MORGANTOWN – Three local legislators turned out for a 2023 session wrap-up roundtable put on Tuesday at Mon Health Medical Center by the Morgantown Area Partnership.
Sen. Mike Oliverio and Delegate Joe Statler, both R-Monongalia, and Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, fielded questions from MAP and members of the audience.
They opened by noting some of their favorite accomplishments from the session. Oliverio cited a bill that allows small businesses – he mentioned LLCs – to pay taxes at the entity level, rather than the individual owners paying individual, and take a federal tax credit.
He also noted funding for WVU and WVU Medicine, $205 million total, including $50 million for the Cancer Institute to be designated a National Cancer Institute, which will allow clinical trials to be performed there and offer West Virginians access to new state-of-the-art treatments.
Statler, Education vice chair, pointed to HB 3035, the Third Grade Success Act, which focuses on reading and math skills, and dyslexia and dyscalculia. While it will take a few years to unfold, “I think it is going to make a world of difference in education.”
Hansen mentioned two of his bills, the PFAS Protection Act, to address “forever chemicals” in drinking water, and HB 3110, his bill that drew nine GOP co-sponsors and will increase the number of oil and gas well inspectors.
On the topic of failed bills that must be revisited, they all cited bills to increase funding for EMS services and volunteer fire departments, which died in the final hour of the last day over disagreement over an amendment, and to raise pay for corrections officers.
On the EMS bill, Statler, said, “We’ve got to find a way to fund these services in West Virginia.” They are hopeful, they said that the bills might reappear in a possible August special session.
They all agreed that geographic divisions remain an obstacle to some legislation. Statler said many see Mon County as wealthy, with all the advantages. “We’re the superpower and we can do what we want.” That perception has prevented the new Harmony Grove interchange on I-79, to serve the Morgantown Industrial Park, from becoming a reality.
Hansen said parochialism tainted the discussion of Form Energy citing its battery plant in Weirton. Some would say, “Why should I support anything coming to Weirton when nothing is coming to my county?”
Oliverio said Mon and Berkeley counties, the state’s two growth areas, now have much in common, and issues such as locality pay for that area also have a bearing here, but not so much in rural areas. The old north-south divide now has become a kind of triangle – north, south and east.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
