Halfway There: W.Va. legislative session hits halfway mark
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CHARLESTON - The 60-day regular session of the West Virginia Legislature hit the halfway mark Thursday, but whether the session is going smoothly or slowly is in the eye of the beholder.
As of Friday, only 13 bills have passed both the Senate and House of Delegates, with six signed by Gov. Jim Justice and his signature pending on one more.
Signed bills include House Bill 4274, removing references to the former Department of Health and Human Resources in state code since the department was split into the departments of Health, Human Services and Health Facilities.; and Senate Bill 269, excluding testing strips to detect certain illicit substances in legal and illegal drugs from the list of prohibited drug paraphernalia.
So far this session, 86 bills have passed the House and been sent to the Senate, while the House has received 92 bills from the Senate.
Tuesday is the final day to introduce new legislation in the House, while Feb. 19 is the final day to introduce new bills in the Senate.
Both chambers have until Feb. 28 to pass their bills and send them on to the other chamber - also called Crossover Day.
Of the 107 bills introduced on behalf of Justice, only two have been passed by the Legislature and signed, both amending and updating the annual definitions for the state Personal Income Tax Act and the Corporate Net Income Tax Act. One supplemental appropriations bill is moving in the Senate.
Speaking Wednesday during his weekly briefing from the State Capitol Building one floor below the House and Senate chambers, Justice said members of his staff are in constant communication with legislative leaders and expect action on his remaining agenda in the coming days.
"I think we'll get there," Justice said. "There will probably be some bumps along the way. We've got 134 folks upstairs, and we need their help. We'll continue our work together. Whether it be our Senate president or our speaker (of the House) and all the different folks, there's lots of communication all day long."
Bills awaiting action from Justice include eliminating the personal income tax on all Social Security income, expanding the Senior Citizen Homestead Property Tax Credit, and creating the State Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. The tax cut proposals would return nearly $50 million to taxpayers and would also affect the budget bill for fiscal year 2025 on which lawmakers are now working.
"The most important thing, 100-to-1, is the budget and getting things in place," Justice said. "I hope like crazy my tax cuts will get through, because that is something we need for absolute certain with all of our people. ... As long as we keep putting money back into the hands of our folks, they'll do more and more great stuff for us."
Senate Majority Whip Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, said finance committees in the House and Senate are wrapping up their budget hearings with state departments and agencies and beginning work on bills that could have fiscal effects going forward.
"I think that the biggest thing that we aren't talking about yet, because we're still working through that, is the budget issue," Weld said Friday morning after the Senate floor session. "That's going to be, I think, what dominates this entire session and how we can figure out where the money can be spent and how much money we actually have to spend."
Justice presented his budget bill for fiscal year 2025 beginning in July during his final State of the State address on Jan. 10, the first day of the session. He kept the FY25 general revenue budget mostly flat at $5.265 billion, a 7.8% increase - or $381 million - from the $4.884 billion fiscal year 2024 budget that went into effect in July.
While Justice's proposed tax cuts are factored into the budget bill, Weld said lawmakers need to see how those cuts could affect future tax revenue collections and future costs the state will have to bear, as well as account for reduced tax collections because of triggers in last year's bill cutting personal income tax by 21.25%.
"There are some issues that we're going to be looking at in terms of what's available to provide further tax relief," Weld said. "How does that affect the down-budget stuff? There were some new spends. What is there an appetite to do, both on policy and both in terms of how much money we actually have? Again, that's going to be the big thing."
Democratic lawmakers in the House raised multiple criticisms about the legislative process in a press conference Thursday. The House Democratic caucus said a number of bills providing additional pay for teachers and non-uniformed correctional officers and increasing the cost-of-living adjustment for retired public employees are being held up in committees or not being taken up at all.
"I don't care what political party you are, we have a process," said House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio. "We have 60 days, and we should be working those 60 days. Are we actually working right now? What are we doing? What are we producing that's good policy that's going to benefit West Virginians? We're working for reelection campaigns right now, and that's what's happening. ... This is one of the slowest legislative sessions I've ever been a part of."
Democratic members said the Republican majority in the Legislature is more focused on socially conservative bills aimed at potential GOP primary voters. The first half of the session included public hearings on removing criminal liability protections for librarians over perceived obscene materials in public libraries and a Women's Bill of Rights law aimed at limiting transgender individuals' access to spaces used by biological males and females.
"First and foremost, we are always going to work in a bipartisan fashion," said House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell. "The state deserves it, and our people deserve it. However, we're also going to make sure that we stand up to extremism."
"We spend time on manufactured outrage, keeping people angry at each other, running all these culture war bills," Fluharty said. "What are we doing to actually help West Virginians? Not a thing. Not a thing. It's an election year. They're more worried about the reelection than they are about real policy."
One issue that has seen slow action is child care. Several bipartisan bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate to provide various tax breaks to employers and individuals for new and existing child care provider options.
"We haven't done anything on child care yet," said House Minority Leader Pro Tempore Kayla Young, R-Kanawha. "The reality is, we haven't gotten any of the legislation through the House. We haven't done anything for a tax cut for families to make it so they can make child care more affordable for them, because child care is insanely expensive for every family, regardless of your income."
"I'm concerned about the viability of my child care tax credit," said Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell. "Leadership has said they would keep an open mind on that, but I'm starting to wonder if they're going to be considered or not. I'm growing a bit skeptical about that, so time will tell."
But House Majority Leader Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, said there is still plenty of time between now and when the session ends at midnight on March 9, for bills to make it across the finish line.
"This session is like any other session. It always takes time for bills to work through the system and work through the process," he said Thursday. "We are on day 30, and we're moving full steam ahead. You're going to start seeing a lot of the bills coming out of the finance committees as they wind down with their budget hearings. ... So, you're going to start seeing some of these priority bills that the House would like to run. Everything's pretty much moving at the speed that it should be."