By ANDREA LANNOM
The Register-Herald
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice celebrated the passage of all of the bills he requested on the special session call, saying approved legislation is “just the beginning.”
(West Virginia Press Association photo)
Justice called the Legislature into special session last week and session started on Monday. Both chambers passed the six bills on the call, including two highways bills before adjourning Tuesday night.
Justice held a press conference with legislative leaders Wednesday morning at the Capitol to discuss the special session. Justice praised House and Senate members for the bills’ passage.
“We got six out of six,” Justice said. “It’s unbelievable we pulled this off in two days. And we did it in addition to that in a bipartisan way.”
The conference had light-hearted moments where Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, presented Justice with a basketball with “60-1” on the front, which he said represented the 54 counties that voted for the road bond plus the six bills passed in the special session. Sen. Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, presented Justice Chief of Staff Mike Hall with a coach’s board
“I’ve coached a lot of basketball games and one thing you can guarantee yourself is you’re not going to win the game if you don’t have the players and if you don’t have the superstars,” Justice said. “These people need to be commended. They’ve done great work for our state.”
The Legislature passed Senate Bill 2002, which allows the state Tax Department to share certain information with the Division of Highways concerning whether bidders are in good standing with their taxes.
Legislators also passed House Bill 205, which increased the penalties for violating the West Virginia Jobs Act, which requires 75 percent of all workers on large construction projects to be drawn from the local market.
House Bill 203, which increased the amount of tax credits for qualified rehabilitation expenditures on historic structures to be used against personal and corporate net income taxes, was another success, as was the passage of technical corrections to state Court of Claims payments.
Two bills drew lengthy debate in the House with one of them ending up going late into Tuesday evening. The first arose over HB 201, which exempts all military pensions from income tax beginning Jan. 1, 2018. The house finance chair said it would cost an additional $3 million per year and would affect about 3,800 additional people.
Delegates debated two similar amendments proposed by Delegates Michael Folk, R-Berkeley, and Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton, which would have broadened the class of people who would be exempt to include people receiving Social Security. House Speaker Tim Armstead rule the amendments not germane as the extra exemption was not included on the session call. Eventually delegates ended up overwhelmingly supporting.
Justice praised the bill’s passage and said he sees it as a way to bring veterans into the state. When asked if he would support pursuing adding Social Security as an exemption during the regular session, Justice said he probably would but would have to see the financial effects.
“It’s a significant budget item,” Justice said. “We’ve got to look at the monies and see where we stand. The item wasn’t on the call and we needed to address the vets right now.”
Armstead, R-Kanawha, said he hopes Social Security will be exempted. However, he said in his view, the special session wasn’t the time to do this.
“To rush through and do that in a special session was too much of a lift to do,” he said. “But I think we started that discussion and in the regular session will continue that. I’m very hopeful that in the upcoming session that we will be able to eliminate the tax on Social Security.”
Senate President Carmichael, R-Jackson, said he is interested in eliminating the tax on social security.
“But what we had before us was a tax reduction for veterans,” he said. “Some people disingenuously tried to hijack great ideas, which is provide tax relief for veterans, for their own political purpose. I think it’s unfortunate but I think it demonstrates the previous mentality in this state and Legislature at what people want to use for political purposes to jab someone and hijack a bill that will do great things.”
The second bill that drew debate in the House Tuesday night was SB 2003, which aimed to streamline hiring practices in the Tax Department and DOH. Many delegates voiced concerns about the bill, which prompted an informal Q&A of representatives from the Department of Personnel, Division of Highways and Chief of Staff Hall.
Many delegates said they were concerned that they didn’t have enough time to study the bill and that they didn’t understand its implications. Some mentioned they would like to see hiring procedures changed as part of an overall plan instead of just dealing with the two agencies.
Justice said the bill streamlines the process and makes it easier for both agencies to get the people they need.
“It made it more practical to hire people instead of the bureaucratic process that took 50 million years to get done,” Justice said.
Justice said he doesn’t know at this point whether he would support an overall plan and said he needed more input on that subject.
“I need to consult our leaders in order to get more knowledge on broadening that to other agencies,” Justice said. “I need a lot more knowledge on that.”
Armstead said he would like to see an overall plan on hiring procedures addressed. He said the bill for highways and the Tax Department marked a good start that he hopes to see built upon.
“One thing we saw in the form of the discussion is that there are so many steps people have to go through to hire someone or an employee has to go through to get hired,” he said. “We get employees who want to work for the state but they can’t wait six to eight months. And in the meantime, we lose good, solid, hard-working employees for our state.”
Email: [email protected]; follow on Twitter @AndreaLannom
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