MORGANTOWN – Gov. Jim Justice drew a red line Friday regarding the House of Delegates’ hesitation in taking up the Senate’s version of its personal income tax repeal plan, HB 3300. The House responded a few hours later with an entirely red voting board rejecting the plan.
Many wondered why the House hadn’t taken up the Senate message on the bill Thursday, and Gov. Jim Justice spent time Friday berating the House for its inaction during a 90-minute press conference pushing his plan – largely reflected in the Senate’s amendment to HB 3300 – and criticizing the House for inaction.
“If I were a Republican,” Justice said, “and I were in the supermajority I’d be dog if I would sit and say, ‘Were not even going to take it up.’ ”
Since the House wasn’t moving on it, he said, “Now, I’ll go on the road. I will tell the people, and I will educate the people. … This is what you lost. This is what we all lost.”
So just before House lunch break, Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, made the procedural motion to concur with the Senate amendments to the bill. Finance chair Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, then reviewed the Senate version and offered his opinion.
“We showed them the easy way out,” he said, adding that West Virginians want real tax relief and no new taxes. “Why in the world do we want to penalize our small businesses, as they are the lifeblood of our economy? Why do we want to place new burdens on our citizens?”
Hearkening back to a few years ago when Justice vetoed a bill in a show featuring bull dung on a silver platter, Householder said he had neither of those and didn’t have time to stop by a farm, but he urged rejection.
Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, also echoed Justice. “There is no way, shape, form or fashion that I could ever support any portion of what is suggested,” he said.
After the vote, Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, spoke to the press. He understood, he said, that all parties share a common goal of eliminating the tax and are still working toward a productive place. “It’s still, I think, going to be a priority for all of us.”
But Justice accused them of being afraid to take a vote.
“We’re not afraid to take a vote on any issue and have now done so,” Hanshaw said.
The House never expected to get a bill passed this session, he said.
“Big, transformative, monumental policy changes take time to craft. … We aren’t simply going to do that on a whim,” without data and justifiable, verifiable predictions and modeling, he said. “We will not end up like Kansas. … We will not do it recklessly.”
House Minority Leader Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, also addressed the vote afterward. “We’re not for any tax increase right now. Especially coming out of a pandemic. A tax shift is just not acceptable. A tax increase is not acceptable. You combine all that in one bill – just not good for West Virginians at this time.”
Justice failed to get buy-in, Skaff said. It shouldn’t have been a top-down plan. He should have worked with the House. “You can’t have one person telling us this is how it’s going to be.”
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