CHARLESTON — The Senate unexpectedly passed a handful of bills Friday dealing with severance taxes, paper checks and a few other matters.
There were no bills on third reading for passage, but members agreed to suspend the rules to do two reads in a single day in order to pass them.
Rule suspension has to be done for each bill, and when the motion was made to do so for the second bill, Sen. John Unger protested, saying Senate Rules require urgency.
Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, told him that they wanted to clear away some of the long list of bills that would be up for passage during Saturday’s floor session. Unger wouldn’t accept that and argued at length with Sen. President Mitch Carmichael, until Carmichael cut him off and moved on with the process.
Here are a few of the bills passed.
—HB 2193 focuses on the obscure legal term “escheat” and was the subject of long debate in House Judiciary and the House floor. It passed here in a few seconds.
HB 2193 sets up a process for the state to be able to claim and cash abandoned savings bonds. It was conveyed in the House that the state treasury department has about $500,000 worth of those in its possession, but can’t do anything with them.
It passed 32-0 and returns to the House for concurrence with Senate amendments.
— HB 2608 ends the requirement that the opening date of a checking account appear on the checks.
Members learned that the law is antiquated, stemming form 1984, and was intended to prevent check fraud prevalent in bogus accounts less than a year old. With debit cards largely replacing checks and computerized check scanners for those still in use, it’s no longer needed.
It passed 32-0 and goes to the governor.
— HB 2829 ends the severance tax on limestone and sandstone. The chief problem is that the tax isn’t uniform. It’s based on the value of the stone, which is determined by production costs. It costs less to mine from a cave than to take down trees and dig down through layers of dirt and rock to create a quarry. So the surface quarries are taxed more.
And it can take up to two years for the Tax Department to audit the business’ records to determine the tax. So they’re selling their rock while unsure how it will be taxed down the road. Neighboring Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland don’t have a severance tax and most of the production takes place in the eastern part of the state, so those businesses are at a competitive disadvantage.
And the Division of Highways is the single biggest customer for the industry, so ending the tax would save the DOH money that could be put to other needs. Ending the tax would cost the state a projected $1.2 million a year, but about half of that is paid by the DOH. And increased sales could help offset more of the loss, and stimulate jobs and business activity.
It passed 26-6 and goes to the governor.
— HB 2854 exempts from sales tax the purchase of items by nonprofit groups for school fundraisers. This bill was requested by the state Tax Department. It passed 32-0 and goes to the governor.
After the floor session, Education chair Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, answered some questions about the fate of the House teacher pay raise bill, HB 2730, that has stalled in her committee. This is the “clean” pay raise bill that provides 5 percent raises for teacher, service staff and State Police.
Rucker said that as of Friday, the bill remained alive but she couldn’t speak to its fate. They’re still evaluating options. She denied that the bill is being used as a trade tactic for Senate bills in possession of the House, such as SB 1, the so-called free community college or last-dollar-in bill.
TWITTER @dbeardtdp Email David Beard at dbeard@dominionpost.com
