Tag: WV Legislature

W.Va. Legislature Authorizes $800 Million in Road Bonds

The West Virginia Legislature has authorized issuing up to $800 million in bonds for road repairs and construction over the next seven months, followed by another $800 million in the following three years.

That follows the recent approval by voters for the state to issue $1.6 billion of new bonds to repair and build roads and bridges.

The state has listed more than 600 planned projects, some in all of the state’s 55 counties.

The Republican-controlled Legislature early this year approved taxes and fees to support bond repayments, which Gov. Jim Justice signed into law.

Lawmakers were called back in October and voted to strengthen penalties for violations of a law that requires 75 percent of the workforce on a state-contracted construction job be from the local labor market.

Study Recommends Regional Magistrate Court System

Lawmakers were presented the final recommendations Tuesday from a national group that’s been studying the state’s magistrate court system for years.

The National Center for State Courts began the study in 2013 after lawmakers approved a pay increase for a small group of magistrates across the state. The study is focused on realigning the system so the number of magistrates in each county is based on the time spent on cases instead of the county’s population.

Cynthia Lee with the NCSC told members of the Joint Finance and Joint Judiciary Committees the time portion of casework is much more important to understanding what magistrates do than the number of cases they see. For example, she said a domestic violence case takes much longer to resolve than a traffic ticket.

That’s why the NCSC is suggesting the state realign magistrates based on what’s called a weighted workload system instead of the population based approach West Virginia takes now.

They also recommend the state change from a county based system to a more regional approach which would allow the sharing of magistrates across county lines.

Riley Barb, President of the state magistrates association, asked lawmakers to keep in mind the infrastructure challenges facing the state.

He said magistrates are supposed to provide local access to justice and lessening the number of them could make that more difficult in rural areas.

Will Lawmakers Repeal the Unfair Trade Practices Act?

A debate that started during the 2014 legislative session continued during interim meetings in Charleston Sunday. State lawmakers are still questioning if a 1939 law affects today’s gas prices.

Jan Vineyard, president of the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association or OMEGA, addressed lawmakers during a Joint Government Organization and Operations meeting in the House Chamber about the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act which has been in state law for more than 70 years.

During the 2014 legislative session, Sen. Herb Snyder led a charge for repeal of that act, but his attempt failed. 

“The Unfair Trade Practices Act was created to maintain fair and healthy competition. The law was put into place in 1939 largely due to the practice of then chain grocer A&P Supermarkets,” Vineyard told lawmakers.

Vineyard says at the time the grocery chain A&P was moving into small towns in West Virginia and cutting their prices so low that the local mom and pop shops couldn’t compete.

Once they forced the competition out of business, A&P jacked up prices causing the state legislature to step in.

The act makes it illegal for a retailer to sell their product below cost and allows them to mark up their goods by up to 7 percent. Snyder said its that provision that’s allowing gasoline retailers to hike up their prices.

Vineyard, though, disagreed saying should the bill be repealed, locally owned gasoline retailers would be hurt along with the average West Virginian.

“By repealing the law, this would incent large out of state corporations, the haves who have the overwhelming advantage of volume purchasing, to lower their prices to drive local West Virginia operations out of business. Once that occurs, these large chains would have free reign to charge what they want, leaving the state’s residents, in this example the have nots, with potentially higher fuel costs yet and fewer choices and less access to gasoline and other products.”

Snyder was the former chair of the Senate Committee on Government Organization which looked at the law during interims. Sen. Craig Blair signed on as a co-sponsor of the repeal legislation in 2014 and will now chair the senate committee.

Republican Leaders Learn Inner Workings of Committee Process

Republican Senators and Delegates met with members of the National Conference of State Legislators for a detailed look into something they participated in, but never been in charge of before: committees.

In-coming House Speaker Tim Armstead and Senate President Bill Cole invited the group to Charleston to lead a morning session taking Republican leaders through the ins and outs of organizing and running a committee meeting, setting agendas and managing not just time, but also the committee members.

“What we really tried to stress today beyond the dynamics of what you do or don’t do as far as the rules is remember it’s always about people,” Mike Haridopolos said.

Haridopolos is a former Florida State Senator, serving as the Senate’s President from 2010-2012. He and Georgia State Senator Don Balfour led senators through case studies on various issues that may come up during the committee process.

“Don and I had the opportunity to serve in the legislature for many years. We’ve see a lot of the issues that they’re going to confront,” Haridopolos said. “A lot of the issues that were in Florida or Georgia are going to come around here in West Virginia.”

All of the committee chairs and vice chairs in both the House and Senate will take over running those meetings for the first time during the upcoming session with the exception of one.

Senator Daniel Hall made the switch from the Democrat to Republican Party in November and he will chair the Senate’s Labor and Agriculture Committees. He previously served as the Vice Chair of the chamber’s Committee on Labor.

Lawmakers Prepare to Craft Boy Scout Legislation

The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance traveled to Fayetteville Monday evening to hear from area residents about their concerns about the financial implications of a newly approved Constitutional Amendment.

The amendment, which was approved in November by West Virginia voters with 62 percent of the vote, will allow the Boy Scouts of America to lease their Summit Bechtel Reserve to private organizations while maintaining their property tax exemption. 

The amendment, however, came with a requirement for lawmakers to write enabling legislation to include more specific cans and can nots for the Scouts. The forum was a chance for lawmakers to hear  concerns directly from the public.

Some shared worries over the possible competition to the Scouts.

"I hope the committee will take into consideration to consult with local outfitters, restaurants, lodging properties that we don’t get ourselves in a situation where because of a tax exempt status we have an unequal playing field.”- Skip Peter, New River Adventure

“At Ace we are probably the most similar facility to what the Scouts have to offer. We have a lot of acreage, we do a lot of similar activities on the property and we would very much like to not see us in direct competition for those activities.”- Dave Bassid, Ace Adventure Resort

Others addressed complaints from area business owners who said they didn’t see enough economic gain in the area during the 2013 Scout Jamboree on the reserve.

“The game changer is not the jamboree. The game changer is what they’re trying to do now is to open it up, let people come there and see what that does for your businesses. It can only do good.”- Elmer Coppoolse, Glade Springs Resort in Beckley

“The key I think is if the Summit constructs large scale lodging and restaurant facilities that allows these events to be contained on the property, the effect will be the same, but if they hold these events there but allow the crowds to spill over in the community then I think they’ll be a big benefit to the local area”- Bill Wells, rental property owner

The Joint Committee on Finance is accepting written public comment for the next 30 days on the enabling legislation that is being drafted. Those comments should be sent to:

Melissa Lilly, Counsel to the Joint Standing Committee on Finance

State Capitol Building 1 Room 465

Charleston, WV 25305

WVOASIS Being Tested for Security Weaknesses

Lawmakers were updated today on the security measures the state is taking to protect employee information in the OASIS system. 

WVOASIS stands for Our Advanced Solution with Integrated Systems. The computer software system is designed to integrate all functions of state government into one and has been rolled out in phases since 2013.

The system will eventually house all state personnel data, including payroll information and social security numbers, but at an October meeting OASIS project director Rick Pickens told lawmakers he wasn’t sure what security measures had been taken to protect that information.

Lawmakers were updated in a brief meeting Monday that all of the information has been encrypted and two major security tests have been performed.

Delegate Gary Howell, who will soon become the House Chairman for the Committee on Government Organization, has requested the West Virginia National Guard cyber security team also test the system for any weaknesses to prevent hackers from reaching the information.

Pickens expects that test to happen within the next few months.

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