Tag: WV Senate

Committee Moves Bill to Allow County Employee Pay Increases

A Senate committee Friday approved Senate Bill 379 to remove a salary cap for county employees, if the county finds they have the funds.Originally the…

A Senate committee Friday approved Senate Bill 379 to remove a salary cap for county employees, if the county finds they have the funds.

Originally the bill required a 12 percent pay raise, but it was amended to ensure lawmakers weren’t passing an unfunded mandate.

“We are not voting for an increase for elected officials. We are lifting a cap in which they can work with their own money. So, this is no state money,” Sen. John Unger said during the meeting.

Committee counsel assured him there was no state money involved. Lawmakers were simply authorizing a county commission to give the increase if they could afford it.

Senator Bill Laird, a former county commissioner, said this bill helps to ensure quality people are stepping into county positions and are being properly compensated for their hard work.
 

Senate Debates Bill on Unfair Trade Practices

Legislators stood Thursday to speak to legislation that has not yet made it to the floor. Senate Bill 368 was introduced by Senator Herb Snyder early in the session repealing unfair trade practices.

The bill focuses on a section of code written in the late 1930s. At the time, many states and the federal government put laws in place that prevented major retailers from undercutting the prices of mom and pop stores, forcing them out of business.

Since, Snyder said many gas retailers across the state have used that same decades old law to file lawsuits against companies who open shop in a new area and sell their fuel at significantly lower prices.

He said it’s that practice that is causing significant price increases in gas in the Eastern Panhandle, but members of the oil and gas lobby are protesting its consideration.
 

“You’re getting calls from those people I remind you that are in the oil marketing business. Every one of them. Mr. President, this bill is not about those people and whether they’re going to compete with each other as this bill will make it in the open and free market. Mr. President, this bill is about the 99.9% of West Virginians that aren’t making profits from the sale of gasoline and fuels. This bill is clearly about the citizens of West Virginia to give them the opportunity to buy the least expensive gas on the open market without artificial controls by law and it’s not a question of will they use Chapter 47-11-1A to inflate prices. They have.”  

Senator Sam Cann stood to question the bill, however, saying he’s not positive it’s the best way to help small businesses outside of the gas industry across the state.
 

“We always talk about small businesses in West Virginia and what do we do to help them? I believe that we have a lot of small businesses that could be harmed if we take this action. I worry about Ace Hardware in my neighborhood competing with Lowes and Home Depot. I worry about Food Fresh staying open when competing with Sam's. You know, the big box stores have the advantage on a volume basis and if this rule and this law stays in place and it helps a number of these small business, because I don’t believe it’s just about the oil marketers. I don’t believe it’s just about gasoline. I believe it’s about a lot of small mom and pop industries, little shops and stores that we need to make sure we’re not harming if we take this action.”  

That statement sparked comments from Senator Doug Facemire, a grocer who started his own chain in northern and central West Virginia.

Facemire said it’s impossible for the small owners to compete with big box stores like Wal Mart or Sams because of their buying power, but he believes Senators should be looking at what’s best for citizens.
 

“We owe it to the citizens of our state to open up a system where the real capitalist market takes place. We all complain about the fair and unfair trade rules that our country has to face when doing business across the seas. It’s the same thing today. The only thing this bill does is let the big boys bigger and the small people suffer because they will always have a better cost of goods. The way the bill is written, it really doesn’t offer protection and let’s stop and think who’s in here complaining. A lot of it’s the big guys. Thank you Mr. President.”  

Snyder’s bill is single referenced to Judiciary, but has yet to be put on the committee’s calendar.

http://youtu.be/qyVHVux58y4
 

Bill to Protect Overdose Victims Advances in Senate

Senators amended a bill in committee Thursday they felt contained too many loopholes for people seeking emergency assistance during a drug overdose.

Senate Bill 419 is known as the Overdose Prevention Act.

After interim study and recommendation by the Joint Committee on Health, it originally provided immunities for certain offenses for a person who seeks medical help for him or herself or aide for another person who is experiencing an overdose, but some senators were worried the immunities were too broad.

“We want to encourage people to make the call, but we don’t want making the call to give them broad based immunities from their own bad acts,” said Sen. Evan Jenkins during a Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday.

“We’re substantially limiting from the original bill those bad acts that you can be immune from if you make the call.”

Committee counsel Kevin Baker clarified the immunity extends only to someone calling on behalf of another person in need of assistance.

He said a person can also only avoid certain misdemeanor charges, like simple possession of a controlled substance or underage drinking, and not felony offenses like possession with the intent to deliver.
 

Senator Says Rainy Day Fund Could Be Used to Improve Roads

At the legislature Wednesday, one Senator urged his colleagues to take action on a hotly debated topic, the condition of the state roads. He’s asking fellow lawmakers to take action this session to improve paving across West Virginia.

Senator Robert Plymale stood at the end of the upper chamber’s morning floor session to bring attention to an issue often talked about in the legislature, but one he says lawmakers have failed in recent years to take action on.

Because of a lack of funds, the state is on an average 33 year paving cycle that the Division of Highways would like to see at 12 and a half.

 “I don’t know how much it’s going to cost. I would say it’s going to be between $20 and $25 million to be able to do the right and appropriate paving cycle,” he said, “but we have got to find something even if it is in the Rainy Day Fund because this is a rainy day for our roads.”

The Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways, a group appointed by Tomblin to find new revenue sources for infrastructure development, has pushed off their final report until after the session meaning any recommendations from the executive on roads are still on hold.
 

Senate Kills Two Budget Proposals Leaving $17 Million Gap

Two bills proposed by the governor to fill general revenue budget holes died in a Senate committee Tuesday. The failure now leaves about a $17 million gap for the Finance Committee Chairs to plug at the end of session.

Subcommittees of Senate Transportation and Infrastructure held the two bills without making a decision for almost a month.

The first, Senate Bill 329, would take about $4 million from the state Special Railroad and Intermodal Enhancement Fund and deposit them instead in the general revenue budget for Fiscal Years 2015 and 2016.

The subcommittee reported the bill back with the recommendation it do not pass and the bill died.

A second subcommittee took up Senate Bill 334 which takes about $13 million for the same two fiscal years from the State Road Fund and also puts the money into the general revenue budget.

That money comes from sales taxes levied on construction and maintenance material used specifically for highway projects.

The bill received no recommendation from the subcommittee, was defeated on a voice vote and also died.
 

Bill Advances Closing Loopholes in Coal Miner Drug Testing

In the Energy, Industry and Mining Committee Tuesday, Senators took up a bill meant to close loopholes in the drug testing system for mine workers in safety positions.

There is already a notification system in place for any worker who fails, refuses to submit to or attempts to falsify a drug test.

Notification is sent to the state Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training which keeps a record and may block that person’s next attempt to obtain a mining job.

“There’s a couple of loopholes in the way the existing statute,” committee counsel Dorian Burrell explained. “Basically, if they were to test positive and then resign or if they were never actually hired after testing positive, that could escape the notice.”

Burrell added that could mean people with drug or alcohol abuse problems could move from mine to mine without being detected.

The bill, supported by the Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training, the industry and the unions, passed through the committee and now heads to Senate Judiciary.
 

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