MORGANTOWN — Wednesday is the 50th day of the legislative session – Crossover Day, the last day for House bills to cross to the Senate and Senate bills to cross to the House, in order to remain alive.
Both houses have long lists of bills on third reading for passage. Here we’ll offer a running recap of House floor action, with newest action at the top.
HB 3307 is called the Social Media Integrity and Anti-Corruption in Elections Act. Supporters said it offers accountability to platforms such as Facebook and takes aim at dark money. Opponents said it’s backwards and misguided.
Lead sponsor Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, said social media holds tremendous sway over the political conversation and the bill is aimed at leveling the playing field, in the same way that exisiting laws prescribe equal time for newspaper, radio and TV.
“Now is the time for us to ensure that social media platforms who choose to participate in in our state elections do so fairly, accurately and with accountability.” The bill reflects a compelling government interest in ensuring accurate dissemination of information.
The bill requires that a platform that promotes one candidate’s ads while blocking another’s must report the transactions to the secretary of state. A platform must also report actions to censor free speech, along with independent political expenditures.
A platform may not deplatform a candidate it disagrees with and if it does it must provide a detailed explanation. Linville cited Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg’s $300 million pro-Democrat initiatives.
Delegate Tom Longanacre, R-Greenbrier, said his Facebook account was deactivated five weeks before the election because he responded in agreement to a petition to have the KKK declared a domestic terrorist organization, but wanted Black Lives Matter added, and because he liked a Qanon page to learn what it was about.
That handicapped his campaign, he said, and he had to go door knocking in the hollers while he two incumbent rivals continued their campaigns via social media. “Joseph Goebbels would be proud of Facebook today.”
Longanacre denied any knowledge of an anti-Semitic post he allegedly made when he was asked about it.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said the bill has too many flaws, such as requiring prior approval for a list of informational items regarding the election.
Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, said the bill is just another product of the right wing culture wars and an example of the anti-tech mentality that hinders the state’s progress. “Hopefully Facebook will just delete West Virginia.”
Linville said his Facebook ads were blocked two weeks before the election and Facebook’s excuse was just “Oops.”
The vote was 72-28 with five Republicans siding with the majority. All local delegates voted with their party.
HB 3036 would sunset the state Board of Sanitarians, effective July 1.
Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, spoke against the bill. She said she understands efforts to review occupational boards and not approve of people preserving little fiefdoms.
But that’s not the case here, she said. Its budget is a tiny $11,000, with $8,000 of that from local pubic health departments. Local sanitarians work at pubic health offices and train inspectors to assure consistent standards across the state.
And the timing is bad, she said. “This is a slap in the face to people that have put their lives and all their energy on the line during a pandemic.” They’ve been involved in many facets of the pandemic response. “They’ve really been incredibly wonderful health care heroes.”
The vote was 71-29, with six Republicans joining the minority. Among them were local delegates Amy Summers of Taylor, Terri Sypolt of Preston, and Guy Ward of Marion.
HB 2592 requires counties and municipalities to hold all local and municipal elections, including levy elections, concurrently with statewide primary or general elections.
Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, expressed concern that local levy elections could get lost in the cloud of issues in consideration during a primary or general; they need to be held at their own time.
The vote was 72-25, with one Democrat voting yes and three Republicans voting no. All local delegates voted with their party.
HJR 3 is the Property Tax Modernization Amendment to grant the Legislature the authority to set personal property tax rates. It proposes a constitutional amendment that, if approved by the voters in November 2022, would allow the Legislature in the future to phase out the tax on business inventory, equipment and machinery, and eliminate the property tax on vehicles.
It was adopted 84-16, with seven Democrats siding with the majority.
Finance chair Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, told the members that for Fiscal Year 2020, property taxes brought in about $1.926 billion. From that, $8 million went to the state, $516.8 million to the counties, $1.272 billion to the schools, and $114.74 million to the municipalities.
Elimination of the business inventory, machinery and equipment tax would reduce revenue by up to $400 million, and eliminating the vehicle tax would trim another $80 million to $100 million.
Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said the idea is good, but the proposed amendment includes no means to make the local governments whole.
Delegate Brent Boggs, D-Braxton and one of the Democrats who voted yes, engaged in a conversation with Judiciary chair Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, that explained that voter approval of the resolution would enable the Legislature to give tax relief to small businesses, not just the big businesses and industry the effort has been targeting for several years. It would also allow the body to pass legislation that would make the local governments whole.
Answering questions from others, Capito also explained that the amendment wouldn’t obligate any future changes, simply free up the Legislature to do so.
All local delegates, except Dave Pethtel, D-Wetzel, voted with their party. Pethtel voted yes.
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