MORGANTOWN – The Senate passed bills Monday dealing with electric bikes and the National Guard. But some members’ remarks after the day’s business gave a glimpse of what’s ahead for the bill to cut income taxes.
The House bill to cut personal income taxes by 10% across the board came to the Senate and was sent to the Finance Committee Monday. Delegates on both sides of the vote had speculated that the Senate will significantly alter it.
It’s not clear how much it will change, but it became clear that members of the majority party like the bill.
Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, who in 2017 chaired the Senate Select Committee on Tax Reform, talked about the bill. He read off some recent statistics that showed that states without an income tax added the most jobs.
And pre-pandemic, in 2018 and 2019, he said, states without an income tax were in the top half of states that added jobs; looking at added jobs as a percentage of the total workforce, they added jobs at twice the pace of the other states.
HB 4007, he said, is the down payment on the work that began in 2017. “There’s nothing that we can do that’s going to be more powerful for igniting our economy than reducing and eliminating our state income tax.”
With the state looking to see a near-$1 billion surplus this year, he said, the bill’s tax cut can be accomplished without doing anything else. “It’s something I think we need to give serious thought to.”
Last year, the House and Senate were at loggerheads, with the House offering a plan that lowered the income tax rates gradually and relied on growth to make up the lost tax revenue. The Senate proposed a plan modeled on the governor’s, offsetting the losses with tax hikes in other areas.
The impasse concluded after the governor publicly scolded the House for not going along with his plan, and the House then rejected the Senate version in a historic 0-100 vote.
Urging some caution, Sen, Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, questioned Karnes’ conclusions about the jobs gains, saying “correlation does not equal causation.” In other words, it’s not proven the states’ tax structures are what grew their workforces.
He also cautioned that that bill will benefit those at higher income levels – including members of the Senate – more than those in the state’s middle and working classes.
He plans to offer an amendment, he said, to require legislators to reveal how much their taxes will be reduced.
SB 537 will address possible future shortages of firefighters and security guards for the National Guard. Law allows only Guard members to fill those jobs.
The bill came from the governor at the request of the Nationall Guard. It allows members who reach age 60 and are required to retire to continue to serve the Guard as civilian firefighters and security guards until they turn 62.
And it allows the Guard to temporarily employ civilian firefighters and security guards when deployments, mobilizations or other circumstance cause shortages.
It passed 33-0 and goes to the House.
SB 560 deals with electric bicycles, expanding the types of e-bikes that may be used where regular bikes may travel. The intent is to offer more areas open to e-biking to draw more recreational riders into the state, bill supporters said.
Current code identifies two types of e-bike: Class 1, where the motor works only when the rider is pedaling and stops working when the bike reaches 20 mph; and Class 3, which also works only when the rider pedals and shuts off at 28 mph.
The bill adds Class 2, which can move the bike without pedaling, and shuts off at 20 mph.
Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, expressed concern that the bill takes away local control regarding who can access their local trails.
It was said in response the bill is intended to make it easier for riders to go from place to place, trail to trail, and have uniformity of regulation.
It passed 22-11, along party lines, and goes to the House.
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