CHARLESTON — The countdown to the end of the Legislative session on Saturday has begun. The House of Delegates on Thursday approved bills making municipal home rule permanent, creating a program to allow formation of mountain bike trail networks, and raising State Police salaries among a long list.
Here are highlights. This will be updated through the evening.
— SB 4 makes the Municipal Home Rule Pilot Program permanent.
The bill continues all existing plans and ordinances home rule cities have in place but requires updates to any sections affected by this bill.
Beginning July 1, the Home Rule Board will accept up to four applications per year from Class IV municipalities — population under 2,000 — that wish to join.
Starting July 1, all participants must pay a $2,000 annual assessment into a Home Rule Board Operations Fund to operation and administration of the board. Once the fund reaches $200,000, assessments will stop until such time as the board considers the fund too low.
The bill adds several new restrictions to the list of what home rule cities can’t do.
Delegates adopted several floor amendments. One amendment adds to that list laws restricting firearms sales and possession.
Another amendment strikes a provision allowing a referendum on home rules laws passed by city councils and another provision requiring a referendum on bond sales funded by home rule sales tax.
As amended, SB 4 passed 87-11 and returns to the Senate for concurrence.
— SB 233 intended to raise the age limit for applicants to become deputy sheriffs. The original bill proposed to raise the cap from 45 to 50. A Wednesday amendment to raise the cap to 65 generated lengthy debate and ultimately succeeded.
However, on Thursday the bill was placed on the inactive calendar, where it may die.
— SB 317 allows three or more adjacent counties to form a multicounty mountain biking trail network authority. Members approved a Government Organization amendment on Wednesday that attaches to the bill HB 2420, which specifically creates the Mountaineer Trail Network Recreation Authority serving Barbour, Grant, Harrison, Marion, Mineral, Monongalia, Preston, Randolph, Taylor and Tucker counties.
It passed 94-0 and was returned to the Senate, where members had on second reading HB 2420. A committee amendment to HB 2420 added SB 317 into it, so the two bills would be essentially the same. However, the Senate didn’t adopt that amendment. It sent HB 2420 to its Rules Committee, where it will apparently sit dormant while SB 317 is kept in action.
— SB 318 proposes to transfer the Medicaid Fraud Unit from the Department of Health and Human Resources to the attorney general’s office. It passed 58-42 and goes to the governor.
— SB 496 transfers regulation of milk from the Department of Health and Human Resources to the Department of Agriculture. It passed 96-4 and returns to the Senate for amendment concurrence.
— SB 596 allows the DMV to prepare forms so that people applying for or renewing a driver’s license or vehicle registration can voluntarily donate $3, $5, $10, or any amount to the Department of Veterans Assistance, the Farm Bureau Foundation, the 4H Program, or the Future Farmers of America Education Foundation. This originally allowed only for donations for veterans, but the House amended in its own HB 2532. Passed 98-0 and returned to the Senate.
— HCR 32 requests the Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit on interstates, where appropriate, to 75 mph. The House concurred with a Senate amendment to strike the portion asking DOT to raise the limit on Appalachian Corridor highways to 70 mph. Resolutions don’t go to the governor so this has completed its process.
Second readings
The House also had a long list of bills on second reading, with a number undergoing amendment on the floor.
— SB 522, Randy’s Dream. The House adopted the previously reported Finance Committee amendment that removed the funding for the road maintenance program.
— SB 543 as it came over from the Senate changed motor vehicle and motorcycle inspections from annual to every two years, and in a separate section allowed used vehicles to be sold “as is” under specified conditions:
It is inoperable or a total loss; it’s been custom built or modified for show; it sold for less than $2,500, has more than 100,000 miles on the odometer and is at least 7 years old.
A House Finance amendment before the full House proposed to strip out the inspection portion and weakened the three grouped as-is conditions by replacing “and” with “or.” It generated long debate.
Members argued a secondary amendment to the Finance amendment by Delegate Andrew Byrd, D-Kanawha, which restored the “and” to the conditions. Opponents said it neighboring states have as-is laws and this would keep used car businesses in West Virginia at a disadvantage.
Supporters said the Byrd amendment would better protect consumers. It failed 31-68.
Members also rejected a couple other secondary amendments before adopting the Finance amendment.
— SB 544 raises State Police salaries. The Senate version provided three annual raises of $3,000 each, plus increasing the annual longevity raise from $500 to $600.
The House Finance Committee proposed to amend the bill, and built into the House budget bill, a single raise of $2,370, and kept the longevity raise at $500.
A number of Democrats objected, saying the Legislature should be supporting the people who protect them. “This is absolutely pitiful and we should be ashamed of ourselves” if we go through with it, said Delegate Joe Canestraro, D-Marshall.
Delegate Mick Bates, D-Raleigh, said that the difference between $2,370 and $300,000 amounted to a total difference of only $435,600 for the first year, easily affordable with an expected $39 million surplus.
Delegate Daryl Cowles, R-Morgan, said the Finance plan amounts to a 5 percent hike and doesn’t preclude another raise next year.
The Finance amendment passed in a close vote, 56-43.
— SB 561 addresses a number of alcohol sales issues under oversight of the Alcohol Beverage Control Administration. Most prominent among them is allowing local law enforcement to assist ABCA, upon request, in enforcing liquor laws in local bars and clubs.
A House Judiciary amendment tightened the conditions for local law enforcement to assist.
Several secondary amendments were offered to the Judiciary amendment. Delegate Steve Westfall, R-Jackson, offered two successful proposals.
One extends the Sunday Brunch liquor sales law to all counties that haven’t previously approved it via referendum. “This is economic development. It will bring money in,” he said.
His second dealt with a variety of matters, and imposes a $1,000 on-premises only bottle service fee.
Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton, posed one to prohibit police form entering private bars and clubs. Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, led the opposition to it, citing Morgantown’s problem.
There are only 15 ABCA inspectors in the state, she said, and Morgantown has 300 bars, some of them stuffed with 1,000 people at times. Current law allows only State Police to assist ABCA, and they demand 10 days’ notice.
It failed 36-62.
Delegates then adopted the Judiciary amendment.
— SB 665 deals with procedures for expedited oil and gas well permitting. The House Energy Committee made several changes. It reduced the application fee for an expedited permit, set at $20,000 for the first horizontal well on a pad and $10,000 for additional wells to $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.
It also removed a set of criteria for the Department of Environmental Protection to consider for approving permits, to avoid putting DEP in the positon of winners and losers.
— Across the Capitol, the Senate sent to the governor SB 1, the last-dollar-in community college jobs training bill. Senators voted unanimously to concur with House amendments.
As reported by MetroNews’ Brad McElhinny, Democrats initially voted no, as a friendly joke, before switching to vote in favor.
Finance chair Craig Bair, R-Berkeley, said, “There’s been a lot of discussion on this bill for two years. This is a wonderful day from my perspective. This is going to put us on the path forward for people like myself.”
There’s a reason why it’s numbered SB 1, Blair said. “We’re now across the finish line. The only thing we have to do is get the governor’s signature. It’s one of the best pieces of legislation I have seen in a long, long time.”
TWITTER @dbeardtdp Email David Beard at dbeard@dominionpost.com
