Tag: WV Senate

Democratic Attempt to Raise Teacher Pay Fails in Senate

After approving a bill to give nationally certified teachers in low performing schools a pay raise Wednesday, Democratic Senators attempted to get an across the board raise for all teachers in the state by amending a governor’s bill. 

House Bill 2478 would reduce state funds dedicated to replacing county school buses one time, in the upcoming fiscal year. The bill was presented on behalf of Gov. Tomblin as a way to balance the 2016 budget.

Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler attempted to amend the bill by adding an across the board $2,000 pay raise for teachers across the state.

Kessler estimated the pay raise would cost the state between $55 and $58 million annually.

Republicans opposed the amendment because of budget implications. Senate Finance Chair Mike Hall said the Senate’s current budget was written without any teacher raise and it’s too late in the process to add one. 

Kessler’s amendment to provide a salary increase ultimately failed on a party line vote.

Hall said an increase in pay for teachers is an issue lawmakers plan to address next year.

The bill to reduce $4 million from the state fund to replace school buses to balance the upcoming budget, House Bill 2478, was approved 28 to 5.

Lawmakers to Consider Yearlong Study of Road Funds

It’s too late in the session for Senators to approve a bill that would increase dollars committed to the state Road Fund, but members on both sides of the aisle say they are prepared to commit to a study of the issue. 

Sen. Bob Plymale of Wayne County introduced Senate Bill 478 nearly a month ago, which would do just that. The bill proposes increasing revenues for road construction by upping the gasoline and consumer sales taxes and raising Division of Motor Vehicle fees that haven’t been touched since the 1970s.

Plymale told members of the Senate Transportation Committee Tuesday the bill takes some of the unofficial recommendations from Governor Tomblin’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways and incorporates them into code.

“We did come out with a comprehensive plan,” Plymale, who was a member of the Commission, said, “but what is missing from that is the tolling aspect.”

“If we don’t keep the tolls on and allow that money to be spent on new construction, on the King Coal Highway, the Coalfield Expressway, within a 75 mile radius of the turnpike, we’re not going to continue to have the commerce that we need.”

Neighboring Ohio, Plymale said, has leveraged their turnpike to pay for road construction and Virginia and Maryland implemented blanket sales tax increases, dedicating those funds to roads. 

Mike Clouser with the Contractors Association of West Virginia told the committee a study by his organization shows if the state would increase highway spending by $500 million, it would create 10,000 jobs not just in construction, but across a variety of industries in West Virginia.

“These states are realizing that Washington is not going to solve our problems,” he said. “That if it’s going to be done, its going to be done on the state level.”

Transportation Chair Sen. Chris Walters said it’s too late in the session for both chambers to approve Plymale’s bill, but he’s working to craft a resolution to commit the Legislature to study road funding for a year. 

The resolution would have to be considered and approved by a simple majority voted of both chambers by the final day of session Saturday.

Lawmakers Work to Balance 2015 Budget While 2016 Deficits Loom

With a projected $80 million budget gap by the end of this fiscal year, lawmakers are considering bills to ensure a balanced budget is maintained.

Members of the Senate approved four of Governor Tomblin’s supplemental appropriation bills for fiscal year 2015, the current budget year, intended to help close the gap.

The bills move excess funds from last year’s budget to the state accounts that pay for Medicaid and Medicaid services. The expenses this year, and in years past, have been substantially more than projected. 

Senate Finance Chair Mike Hall explained aside from the growing Medicaid budget, the accounts contain millions upon millions of state dollars and are often borrowed from to cover shortfalls in other areas.

Approving supplemental bills for the current year is nothing new for lawmakers. Hall said while legislators do their best to provide a viable budget for the next fiscal year, revenues and expenditures are constantly changing and the legislature or the governor has to go back and fill in the gaps. 

“The governor can change the budget projections throughout the year. Our budget document is a solid document, but it is a document that can be amended and changed,” he said, “and if you look back you’ll see the current year’s budget was changed by these types of supplemental actions reflecting either a surplus that was spent or in this case a deficit where you need to grab money from somewhere to fill the gap.”

As for the upcoming 2016 budget, Hall said he is prepared to present his proposal to lawmakers next week, but doesn’t expect a final vote on the budget bill during the regular session.

Earlier in the session, Hall and House Finance Chair Delegate Eric Nelson said leadership intended to forgo an extended budget session this year, but Hall has since recanted that statement. He said there are too many moving parts to finalize a budget before all of the final bills are past.

Hall expects lawmakers to take two or three days in the week following the regular session to finalize the 2016 budget.

Court of Claims Says Pothole Bills Up, Prison Bills Down

Members of the Senate Finance Committee took up a bill Thursday they see every year, a bill to settle some of the state’s small claims law suit debts. This year lawmakers found out they owe substantially less than previous years, though, because of a reform bill passed two years ago.

House Bill 2876 is short titled the Court of Claims bill. The court hears citizen claims of damages against the state and awards compensations in verdicts to pay for anything from pothole damages to wrongful death suits.

