The eye-popping cost of eggs has some people thinking about raising their own chickens. Zack Harold brings us the story of one woman who has spent the last decade trying to make that easier in West Virginia.
These were the only two completed bills to include fiscal notes. The childcare tax credit has an estimated $4.2 million loss in revenue, which covers this entire fiscal year, with eligibility starting from July; and the 2 percent personal income tax cut, effective Jan. 1, 2025, has an estimated $18.4 million loss in revenue this fiscal year and $46 million in the next full fiscal year.
The other major goal of the session was to move money to state programs. In all, 26 bills classified as new “supplemental appropriations” passed both chambers, amounting to a total $498,315,838.
A table of the supplemental appropriations that passed both chambers during the second special session of the 2024 West Virginia Legislature. *Note: SB 2009 and SB 2010 are “inadvertently” listed twice, but the Total Supplemental Appropriations value is accurate. Credit: West Virginia Legislature;
Outside of supplemental appropriations, one bill also increased an existing appropriation to the maintenance for the State Road Fund by $150 million.
In all, legislators considered 47 unique bill topics. Most had counterparts in the other chamber — with the exception of one Senate bill to appropriate $15 million to university repairs, which passed; and four House bills aimed at additional childcare programs, which did not pass.
Each day a special session is called outside of interim meetings, it costs an estimated $35,000 per day, according to West Virginia Senate Director of Communications Jacque Bland. The session began on Sept, 30, then adjourned until the three previously scheduled interim meetings days Oct. 6 to Oct. 8, with floor sessions and committee meetings scheduled between.
Justice signed 20 bills on Oct. 10, with the remaining 17 awaiting his signature.
Incomplete Legislation
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, was the sponsor on four childcare bills, along with other House Democrats. The first proposed appropriating $4.6 million to the Department of Human Services’ Office of Child Care Development. The second outlined a $1,000 refundable child tax credit for all who qualify for a federal child tax credit; the bill would have cost an estimated $287.5 million per year. The third would have created a refundable tax credit at 50 percent of the federal child and dependent care tax credit. The fourth would have made all child care program employees who work at least 20 hours a week eligible for the DHS child care subsidy program. All stalled in committees.
A bill that would appropriate $300,000 towards four new rotunda statues failed to progress during the special session. One sticking point was it would have removed the statue of U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd. The legislature did, however, pass a resolution to send a Hershel “Woody” Williams statue to the U.S. Capitol.
In this episode, Assistant News Director Maria Young talks with Margaret O’Neal, president of United Way of Central West Virginia, who is familiar with the state’s unhoused population.
A controversial bill that some say reduces transparency in government was considered today in the House of Delegates. The bill affects journalists as well as researchers and members of the public who want access to information.
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