CHARLESTON – Nine Republicans on Friday helped kill a bill sponsored by the Republican Speaker, which would have given the attorney general prosecutorial power in certain cases of government corruption.
Most of them crossed back to their own side to pass a bill making theft of a controlled substance a felony.
Long-awaited action on the Broadband Expansion Act was postponed again for further amendment work. And cannabis talk returned to the floor.
The AG bill is HB 2435 and dealt with the Commission on Special Investigations, composed of five legislators from each house. The commission’s staff investigates allegations of public corruption. If it recommends prosecution, the commission directs the case to a county prosecutor who may choose to pursue it or not.
The bill would grant the prosecutor six months to decide to take the case. If the prosecutor declined, the commission could refer it to the Prosecuting Attorneys Institute for appointment of a special prosecutor within 30 days. If that failed, the commission could refer it to the attorney general.
Judiciary chair John Shott, R-Mercer, said instances of a prosecutor denying a case are rare; he’s seen only three in the past four years. The bill was intended as an extra means to fight corruption.
Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, opposed it, saying, “This bill really centralizes power, once again, here in Charleston.”
People in statewide offices, he said, generally have further political ambitions and could use a situation like this to enhance their own appearance rather than to seek justice. And it could open the door for the AG’s office to seek more prosecutorial power.
The Prosecuting Attorneys Institute also opposed it, he said, rightly wanting to protect their own turf.
Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, said the bill would enact a dangerous change in the AG’s constitutional authority, and strip some of that authority from local prosecutors.
Delegate Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, defended it, saying the state Supreme Court acknowledged that the Legislature has the right to grant the AG prosecutorial power, and this bill is intended to fight corruption.
It failed 45-50 with 5 absent. Two of the five sponsors are Democrats: Minority Leader Tim Miley, D-Harrison, and Mick Bates, D-Raleigh. Both voted against it. Locally, all delegates voted with their party.
Drug theft
HB 2509 adds the crime of theft to the current list of felony offenses dealing with wrongly obtaining a controlled substance: Misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.
The penalty for this is one to four years. McGeehan repeated an argument cited in Judiciary: A college kid could steal one oxycodone tablet from grandma and be a felon facing at least a year in prison. It violates the principal that punishment should be proportional to the crime.
Shott responded that just 20 minutes before, members were defending the ability of prosecutors to make the right choices in corruption cases. Now, they don’t trust them to use discernment in bringing drug charges.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said the bill veers from the Legislature’s and the code section’s goal of going after the big fish, the dealers and traffickers. This goes after the small fish, the users.
It passed 57-38 along party lines and goes to the Senate. Al l local delegates voted with their party.
Less divisive was HB 2527, which sets the maximum penalty for forging or counterfeiting lottery tickets, a felony, at five years. Current law has no limit. It passed 91-4, with three Democrats and one Republican voting no.
Broadband bill
Delegates agreed once again to postpone action on HB 2005, the Broadband Expansion Act, which first came up for third reading and passage on Thursday.
Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, thanked leadership for their patience as she crafts her amendment regarding a tax break for new cell towers.
The bill proposes to tax them at salvage value, which is 5 percent of the original cost. Fleischauer expressed concern in Judiciary that this is unconstitutional because it taxes certain towers at a different rate from others. She’s working on an alternative way to provide an equivalent break.
Cannabis comes back
In a floor speech, Steele referred to Delegate Mick Bates’ Thursday floor speech promoting a state cannabis program, saying people aren’t leaving West Virginia for Tennessee, North Carolina or Florida to get hold of some “sticky icky icky.”
Echoing Bates’ statement that words matter and citing such words as theft and robbery, Steele said they’re leaving for a better life in a more favorable tax environment.
The cannabis debate will come in its own time, he said, but now the House should focus on getting rid of oppressive taxes, such as the ones on Social Security income and on business inventory, machinery and equipment.
Fleischauer then stood and brought up the word “dead,” as in 1,000 dead West Virginians lost to overdoses. A cannabis program, she said, could aid in opioid treatment and keep more West Virginians alive.
TWITTER @dbeardtdp Email David Beard at dbeard@dominionpost.com
