Opinion

Legislature improves state’s business climate

An editorial from the Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Expectations were high for the first session of the 82nd Legislature. After 83 years of the state being controlled by a Democratic majority, was it reasonable for observers to expect that everything that ails the state business climate to be fixed in one session?

Perhaps not. Lawmaking, by design, moves slowly.

Nevertheless, the Legislature did manage to pass several bills that should improve the state’s business climate. Those include extending the Medical Protection Liability Act of 2003 to include nursing homes, redefining the meaning of deliberate intent, increasing the threshold for joint and several liability and clarifying the open and obvious doctrine.

“We came here with the object of fundamentally changing the landscape of the business climate in West Virginia such that people will have jobs and we think in large measure we’ve laid the foundation for that,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson.

“The civil justice reforms and initiatives that we’ve done are going to create jobs,” said Sen. Charlie Trump, R-Morgan. “Those give people throughout the nation a sign that West Virginia is now truly open for business,” Trump said.

The session also included advancing issues that have long been talked about when Republicans were in the minority, including changes to the state’s prevailing wage law…

 

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