Day 17: It's Friday, so let's wrap things up for the week
Good morning and welcome back to 60 Days.
Today is Friday, January 27th, the 17th day of the West Virginia Legislature’s regular session.
This newsletter is coming to you from Martinsburg in the Eastern Panhandle, where rain washed away the snow that fell on Wednesday.
It remains chilly and grey, though.
I won’t say “no” to a hot cup of coffee.
If you’re keeping tabs, Governor Justice is taking his tax cut roadshow to the Northern Panhandle today. He’s set to speak in Wheeling.
Justice kicked off his tour in Parkersburg on Wednesday and was in Beckley yesterday, taking questions from an audience at Tamarack.
“It should have already been passed and done. And what we’re doing, well I’m gonna stay positive. But what we’re doing, I don’t get.” ~ Governer Jim Justice
That’s about as far Governor Justice went in criticizing lawmakers for failing to send him his bill that would cut personal incomes taxes by 50 percent over three years.
The House overwhelmingly passed HB 2526 last week, but it remains parked in the Republican-led Senate. Senate leaders support a significant tax cut, just not Justice’s plan. They’re coming up with one of their own amid hard feelings over a similar road show Justice staged to help sink Amendment 2 in the November election.
The state has a huge budget surplus, but Senate leaders are also mindful of mounting expenses. “The bottom line is, and I’ve asked for this for the last two weeks, is to prioritize our expenses,” Blair said on MetroNews’ “Talkline” on Thursday.
But at Tamarack, Justice repeated claims that his plan would spur economic growth and lead to a population boom. However, the left-leaning West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy says that may not be true:
The Center says, “housing prices, warm weather, and birth rates are all stronger explanations for population trends than tax policy.”
And that cutting taxes may backfire, that the “inevitable budget cuts and subsequent deterioration in public services would make the state a less attractive place to live.”
You can read the Center’s analysis here.
Speaking of expenses, the House Jails and Prisons Committee has advanced a bill to give pay raises and a bonus to corrections officers. HB2879 now goes to the House Finance Committee.
The bill is aimed at addressing severe staffing shortages at jails around the state. Governor Justice declared the situation an emergency back in August and activated members of the state National Guard to fill in.
The measure has been amended to include a $10,000 pay raise for corrections officers. It would be spread over three years.
The legislation still includes a $6,000 dollar hiring and retention bonus.
The House and Senate are convening their floor sessions early today — the better for lawmakers to wrap up their legislative week and get out of town.
Watch for both chambers to gavel in at 9 a.m. Nothing on either the House or Senate floor agendas really jumped out at me, but maybe something will catch your eye. You can find the House calendar here and the Senate calendar here.
It being Friday, there’s not much to the committee schedules.
In the House:
The Committee on Senior, Children, and Family Issues will meet immediately following the floor session in the House Judiciary Committee, Room 410-M
The House Finance Committee will hear budget presentations from the Secretary of State and the Attorney General in Room 460-M
On the Senate side, the committee schedule looks like this:
10 a.m.: Workforce (208W)
Presentation: Jason Green, Deputy Director, Workforce West Virginia
Presentation: Rev. Matthew Watts, HOPE Community Development Corporation
Strategies to mitigate WV's labor shortage
As we pointed out last Friday, there’s a lot to keep track of during the course of a legislative session. So here are some links to other stories that slipped past us, or we were simply unable to get to ourselves:
West Virginia advances gun bill for K-12 school staff (AP)
Abortion pill manufacturer sues over West Virginia ban (nbcnews.com)
Healthy food options limited for many rural WV communities (mountainstatespotlight.org)