KINGWOOD — Two state senators and two delegates spoke Thursday during the Preston County Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 Legislature Update Thursday.
Sens. Randy Smith and Dave Sypolt, and Delegates Terri Sypolt and Buck Jennings talked about the most recent session during which 2,216 bills were introduced — 1,483 by the house and 733 by the senate. Of those, 550 passed.
As the session closed, there were 24 bills left unfinished. Smith said he was told a special session will be called for those bills and they will be put on a special call list.
He also discussed the ongoing problem with roads in West Virginia, saying that a lot has been done to fix problems in both Preston and Monongalia counties.
“The other counties don’t have the problems you have in Preston County,” Smith said. “But there is a lot of roadwork and ditching we didn’t see in the past.”
At the request of Gov. Jim Justice, the West Virginia Legislature held a special session to approve an appropriation of $150 million to the DOH to spend on West Virginia’s secondary roads. The project types ranged from paving, slide repair, bridge repair and drainage improvements.
Sen. Sypolt talked about the business climate in
West Virginia. He said several large companies, including Frito Lay are planning to locate factories in the state. Sypolt also said $600 million in federal infrastructure funds will help West Virginia with projects like bridges and internet service.
Delegate Sypolt said March 12 marked the end of her last session. Both she and her husband, the senator, are retiring and will not be seeking office.
“During my three terms of office I have been through a couple of years of teacher strikes, impeachment of the Supreme Court, had some major power outages and floods, and hit with COVID and a pandemic, and for the past three years been under a constant state of emergency,” she said. “So I really don’t remember what a normal session really looks like.”
She said one good thing that came out of the recent session was the passing of SB468, which created the Unborn Child with Down Syndrome Protection and Education Act. It was signed by the governor Monday.
She said two of the house caucus bills relating to limiting an abortion to 15 weeks’ gestation, and another relating to fetal body parts did not complete the process.
Jennings talked about Hopemont Hospital. He said every session there are four state hospitals that are discussed, including Hopemont.
“This year they wanted to close three, Hopemont was not included because they knew Terri and I would vote against it,” he said. “We have to keep these state hospitals open. There are patients that other places won’t take.”
He said splitting the state Department of Health and Human Services (HB4020) into two departments, the Department of Health and the Department of Human Resources, would help keep the hospitals open.
Jennings also said he believes there needs to be changes in education.
“Do you know how many students are competent at third grade level?” he asked. Twenty-nine percent. “This year the speaker ran a bill going to cut the student ratio down to 12 to 1. Trying to teach 26 kids — you can’t do that. It didn’t make it through.”
However, a lot of legislation was passed to help improve public education. SB704 allows parents, grandparents and guardians to inspect instructional materials in the classroom; SB261 requires video cameras in certain special education classrooms; HB3073 relats to the West Virginia Emergency School Food Act; HB4600 makes it a felony for a person in a position of trust to assault, batter, or verbally abuse a child; and HB 4074 requires schools to provide eating disorder and self-harm training for teachers and students.
For all of the information about the 2022 session go to www.wvlegislature.gov.
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