MORGANTOWN — Here is a sampling of bills introduced Jan. 10. Local lead sponsors and co-sponsors, if any, are noted.
HB 4081 is another go at the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act. It deals with partition suits for oil and gas mineral estates and is designed to encourage some good-faith intra-family negotiation before court proceedings, and to protect mineral owners from companies that buy up small slivers of mineral tracts and force the sale of the entire tract. It died in the Senate last year.
HB 4083, to require the Parkways Authority to accept the use of credit and debit cards for paying tolls. Delegate Mike Caputo, D-Marion, co-sponsor.
HB 4088, provides a means for royalties due to unknown or unlocatable mineral owners to be transferred to the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund after seven years. It passed the House last year but died in the Senate based on a misunderstanding of how it would affect surface owners’ income.
HB 4089, the Gertrude Martin Act, to require the teaching of cursive writing in grades 3-5. Delegate Rodney Pyles, D-Monongalia, sole sponsor.
HB 4090, to create an Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund. It deals with low-producing wells and substituted a 2.5% fee on their production for the 5% severance tax, with the revenue going to well plugging. It passed both houses last year but the governor vetoed it, fearing it would harm general revenues. Delegate Dave Pethtel, D-Wetzel, co-sponsor.
HB 4091, sets up a process and fee structure for expedited horizontal gas well permitting. Last year, a couple industry lobbyists — as reported on the Senate floor on the last day of the session — undermined negotiations and killed it. The bill devotes half of the fee income to the Department of Environmental Protection and half to orphan well capping.
HB 4093, to allow lawful carry of firearms on the Capitol Complex grounds – but not in buildings. Delegate Terri Sypolt, R-Preston, co-sponsor.
HB 4095, defines what milk is and distinguishes Grade A milk from manufactured milk. In case you’re curious: “’Milk’ means the lacteal secretion, practically free of colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy hooved mammals, including members of the order cetartiodactyla.”
HB 4098, to make West Virginia a Second Amendment sanctuary state and prohibit enaction or enforcement of federal or state laws that would unlawfully abridge Second Amendment rights.
HB 4099 eliminates a section of code that allows the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists to issue permits for profession shampoo assistants. Currently, “A shampoo assistant shall work at all times under the direct supervision of a licensed barber or cosmetologist and any permit issued by the board to work as a shampoo assistant does not allow a person to practice individually as a shampoo assistant.”
SB 255, to allow people 16 and up to carry pepper spray anywhere in the Capitol Complex for self-defense.
SB 263, an abandoned/dilapidated property reclamation bill with a fun name: the Zombie Property Remediation Act.
SB 264, a $250 tax credit for taking a firearms safety course.
SB 265, an abandoned/dilapidated property reclamation bill without a fun name.
SB 268, a bipartisan bill to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state Human Rights Act.
SB 275 and 276, intermediate court of appeals bills, one form President Mitch Carmichael, one from Judiciary chair Charles Trump.
SB 284, Carmichael’s Health Care Continuity Act, touted by the attorney general, to preserve coverage of preexisting conditions if the attorney general’s lawsuit to overturn Obamacare succeeds.
SB 285, a Carmichael bill to end the Greyhound Breeding Development Fund and, by extension, greyhound racing in the state.
SB 286, to end needle exchange programs across the state. These programs are designed to curb the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among drug users who share needles.
SB 290, the Underground Mining Subsidence Damage Act to set out the parameters for repair, replacement or compensation for buildings damaged by subsidence.
SB 296, to mandate that students who participate in sports participate based on their birth gender/biological sex.
SB 302, a bipartisan bill to update foster care law and create a foster child and foster parent bill of rights.
SCR 1, a resolution to make dogs rescued or adopted form shelters the official state dogs.
SCR 2, to remind the residents of Frederick County, Va., of the open invitation to leave Virginia and join West Virginia.
