West Virginia Legislature Story Archives - Page 113 of 126

Tomblin Signs Two Bills Promoting Tourism in W.Va.

Gov. Tomblin was joined by members of the state Legislature, Division of Tourism representatives and craft brewers from around the state for the ceremonial signing of two bills Monday.

He signed Senate Bill 581, transferring oversight of the state Courtesy Patrol from the Division of Tourism to the Division of Highways.

Some of the funding for the program though, about $4.2 million, will stay with the Division of Tourism to be used for a national and regional advertising campaign.

Tomblin also signed Senate Bill 273. The bill makes multiple changes to state code to help support the growth of the state’s craft brewing industry, like allowing the sale of growlers, or reusable jugs filled with draft beer.

Among other changes, the bill also realigns the licensing fees for brewers, bringing the prices down to help small breweries compete.

“Prior to this bill, the license fees to start a brewery and a brew pub were about $3,000 a year and you really can’t make enough beer to even pay for a $3,000 license,” Brian Arnett, co-founder of Mountain State Brewing Company in Davis, said before the signing.

“So, the scaled licensing fee is going to basically link the license fees to the brewers’ production.”

Arnett called the bill a start, but he and the West Virginia Craft Brewers Guild plan to work with lawmakers to continue to find ways to support the craft brew industry in the state.

Schools for Deaf and Blind Struggling for Funding Solutions after Gubernatorial Vetoes

Lawmakers from the Eastern Panhandle tried two separate times to aid the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind during the 2015 legislative session. The schools are struggling to maintain their buildings, some of which are more than 100 years, and looked to the Legislature this year to begin to help them meet their facilities goals.

Those goals, contained in the schools’ 10 year Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan, including closing and demolishing some buildings on campus to create a “stronger sense of community,” according to Superintendent Dr. Lynn Boyer.

The plan includes updated housing for residential students, increased building security and the installation of fire and sprinkler systems suitable for deaf and hearing impaired and blind and visually impaired students and teachers. The plan, however, comes with a $42 million price tag.

Boyer and lawmakers attempted to jump start the process of obtaining funds with two pieces of legislation. The first, a supplemental appropriation, would have granted the schools one time dollars totaling $1.5 million.

“We had suggested that that amount of money would be useful to begin the consolidation of the secondary and elementary buildings for the deaf,” Boyer said.

The second bill would have made the schools eligible for West Virginia School Building Authority dollars. That does not guarantee any funds, Boyer said, but would at least gives the schools access to the possibility.

Both bill passed both chambers with overwhelming support, but Gov. Tomblin refused to sign them.

“It was not expected that the governor would veto them,” Boyer said. “So, that came as a surprise to all of us because support had been so universal.”

In his veto message for both bills, Tomblin wrote he did not feel the schools had a real plan to become financially viable in the future. Instead, Tomblin called on the West Virginia Board of Education to get an outside assessment of the schools.

Since, the governor’s office, state Department of Education, state Board of Education and Dr. Boyer have begun meeting, working to answer the governor’s questions about viability and looking for answers to their financial needs.

The group is still in the exploratory phases, Boyer said, but she called each meeting a step forward.

“There are not any obvious answers yet, but I think certainly in our conversations we keep getting clarity from each other,” she said.

Possible funding sources include adding the schools to the state school aid formula, a calculation of state dollars granted to each school system on a per pupil basis. Boyer said those funds may also include special lottery revenues.

Boyer said the school also intends to hire a grant writer and is in the process of looking for private donations.

Tomblin Signs Bills for Insurance Transparency, Caregiver Assistance

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin was joined by lawmakers and patient advocacy groups from across the state at the Capitol Thursday for the ceremonial signing of two healthcare related bills.

Senate Bill 366 creates the Patient Protection and Transparency Act which offers protections to people who sign up for insurance through a federal health care exchange website.

Tomblin also signed House Bill 2100 known as the Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable Act.

Backed by the AARP, the CARE Act allows a patient to name a layperson as their caregiver when he or she enters the hospital. That caregiver then has access to patient health and discharge information, as well as training about how to care for the patient when they return home.

