By Steven Allen Adams, Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The 60-day legislative session for 2020 wrapped up Saturday night at midnight with leaders in the state Senate and House of Delegates taking stock of the bills that made it, while Gov. Jim Justice was pleased that most of his proposed budget remained intact.
When the Legislature gaveled out at midnight Saturday, lawmakers passed 354 bills, with 186 House bills passing and 168 Senate bills passing. According to the Legislature’s website, this was the first time since 2002 that the Legislature topped more than 300 bills passed.
Bills making it over the finish line Saturday included major reform and funding for the state’s exploding foster care system, a sovereign wealth fund to spur major economic development projects, a $100 cap for insulin co-pays, criminal justice reform measures to help decrease jail populations and put people back to work, and bills to encourage broadband expansion.
“We think it went fine,” said House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay. “We’ve done some good things.”
“We moved the state substantially forward in terms of foster care reform, in terms of managing a state budget in a responsible manner,” said Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson. “We’ve addressed the substantive issues that confront the state in terms of opioid addiction, jobs, growth, and our foster care crisis.”
Gov. Jim Justice waits in his office in the State Capitol Building as the Legislature finished up on the final day of the session Saturday. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)
The Legislature adopted a compromise general revenue budget for fiscal year 2021 starting July 1, totaling $4.574 billion. The budget included $16.9 million for the new tiered foster care system in House Bill 4092 to increase reimbursement rates for foster and kinship families, $19 million to end the intellectual and developmentally disabled (I/DD) waiver waitlist, and also included funding for Justice’s Jobs and Hope program, the Communities in Schools program, and a second West Virginia National Guard Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy in Montgomery.
“I really think if you go back and look at the State of the State, we got it all done,” Justice said. “We have done a historic budget in placing our families really first, whether it be I/DD, the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy, foster care, Communities in Schools, on and on and on. We’ve done it in an economically prudent and responsible way. We’ve reduced the budget. It’s unbelievable what we’ve accomplished, and I could not be happier.” …
