortages, equipment shortages, longer routes, and winding mountainous roads. *Credit: West Virginia EMS Coalition*

Many rural areas in the state already had higher wait times. ow, many of those same areas are facing labor shortages due to lack of funding. Longer routes through rural areas of the state result in higher operating cost for EMS organizations. A statement put out by the West Virginia EMS Coalition said that ambulance agencies are only reimbursed by insurance when transporting a patient. They are not reimbursed for transportation to the patient’s residence, or from the hospital.

Last year, Gov. Jim Justice approved a one-time 10-million-dollar EMS Salary Enhancement Fund. However, the West Virginia EMS Coalition said that they are not able to give raises with that money because it’s not enough money to sustain a raise in wages. They said once the money is used, they could be forced to decrease wages again.

In the Special Legislative Session that began Sunday, Justice’s call proposed 44 bills. One of those bills, House Bill 122, would allot $12 million of the surplus for one-time payment to support fire response. The bill offered no funding for EMS.

“I will bring all parties to the table very soon, including the counties and the Legislature, so that we can all work together to find a responsible funding stream for our First Responders without raising taxes,” Justice said in a press release. “We all know that our first responders are our heroes, so I’m very proud to propose this funding.”

Watson said that while funding shortages affect patients’ health outcomes from emergency situations, they also affect the well-being of first responders.

“It is not just about the readiness, it’s about the staffing. You know, our crews are tired. They are short-staffed, we are short-staffed, so they are overworked, and underpaid. They are working excess hours because there is no one,” she said.