MORGANTOWN – The House of Delegates continued progress on crafting a state budget Tuesday, pasting its budget bill into the Senate’s and sending it back to the west wing.
The Senate bill, SB 250, came over with essentially the same General Fund number as the governor’s: $4.645 billion. It trimmed just under $9.4 million of the governor’s proposals and added in the same amount of Senate proposals. It also included in surplus spending $50 million for the Miners Mutual Fund bill.
The House figure is a bit lower: $4.641 billion. The House budget factors in its income tax reduction bill, HB 4007, which reduces revenue by $90 million and makes it up with surplus funds. It also factors in the House version of the state employee pay raise bill, which increased the raise for state troopers from $2,500 to $10,000.
Both bills were on third reading.
How it worked was the House took up its bill, HB 4023, considering and rejecting three amendments proposed by Democrats, including one to spend $50,000 to put video capability in House meeting rooms, and one to give state retirees a one-time $1,000 stipend.
The House then amended its bill into SB 250 and put it up for a vote.
Discussion was brief. Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, talked about the projected $800 million surplus for this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
“We have a lot of proposed spending that will take place over the next year that’s not in this budget,”he said. “The dollars we have in surplus revenue can put us on the path to returning dollars to taxpayers.”
An $800 million surplus, he said, means, “we’re taking more money from the taxpayers than we should be taking to fund the government.”
The vote was 93-2 with two Republicans voting against it.
With that passed, the House then tabled its own bill.
Senate action
The Senate breezed fairly quickly through a series of bills.
HB 4785 is a response to state Supreme Court Justice Evan Jenkins recently stepping down and changes state law for handling judicial vacancies.
Judiciary chair Charles Trump, R-Morgan, explained that Jenkins’ term was set to expire in 2024. Gov. Jim Justice is expected to appoint a replacement sometime in April or May. Under current law, that appointee would have to run for election to the seat in November. That would make it difficult for the appointee to simultaneously learn the job and run for statewide office.
Current law requires an election to take place to fill the vacancy if the unexpired term is greater than two years. The bill changes it to three years so the Supreme Court appointee won’t have to run until the May 2024 judicial election.
“I think it’s good policy,” he said.
Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, agreed. “It’s a good bill,” he said. In his 40 years as an attorney, he’s seen that most of the best justices come up from the circuit courts. They have experience and have demonstrated balance and fairness.
Without the bill, he said, the whole pool of circuit judges will be lost because they won’t step down from their jobs to fill a vacancy for four months and try to run for higher office. “We want the best pool of applicants to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court.”
The vote was 30-3. Locally, Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, voted no. It returns to the House for amendment concurrence.
Among them was HB 2177. It allows the Division of Motor Vehicles to issue an ID card without a photo to a person whose religion or religious belief prohibits taking photos. The vote was 33-0. It returns to the House for amendment concurrence.
HB 3223 would allow the state building commission “to prohibit the dedication or naming any state building or public structure for a public official who is holding office at the time of the proposed dedication or naming.”
Two other parts of the bill grant county and municipal governments the power to impose the same prohibition if they wish. It passed 31-2 and will go to the governor. Caputo voted against it.
HB 4003 allows the state or private entities to sell rare earth elements and critical minerals extracted from mine drainage.
It enables parties treating mine drainage — which are waters of the state — to extract rare earth elements and critical minerals from the mine water and use, sell or transfer them. The state Department of Environmental Protection is restricted to deposit its income from water it treats into the Special Reclamation Water Trust Fund or the Acid Mine Drainage Set-Aside Fund. Private parties treating water under a DEP permit may keep their proceeds.
It pssed 33-0 and returns to the House for amendment concurrence.
HB 4675 deals with two types of low-speed autonomous delivery vehicles: mobile carriers and personal delivery devices. The bill spells out their rules of operation and passed 33-0. It heads to the governor.
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