Tag: West Virginia Legislature

Senate Committee Advances Bill to Expand Broadband Access

The Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee took up a bill Wednesday that its sponsor says will create a government owned broadband interstate…

The Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee took up a bill Wednesday that its sponsor says will create a government owned broadband interstate in West Virginia.

Senate Bill 459 calls on the state to invest $78 million in expanding broadband access to West Virginians. The money would pay for the installation of 2,600 miles of broadband fiber across West Virginia with an emphasis on expanding access in rural areas.

The state would own the fiber, but give open access to any private business who may want to build off of the main fibers into smaller communities. The bill’s lead sponsor and Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Chris Walters said that would help cut down on the private sector’s costs and incentivize them to expand access.

Representatives of both cable internet providers and Frontier told the committee they see the bill as inserting government directly into competition with the private sector. They say their companies have already invested upwards of a billion dollars to expand access and its working

But Jim Martin, owner of the internet provider CityNet, told committee members the expansion would allow the private sector to partner with the state to provide much needed access while lowering the cost for providing service to schools, libraries and other government buildings.

He said the state received a Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, or BTOP grant from the federal government for a similar project, but that project didn’t help with access problems.

“We were all very hopeful that when the BTOP funds were made available in which the state received $126 million dollars to build a middle mile network, that that was going to be a solution for us,” Martin said.  “At the end of the day BTOP didn’t do anything for broadband in West Virginia.”

The state spent some $30 million of the grant on wireless routers that were installed in rural libraries and State Police barracks, many of which were reportedly too large.

Martin, who was a member of West Virginia Broadband Deployment Council, a committee created by the governor that focused on ways the state could increase access to rural areas, told the committee the state put $60 million in a wireless network that isn’t being used and awarded $40 million to Frontier to “extend their last mile network into state facilities and continue to keep a grip on top of state government.”

“There was no middle mile built with that $126 million,” Martin said, “so here we are today trying to find other ways in which we can find funds to get into our rural markets where our citizens are significantly challenged.”

Many members of the committee spoke in favor of the bill despite the high cost.

It ultimately passed and now goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee for its consideration.

Legislature Considering Who Can Make Smoking Regulations

At the legislature today, there’s Senate action on a bill we learned about last night to invest 78 million dollars in broadband development.  And the House quietly passes a flurry of bills on the floor today ranging from early childhood education to rules for barbers and hair stylists.  We’ll talk with the Chair and Vice Chair of the House committee that oversees barbershops and hair salons, among other things, on The Legislature Today.

Like Father, Like Son in the W. Va. Legislature

At the legislature today, yesterday's train derailment in Fayette County was the subject of two floor speeches in the Senate. One came with a stern…

At the legislature today, yesterday’s train derailment in Fayette County was the subject of two floor speeches in the Senate. One came with a stern reminder about water safety. And this year West Virginia’s legislature contains both a father-daughter and father-son team of lawmakers. We’ll meet one pair tonight on The Legislature Today.

Senators Consider Pay Raise for DNR Officers

Members of the Senate Natural Resources Committee took up a bill that would give Division of Natural Resources law enforcement officers a raise in the upcoming fiscal year and every year following. 

The bill raises the base salary for new officers from $31,222 in their first year to $33,994. All other officers will receive a bump in the range of two to six thousand dollars a year.

The introduced version of the bill also grants the officers a $400 a year raise for every year they remain on the force.

Senate Bill 92 comes with a $1.1 million fiscal note for the upcoming budget year, and a $1.6 million implication for the following year. 

DNR law enforcement head Col. Jerry Jenkins told members of the committee his division is competing with the West Virginia State Police, counties and even some city departments that can pay more.

“Right now we’re trying to fill seven positions which we didn’t have much of an applicant pool to pull from,” he said, “and we’re finding a lot of these people have already applied for other agencies and they’ve been turned down.”

Jenkins also told the committee his officers, unlike many other law enforcement agencies, must have a four year degree or some combination of a two year degree with specialized law enforcement or military training.

The bill passed the committee and goes to Senate Finance for further consideration.

Bill to Scale Back Prevailing Wage Passes Senate

State Senators have approved a bill to scale back the state’s prevailing wage law and change the way it’s calculated.

A bill that would have repealed the state’s prevailing wage completely was altered and then approved by senators on a final vote of 23 to 11 Thursday with only Democrats voting against it.

The approved version moves the calculation of the wage from the Division of Labor to Workforce West Virginia in conjunction with economists from West Virginia and Marshall Universities. The bill also requires a half a million dollar minimum cost on public improvement projects for the wage to kick in.

Democratic Senator Doug Facemire opposed the bill saying no one has provided him enough information about what the change would do to the wages of the dozens of union workers who packed the galleries during the floor session.

“Look up in them chambers, these people with coveralls on, work clothes. You reckon’ they think this is good,” he said during a floor speech.

“We don’t know what we’re getting ready to do to these people. Nobody has given me any kind of a figure that says what’ going to happen to these people. I don’t think that’s good government. I think that’s reckless government,” Facemire said.

Other Democrats remarked they would vote against the bill because no one knew for sure the effects the legislation would have on workers’ wages, but Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael said that’s true under the current system.

“It should be absolutely clear to everyone in here, we don’t know what the prevailing wage is going to be next year. It’s a survey method and it can change from year to year under the current system,” he said during his remarks.

“So, nobody in the balconies and nobody in here knows what the current rate, or what the rate for the prevailing wage will be next year under the current system.”

The bill now moves on the House where Speaker Tim Armstead said he expects intense discussion on the bill.

Senate Health Panel Moves Vaccine Bill

A Senate committee approved an agreement Thursday that would modify the way immunization exemptions are granted in West Virginia, taking the power from…

A Senate committee approved an agreement Thursday that would modify the way immunization exemptions are granted in West Virginia, taking the power from the county level and centralizing it at the state Bureau for Public Health.

Members of the Senate Health Committee initially received a bill that would have allowed parents to seek religious exemptions from some immunization requirements. A committee substitute offered last week removed that exemption, but members still had concerns and asked for more time to work on a compromised version.

The committee substitute now requires a family doctor provide the Bureau for Public Health with a request for a medical exemption. The request would then be reviewed by a new chief immunization officer within the state Bureau.

The bill also sets up an appeals process for parents who disagree with the immunization officer’s decision. It can first be appealed to the Commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health and then to a state court.

“This is obviously a good attempt in ensuring that the issue of inconsistencies are addressed while keeping the strong immunization policies intact,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, Commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health and the state’s chief health officer, told the committee, “and I think that’s a really good step forward.”

The bill was approved unanimously by the committee and now goes to Senate Judiciary for further consideration.

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