Veto Story Archives - Page 2 of 4 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Gov. Justice Vetoes Economic Development Bill, Calls Special Session

Gov. Jim Justice has called a special session of the West Virginia Legislature for April after vetoing Senate Bill 729. The bill creates a self-sustaining loan fund with the West Virginia Economic Development Authority.

Justice said the bill had several technical errors that would have made it nearly impossible to use the money consistent with the intent of the bill. He said the special session is intended to fix those errors.

The governor said the bill is also intended to create a $200 million revolving loan fund for WV Department of Transportation to use for major road projects. He said he’s committed to ensuring the revolving loan fund remains in the bill.

This Special Session will be scheduled to coincide with the April Legislative Interim Meetings to avoid additional costs.

Justice Budget Veto Means Special Session Ahead

Gov. Jim Justice has vetoed the budget bill lawmakers approved early Sunday morning.

The bill relies on $90 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to find a balance and Justice said signing it would be like signing the state’s death certificate.

The $4.1 billion budget includes major cuts to the state Department of Health and Human Resources and higher education, including 12 percent reductions to West Virginia University and Marshall University.

It does not include the governor’s proposed 2 percent teacher pay raise or his increased marketing budget for tourism, and because of the failure and veto of several pieces of legislation, is actually short about $32 million, according to the governor.

Justice vetoed the bill during a press conference at the Capitol Thursday, calling it “political bull-you-know-what,” revealing a plate of feces in the Capitol rotunda.

Justice said Republican leaders in the Legislature weren’t being honest with the public, claiming they asked for a veto.

“The Republicans passed this and turned around and called and called and called and said, surely you’re going to veto this,” he said. “Surely you’re going to veto this because we don’t want to own it.”

But Justice also went after Democratic members of the Legislature, saying he had brokered a deal with Senate President Mitch Carmichael late Saturday night, right before the end of the session, that included increased taxes and changes to the personal income tax.

Justice said Democrats in the Senate initially refused to back the plan and then the bill never surfaced during the late night meeting.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the House of Delegates said Saturday night they were never informed of a deal between the Senate and Governor’s Office, which angered some members.

Justice did not mention during the press conference when he would call lawmakers back to Charleston for a special session. They are constitutionally required to approve a balanced budget by June 30, or risk an unprecedented government shutdown.

Governor Will Veto Bill to End Greyhound Funding

Gov. Jim Justice has announced he will veto a bill that would have effectively put an end to the greyhound racing industry in West Virginia, according to its supporters.

Justice traveled to Wheeling to announce the veto of Senate Bill 437 Saturday morning.

The bill would have ended the Greyhound Breeding and Development Fund, a $14 million annual appropriation from video lottery and table game proceeds at casinos.

The fund helps pay for dog breeding and the purses, or bet winnings, at the state’s two dog racetrack casinos in Nirto and Wheeling.

The racing industry said getting rid of the fund would have resulted in the loss of some 1,700 jobs in West Virginia, which is why Justice said he will veto the bill.

“Eliminating support for the greyhounds is a job killer and I can’t sign it,” Justice said in a written statement. “The last thing we need to do is drive more people out of West Virginia. We can’t turn our back on communities like Wheeling that benefit from dog racing.”

Justice said the bill would jeopardize the health of the state’s casino industry. Proceeds from gambling support education and senior programs, among other things in the excess lottery portion of the budget.

Editor’s Note: This story originally said that Gov. Justice vetoed the bill. He announced Saturday he will veto the legislation.

Senate Votes to Override Right to Work Fix

Senators have voted to override Governor Jim Justice’s veto of Senate Bill 330.

The bill was an attempt to clarify some language in the state’s Right to Work law which was approved by lawmakers in the 2016 session.

After its passage, the law was challenged in court and was recently ruled unconstitutional by a Kanawha County judge.

Justice noted in his veto message that lawmakers should wait for a final decision from the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals before changing the law– which is expected by late April.

“This does not interfere in anyway with the adjudication of the question of whether the legislation is somehow inconsistent with the United States Constitution or the West Virginia Constitution,” Senate Judicairy Chair Charles Trump said on the floor Thursday.

“Our action in the bill that we passed, Senate Bill 330, was just to take out the part of the statute that the court found to be vague or ambiguous.”

It takes only a simple majority vote to override a gubernatorial veto. Senators voted 21 to 12 Thursday to do so.

It will also take a vote in the House of Delegates for the bill to become law without the governor’s signature.

Common Core, School Calendar Bills Vetoed

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has vetoed two education bills, one that would have repealed Common Core aligned standardized test in the state and a second that would have allowed county boards to schedule fewer then 180 days in their school calendars.

House Bill 4014 started as a repeal of the state’s Common Core-based education standards, but the state Board of Education approved their repeal in December, replacing them with the West Virginia College and Career Ready Standards.

As it moved through the legislative process, the bill became a repeal of any standardized tests aligned with Common Core. The bill also created a review panel that includes higher education professors or deans to suggestion changes to the current standards to the state board.

In his veto message, Tomblin said requiring the board stop using its current summative assessment in such a short timeframe “discounts the time and consideration” needed to find a replacement. He says it could also disrupt the ongoing implementation of the state’s A through F grading scale for schools.

Tomblin says that revisions to assessments and standards may be warranted in the future, but the state should ensure the stability of its school system by giving the current changes and means of measurement more time to take hold.

The governor also vetoed a bill that would have removed the requirement that county Boards of Education provide 180 separate days of learning and also limited the school operating dates to between August 10 and June 10.

In his veto message, Tomblin said 180 separate days of learning ensures students will be ready for college or a career after high school and school systems should be prepared to properly deal with weather or other emergencies by building flexibility into their calendars.

Tomblin said limiting school systems to operation between August 10 and June 10 also would have reversed legislation he approved in 2013, which gave counties more control over their calendars.

The Legislature Today: Cole Says Balancing Budget With Reserve Funds OK in Tight Budget Year

As the 2017 budget deficit looms, members of both chambers are looking for ways to balance the budget in a tight fiscal year.

Senate President Bill Cole says additional agency cuts should come from the Governor, but says using the state’s Rainy Day Fund to help fund the deficit is a reasonable measure.

Members of both the House and Senate vote to override Governor Tomblin’s veto of a bill to ban certain second-trimester abortion methods.

In the Senate, a floor debate over the budget questions if the chamber will have a strong position going into negotiations in the House without any revenue increasing measures while in the House, members are one step closer to allowing voters to choose if alcohol in their county should be sold on Sunday mornings.