The bill proposed for the 2016 budget has a $1.5 million total from the state’s general revenue, special revenue and road funds.  

Cheryle Hall, administrator of the West Virginia Court of Claims, told lawmakers the bill is substantially less than in year’s past because of the 2013 Justice Reinvestment Act and the decrease in overcrowding in the state’s prisons.

“Normally we have a multimillion dollar claim by the Regional Jails against the Division of Corrections for inmates that are held up in Regional Jail Facilities,” Hall explained.  

The RJA typically files a suit when the Division of Corrections can’t pay the bill from their budget. This year, however, Hall said the funds were available, saving the state some $3 million.

Claims went up, however, in another area the court often deals with, damages to West Virginians’ cars from potholes. Hall said this year the bill contains more than a thousand claims against the Division of Highways, up exponentially from the 300 or so they receive in a normal calendar year.

Senate Finance Chair Mike Hall said those totals are indicative of the lack of funding for road maintenance in the state, something he’d like to see tackled by a road bond to fund all new construction. The State Road Fund, Halls said, could then be dedicated to maintaining West Virginia’s 39,000 miles of highways and county routes.

“Right now, new construction and maintenance compete for money,” he said after the meeting, “and I know that sooner rather than later, and hopefully not until the next legislative session, will get together and focus on the concept of roads.”

Members of the Finance Committee have called on the governor to share with them the recommendations from his year long Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways’ study on funding state roads.

Hall said without the final recommendations, lawmakers still know what they need and that’s more revenue, but that the public should have some input in how those revenues are made.

Under pressure from the legislature, those final Blue Ribbon Commission recommendations are expected possibly next week.

The Court of Claims bill was approved by committee and now goes to the full Senate. 

Senate Backs Bill Amending Election Contribution Laws

During an evening session on the final day to approve bills in their originating chamber, members of the state Senate passed a bill that would make major changes to election contribution laws in West Virginia.

The body began debating the bill more than a week ago that when introduced would have removed all contribution caps for candidate donations and allowed corporations to begin giving to West Virginia races.

Members of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee debated the bill Tuesday striking many of the provisions Senators previously objected to and adding stricter reporting requirements.

Senate Bill 541, as approved by the chamber Wednesday evening on a 28-6 vote, would raise the current individual contribution limits from $1,000 to $2,600, the federal contribution limit, and index it for inflation. 

Corporations will continue to be barred for donating to candidates in the state under the bill, but the legislation also prohibitions donations from unions, a new provision. Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Trump explained on the floor Wednesday while they cannot give directly, union and corporation members are still able to form political action committees to contribute to candidates should the bill become law.

Reporting requirements were Democratic Sen. Mike Romano’s main focus who told the body before a vote he said had problems with the bill, but would support it because of the reporting changes.

The bill requires third party organizations, like political action committees, disclose only the names of donors who give up to $250 to the Secretary of State’s Office. Donors who give above that amount will be required to disclose more information, like addresses. 

The Secretary of State’s Office under the bill is required to maintain a searchable online database of campaign contributions and disclosures. 

“This bill more than any other measure we take here will allow for clean, honest, transparent, accountable elections,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael, the bill’s lead sponsor, said Wednesday.

“We can never stop the dark money, we can’t shut it down, but we can make sure it’s disclosed, who the contributors are to these entities.”

Carmichael said increasing contribution limits and requiring more disclosures will allow candidates to maintain control of their message during an election instead of being defined, as they often are, by third party messaging. 

The bill will still need to be approved by the House of Delegates before it can be sent to the governor for a signature. 

Senate Committee Proposes Extended Deadline for Common Core Repeal

Senators continue to move on a bill that would repeal Common Core standards in the state Tuesday by proposing amendments during an Education subcommittee meeting.

House Bill 2934 was approved over the weekend by the House of Delegates and called for a total repeal of the math and English standards by July 1, 2015.

During multiple meetings this week, state Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael Martirano pleaded with lawmakers to extend the repeal deadline and Tuesday members of the subcommittee listened, extending the deadline for Common Core repeal until July 1, 2016.

“It’s a very, very heavy lift,” Martirano said after the meeting of the 2016 date. “I feel it’s a very ambitious schedule.”

Ambitious because Martirano said the bill will cost the state Department of Education an estimated $113 million for meetings of teachers to rewrite the standards, for new classroom materials and standardized test aligned to the new standards and professional development for teacher across the state who will need to be updated on the new requirements.

Delegate Jim Butler, a sponsor of the bill, said he believes members of the House can agree to the one year extension.

“We all want to be thoughtful about the whole process and realize that things take time,” he said after the subcommittee meeting.

“We’re going to finally be able work together and come up with some good standards for West Virginia.”

The subcommittee also added requirements to the bill that educators must look to pre-2010 California, 2006 Indiana and 2001 Massachusetts English standards as a model for the new West Virginia content standards. Educators must use those same standards with the addition of 2008 Washington state standards as a guide in math.

The bill still needs to be approved by the full Senate and House of Delegates before Governor Tomblin will be asked to sign off on a repeal. 

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