MORGANTOWN – West Virginia’s legislative leaders described their goals for the 2022 session – which starts Jan. 12 – during Friday’s West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead.
With the pandemic and with most of the state covered in fresh snow, it was a Zoom conference with many legislators and press members tuned in from their homes.
Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said they have about 200 bills in the pipeline to bring West Virginia into line with surrounding states and the nation.
Blair will break from tradition this session by introducing a bill himself – presidents typically sponsor only governor’s bills in tandem with the minority leaders.
Blair’s bill will come out on Day 1 and will be SB 1. “It is something sorely needed to protect the mining industry,” he said. It will create a mine reclamation mutual fund – an insurance fund along the lines of the physicians mutual and the Workers Compensation fund.
It’s needed, he said, because a single company holds 60% of the state’s mine reclamation bonds. If that company went under, it would be a costly liability for the state. Mine company participation will be voluntary and it would be launched with a $50 million loan.
The better it works, he said, the less the reclamation bonds will cost. The fund will help the industry and help maintain the fuel supply for the energy baseload.
Gov. Jim Justice plans another flatline budget for Fiscal Year 2023, the fourth year in a row, he said, and that’s good. “What it’s doing is squeezing efficiencies.”
Instead of fostering the spend-it-or-lose-it mentality it sets the stage for surpluses to use for one-time capital expenditures or economic development, and for long-term budget smoothing. He’s expecting a $750 million surplus this year.
Other bills in the pipline include those to lower unemployment premiums, to address WorkForce West Virginia software and hardware needs, to lift the nuclear energy ban and to promote downstream use of West Virginia natural gas.
A number of bills passed the Senate with overwhelming majorites last session, he said, but died in the House for lack of time. Working with Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, they plan to suspend the three-day floor reading rule and crank them out again on the first day so the House can move on them.
There will be no Senate mask mandate this year, he said; but Baldwin said Democratic senators will be masked on the floor and in committee meetings.
Baldwin said the minority’s focus will be on bills to keep people in West Virginia. “We want to bring our people home and we’ve got to keep our kids here.”
Broadband, funding for local demolition of abandoned buildings, improving the child abuse hotline, a cost of living raise for state retirees’ pensions and addressing substance abuse are on their priority list, with substance abuse at the top.
“We have not maintained a laser-like focus on investing in programs that work,” he said.
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said the House will also not have a mask mandate.
Among the bills in the pipeline, he said, will be one to enable the Commerce Department to have industrial and commercial sites certified and ready for development in order to make the state more competitive as businesses search for new locations.
Another will focus on the effort to develop the state’s rare earth elements resources. They are valuable, China has the current stranglehold on the market, and they can be found in coal mine drainage. So a bill will answer the question of ownership of the drainage and the extracted REEs and critical minerals.
Other legislation, he said, will help local governments avail themselves of some of the $6 billion slated to come to the state over the next five years from Congress’ bipartisan infrastructure bill, by providing them resources to hire grant writers to get those funds.
Hanshaw also plans legislation to beef up the state laboratory system. State labs support public health, law enforcement and agriculture and have been underfunded for decades.
House Minority Leader Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, echoed Baldwin, saying they want to put West Virginians first. While they want to welcome new residents, they also want to support those who are here and want to stay here.
He wants legislation to provide incentives to stay for those who are thinking of leaving. And he wants to create tax incentives to address the shortfall of workers in heath care and hospitality. He’d like to see a tax measure to trigger cost of living raises for retirees when surpluses reach a specified level.
His leadership team will not be mandating masks for the minority, he said, but members will be expected to do the right thing as circumstances dictate.
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