MORGANTOWN – Here is a look at some of the bills introduced on Thursday, Jan. 20. Local sponsors and cosponsors, if any, are noted.
SB 447, to provide for a $5,000 personal income tax credit for nurses. Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, lead sponsor.
SB 455, s to increase motor vehicle registration fees by $5 for a 12-month registration and by $10 for a 24-month registration and to repeal the article requiring inspection of vehicles.
SB 457, the previously announced Democratic bill to lower the sales tax from 6% to 4.75%, with subsequent drops tied to Rainy Day Fund balances. Caputo, co-sponsor.
HB 4290, to change the annual inspection for vehicles 3 years old or less to be inspected every three years. Delegate Phil Mallow, R-Marion, co-sponsor.
HB 4293, to prohibit the delivery of unsolicited absentee ballot applications to any person who has not specifically requested one from the county clerk.
HB 4294, to expand the tax credit for volunteer firefighters to include all first responders. Delegates Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, and Terri Sypolt and Buck Jennings, both R-Preston, co-sponsors.
HB 4298, to ban all COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Delegate Guy Ward, R-Marion, co-sponsor.
HB 4305, to provide greater opportunities for power generation and cost savings to electric utility consumers by creating flexibility and diversity in the construction and financing of electric utility generating facilities; repealing the ban on construction of nuclear power plants; revising consumer rate relief bonds; and enabling the use of securitization to refinance the unamortized investment in prematurely retired coalfired generating plants. Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, lead sponsor.
HB 4309, to authorize physicians and pharmacists to fill and dispense prescriptions for the anti-malarial drugs hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, or the drug ivermectin for off-label use as a therapeutic drug to provide a prophylaxis for at-home or hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Also provides a fine for refusal to fill prescriptions; and that pharmacists are not liable for adverse reactions from the prescription. Ward, lead sponsor; Sypolt and Jennings, co-sponsors.