“We believe it’s important because not only will the patient have a better outcome and recovery at home, but we could be actually saving money in Medicare and Medicaid by reducing costly hospital readmissions,” Gaylene Miller, state director of the West Virginia AARP, said of the bill Thursday

Miller estimated there are more than 300,000 family at home caregivers in the state which make up about $2.8 billion worth of uncompensated care.

Group Protests Raw Milk Veto

Nearly 40 people gathered at the Capitol Wednesday to protest Governor Tomblin’s veto of a bill to allow for herd-sharing in the state, allowing more West Virginians to consume raw milk.

Senate Bill 30 passed with overwhelming support by both the House and Senate, despite some health concerns attached to the bill.

Herd sharing is when the owner of a milk producing animal pays a farmer to board their cow or goat for them. The herd share owner can then obtain the raw milk from their animal, but does not purchase the product from the farmer.

The bill itself acknowledges the bacteria in raw milk can be dangerous for pregnant women, children and people with compromised immune systems, which Gov. Tomblin cited in his veto message.

“A product with these types of health risks should be subject to more supervision than merely requiring a person to release the seller from any liability for such risks,” Tomblin wrote.

Tomblin also said in that message the bill lacks any provisions for oversight or regulation of the handling or storage of the product.

Supporters held signs against the governor’s decision.

Tinia Creamer led the charge behind getting the bill passed. She is a small dairy farmer from Wayne County who believes the bill is about ownership of the animals and not about the health risks, which she says are minimal.

“This was not about raw milk sales,” she said. “It allowed people to co-own livestock. It’s really not the government’s business to come in and say you need to answer to the public health department before you use milk from your animal.”

Creamer points to lobbying money from the National Milk Producers Federation as the reason why the governor vetoed the bill. The group released a statement in support of Governor Tomblin’s decision shortly after the veto was released.

Get Rid of W.Va.'s Income Tax? Lawmakers Take on Tax Reform

A select group of West Virginia lawmakers began an arduous process Monday, combing through the state’s current tax code and finding ways to bring it “into the 21st Century,” as one delegate put it.

The Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform was one of only four committees to meet during April interims, the first held under the new Republican leadership.

House Finance Chair Eric Nelson, who is co-chairing the committee with his Senate counterpart Mike Hall, told the group of 10 Republicans and four Democrats “everything is on the table,” and for Hall, everything includes the state’s personal income tax.

“Some state have no income tax,” he said during Monday’s meeting, “and we know that people gravitate toward those states. It would be wonderful it we could figure out a way to do that.”

Doing that, according to Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, would result in a $2 billion loss in revenue for West Virginia, or about 40 percent of the state’s total budget.

“To do something like that, eventually getting rid of the personal income take, you’re talking about a major tax shift, most likely on low and moderate income people in this state who can least afford it,” he said.

Boettner said Monday he worries too much of the committee’s focus will be placed on reducing business taxes and less on working families.

Both House Speaker Tim Armstead and Senate President Bill Cole addressed the committee before their organizational meeting Monday. Both expressed the importance of the work the committee will take on in the coming months they say will move the state forward.

Hall announced the Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform will meet twice in May to begin delving into their work. At those first meetings, lawmakers will hear from those who crafted previous tax reform studies under the Underwood and Manchin administrations.

Cole has said in the previous weeks he would like to see a special session this fall for lawmakers to take up legislation to revise the state’s tax code.

Speaker Armstead said Monday that option is on the table, but he is waiting to see what the committee comes up with. He doesn’t want to push fellow lawmakers to vote on legislation that hasn’t been fully vetted and he is open to waiting until the 2016 session.

GOP-Led West Virginia Panel Starts Tax Reform Discussion

A Republican-led legislative panel has started discussing possible changes to West Virginia’s tax code.

The Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform gathered for the first time during interim meetings Monday.

Senate President Bill Cole and House Speaker Tim Armstead want more study and tweaks to state taxes.

Lawmakers haven’t discussed many specifics yet.

Sen. Mike Hall, the committee’s co-chairman, says other states attract residents by eliminating personal income taxes. However, he acknowledged that would leave West Virginia with a revenue hole.

Additional meetings on May 4 and May 18 will feature presentations by various groups.

Cole has suggested a tax reform special session. Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s office has expressed concerns about the possible length and costs of a special session.

Otherwise, the Legislature returns for session in January.