MORGANTOWN — The House of Delegates on Friday approved its personal income tax-cut bill; it will head to the Senate where delegates expect it to be significantly altered.
The House also approved a Department of Environmental Protection rule regarding human health criteria for wastewater — a rule that has generated debate and readjustment for several years. It will go to the governor.
HB 4007 creates a 10% personal income tax reduction for every tax level starting in calendar year 2023.
It also creates a SAFER Fund — Stabilization and Future Economic Reform — to receive the first 50% of future budget surpluses, to be used by future legislatures to offset the costs of this and any future income tax cuts. Current law requires the first 50% of budget surpluses to go into the Rainy Day Fund and this bill would divert that money to SAFER.
Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha said the cut is fairly pointless for most income levels. A $20,000 household will see a $7 cut, with $39 for $35,000, $88 for $55,000 and $232 for $92,000. “This is not a major piece of benefit to the taxpayers.”
He pointed to expenses on the horizon: $50 million per year to keep PEIA stable, the pay raise bill, a $170 million Medicaid shortfall, and this bill’s $265 million cost. “There is a train of financial responsibility coming straight at us; it can either run over us or we can dodge it, but were going to have to deal with it.”
Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said, “That’s not the way we build an economy. I think we build an economy by raising the status of the average working people that live here.”
Delegate Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, said, “I love tax cuts. I’m all for tax cuts.” But this across-the-board cut treats everyone evenly when it’s a time for those with more to help those in their family who need more. “I don’t think this is a time when everything needs to be even.”
Delegate Mary Gearheart, R-Mercer, was among those who spoke for the bill. “More money in the pockets of West Virginians is good. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s a little bit, it’s good.”
Finance chair Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, pointed out several features of the bill. It uses surplus funds, not federal COVID money, to cover the immediate $96 million cost for this fiscal year and the future annual $265 million cost. This year’s surplus will be around $800 million and next year’s surplus is projected at $1 billion.
His goal has always been an incremental approach to eliminating the income tax. This is a small step, but “West Virginians will find more money in their pockets.”
The vote was 76-20. Locally, all Republicans voted for it, all Democrats against it.
Last session, House and Senate Republicans were deeply divided in their approaches to repealing the personal income tax. The Senate used a variety of tax hikes to offset most of the revenue lost by phasing out the income tax and relied on economic growth to fill in the gaps. The House favored a plan would phase down tax rates gradually — in as many as 13 years — making use of a special fund fed from other tax revenue to accelerate the phase-down.
Given that divide, delegates on both sides of the aisle said on Friday that they expect that the bill the Senate sends back to them this year will be substantially different from what they passed.
Water quality rule
SB 279 is a DEP rules bundle that includes a rule concerning human health criteria for 32 contaminants in wastewater discharges. The rule is derived from a 2015 EPA update of its recommendations of 56 contaminants that DEP regulates. It was originally, with what was then 60 contaminants, up for passage in 2019, but industry interests objected to some of the more-stringent standards for various reasons — including that some parameters are unmeasurable.
After long debate, DEP settled on a halfway measure during the 2021 session, making recommendations on 24 — with 13 being more stringent than current standards and 11 being weakened — and punting the other 32 to a working group preparing recommendations for this session.
The work group recommended the EPA levels for all 32, making 24 of them more stringent than current limits.
But the latest sticking point has been that the rule allows companies to apply for site-specific criteria in their discharge permits, which removes legislative oversight.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said on Friday the rule weakens the standard for DDT and other carcinogens. “A larger amount will be allowed into the rivers and streams that serve as drinking water sources for the people of West Virginia.”
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said the rule increases the allowable amounts for eight carcinogens, and allows further exceptions without legislative oversight. “If you want to put that into the hand of the agency, go ahead. … Nobody asked us to come here to allow more carcinogens into their water.”
Arguing for the rule, Delegate Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, said rural water systems can do what they need to do but that comes at a cost. The rule strikes a balance of keeping the water clean without posing additional costs on water systems or their customers. “It clearly maintains proper, healthy water standards.”
Delegate Clay Riley, R-Harrison, reviewed some DDT numbers to defend the rule. In 1980, the U.S. EPA set the effluent limit at 0.024 nanograms per liter. In 2015, the Obama EPA raised it to 0.03 ng/L, which is still the standard. But the detectable level is 1.7 ng/L, far higher than the standard, so there’s no way to measure it anyway.
The EPA raised the limit, he said, because of changes in human health: the average person’s weight has increased from 70 kilograms (154 pounds) to 80 kg (176 pounds) while people are drinking less water, down from 2.4 liters per day to 2 liters.
And the allowable level of DDT in drinking water, he said, is 1,000 ng/L.
The bill passed 72-22 and will go the the governor. All local Democrats voted against it, all local Republicans voted for it.
Other bill action
HB 4074 is Meghan’s Law — to train public school personnel and students regarding self-harm and eating disorder signs, prevention and treatment. The House unanimously agreed with Senate changes to the bill and it will go to the governor.
HCR 23 is a resolution calling on the Division of Highways to place at least 10 new signs along highways entering the state to honor fallen veterans and Gold Star families — immediate family members of veterans who died in service to the nation.
Delegate Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, said those who have fought for the country fought with the support of their families back home; they paid the ultimate price to defend the flag and their country.
The signs, he said, will “send a clear message to all who enter that in West Virginia, we love this country, we love our service men and women. … Those who fall and their families will not be forgotten.”
Boggs looked up to the gallery to thank the Gold Star families who attended for adoption of the resolution. His grandparents had five sons — four of whom served in World War II. One, his uncle Lawrence Earl Boggs, was killed off the coast of Sicily during the invasion. “I know what a profound effect that had on my grandparents. … This is one of the very least things that we could do.”
There should be Gold Star memorials all across the state, he said. The resolution was adopted 97-0 and will go to the Senate.
HB 4420 enables a candidate to be a school bus driver who has diabetes requiring insulin to be eligible to drive. It passed 93-0 and goes to the Senate.
HB 4517 acknowledges the disappearance of video stores. It repeals code enacted in 1990 requiring movies ratings to be displayed on packaging of rental movies in video stores. It passed 94-0 and goes to the Senate.
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