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CHARLESTON - Gov. Jim Justice vowed to keep fighting for a compromise personal income tax plan between himself and the West Virginia Senate, while the House of Delegates opted to table the plan.
The House unanimously voted against a motion to concur with the Senate's changes to House Bill 3300, the personal income tax compromise bill developed by the Governor and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam.
The vote came after Justice held a briefing earlier Friday accusing the House of not moving on the bill. Leadership said they were still interested in working on a personal income tax phase-out, but Friday's vote was to send a clear message.
"We have no less interest in continuing to work on that issue than we had before," said House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, during a recess after the vote on HB 3300. "As relayed to me during his public comments, the governor asked or perhaps suggested that we were afraid to take a vote, so we were happy to do that, and we did."
Justice was critical of the House during a noon virtual briefing.
"They're not even going to vote on it," Justice said. "They're not going to vote on it because they're afraid to vote on it...they're not even going to vote on the most important thing this state has ever, ever had in front of it."
The Senate narrowly passed HB 3300 in an 18-16 vote Wednesday night, though the House didn't take up the message of the Senate's passage of the bill until Friday - one day before the 2021 legislative session ends at midnight Saturday.