They say that heat makes people cranky, and it sure seems like tempers and egos are clashing all over the place within West Virginia state government.

Take the recent drama over the Legislative Economic Development Assistance grant program, the reincarnation of the former Budget Digest, where lawmakers used to put earmarks for projects in their legislative districts.

Instead of lawmakers putting earmarks in the general revenue budget, past legislatures and governors came to an agreement where the Legislature appropriates money into a line item within the Governor’s Civil Contingency Fund, lawmakers submit requests for LEDA money, the governor’s office cuts the checks, and the lawmaker gets to present those checks and get their pictures in their local papers.

In short, LEDA grants are exactly like the old Budget Digest: a political slush fund with the goal being to help lawmakers look good, especially leading up to an election.

But either no one told Gov. Patrick Morrisey about how this arrangement works, or Morrisey – in his effort to not do things the way they’ve always been done – decided to blow things up.

According to reporting from my colleague Evan Bevins, the latest fight between Morrisey on one side and Wood County Republican Dels. Vernon Criss and Scot Heckert on the other revolves around LEDA grants. Allegedly, Morrisey was holding up Heckert’s LEDA grant requests, so Criss – chairman of the House Finance Committee – put a pause on the entire program.

Now, it’s unclear to me how much of this is Morrisey actually holding up Heckert’s requests or Morrisey’ micromanagement tendencies where he is reviewing each request versus letting his office be a blank check writer. It also doesn’t help that since the beginning of the year Team Morrisey and Criss/Heckert have been going at each other over all sorts of things.

Criss has a grudge against Morrisey pre-dating Morrisey’s election as governor. It didn’t help that Morrisey threw the Legislature and the previous governor under the bus with projections of a $400 million hole in the current fiscal year budget until Morrisey presented a balanced general revenue budget. The governor, through his staff, put pressure on some lawmakers, like Heckert, over Morrisey’s desire for a law repealing the certificate of need program (Morrisey has denied this pressure).

Vice versa, Criss has openly attacked Morrisey (I was the first to publish Criss’ “the gentleman from New Jersey” remarks, aimed at Morrisey and his home state). Heckert has been openly hostile to Morrisey. Point being, both sides have no love for each other, and that might be at play in this LEDA grant issue, though I am also told that a temporary ceasefire may be at hand.

I’ll be honest, but I have found this whole LEDA feud exhausting. This is going to be a long nearly four years if this kind of political infighting is going to be the norm going forward. And the pro-Morrisey crowd and the anti-Morrisey crowd need to be prepared for the political back and forth.

It sounds like Morrisey needs to let the process work as it always had, but the program should be reconsidered during the next legislative session. Given that LEDA is a political program, it’s not surprising that politics is affecting the program. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

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Another dumb kerfuffle that cropped up last week is the back and forth between some House Democrats and Morrisey over last weekend’s sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping.

During a 2019 special session, the Legislature passed House Bill 206, an education omnibus that, among other things, created the state’s current public charter school program. An amendment by current House Democratic Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, former Del. Lisa Zukoff and the late Del. Doug Skaff created, beginning in 2021, a four-day tax holiday from the consumer sales and use tax for certain school supplies, computer equipment and clothing.

The Hornbuckle amendment passed 93-4. Keep in mind, in the summer of 2019 there were 59 Republicans and 41 Democratic members of the House of Delegates. Republicans needed some Democratic votes back then for procedural matters, so while Democratic members did vote against HB 206, the inclusion of their amendment likely allowed the bill to make it out quickly.

Since 2021, there have been five sales tax holidays. Former Gov. Jim Justice would put out press releases announcing the holiday and sometimes mention it on the virtual briefings he continued long after COVID-19 was over. I don’t recall the House Democratic Caucus putting out press releases or social media bragging about their role in creating the sales tax holiday.

But Morrisey did two press conferences last week, one in Bridgeport and one in Beckley, announcing the sales tax holiday and encouraging the public to take advantage. One could argue that two press conferences in different parts of the state was excessive given that a news reporter in southern West Virginia could have just watched the archived YouTube video from the Bridgeport announcement. In fact, many news outlets were already writing stories about the sales tax holiday prior to Morrisey hitting the road.

But in Morrisey’s defense, he wasn’t personally taking credit for the sales tax holiday. He was simply using his pulpit as governor to get out the word. It’s political, sure, but it’s not a bad thing. But apparently Hornbuckle and some Democratic House members remembered that they made the amendment that created the tax holiday and not only wanted their due credit but also took offense at Morrisey promoting the sales tax credit.

Never mind that the benefits of the sales tax holiday are questionable. My friend, West Virginia Watch reporter Lori Kersey, had a good story a few years ago that showed that the benefit to families is negligible and it doesn’t really benefit the state at all.

I think it’s fine for Democratic lawmakers to celebrate their role in the sales tax holiday. And if Morrisey was taking credit, then I’d understand their umbrage. But I watched both press conferences, and Morrisey’s only crime, it seems, is encouraging consumers to go shopping.

Democratic lawmakers have had ample opportunity to educate the public on their sales tax holiday. I just wonder where they’ve been since 2021.

(Adams is the state government reporter for Ogden Newspapers. He can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)