By Steven Allen Adams, Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — One of the constitutional requirements for the West Virginia Legislature is to pass a balanced budget for the upcoming fiscal year, but disagreements Friday on bills between the House of Delegates and the state Senate put that goal in doubt.
“I don’t know. I’d tell you if I knew,” said House Finance Committee Vice Chairman John Hardy, R-Berkeley, following the adjournment Friday night of the House referring to where negotiations are with the state Senate on the budget.
The Senate attempted to put pressure on the House to vote on Senate Bill 841, making changes to the state unemployment benefits system, by withholding a vote on House Bill 4883, relating to increasing annual salaries of certain employees of the state, and recessing until the evening. Instead, the House placed SB 841 on its inactive calendar.
SB 841 would increase what employers pay into the state’s unemployment trust fund, increase the dollar amount of weekly benefits for the first four weeks of unemployment and drop the dollar amount every four weeks thereafter, reduce the number of total weeks of unemployment from 26 weeks to 24 weeks, increase the number of work search requirements, and allow for an unemployment recipient to work part-time and maintain benefits.
Similar bills from the Senate the last couple of years tried to index the amount of weekly unemployment benefits and the number of total weeks based on the rise and fall of the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, but the House has shown no interest in those bills. Even with the changes to SB 841 to make it more palatable, a majority of the House Republican caucus met Friday afternoon and did not support the bill.
Read the full article: https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/business/2024/03/west-virginia-senate-house-battle-over-budget-raises-unemployment-changes/
