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Saturday, August 23, 2025
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House Finance Advances Oil and Gas Tax Credit Bill

Juliet Thomas
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House Finance Advances Oil and Gas Tax Credit Bill

The House Finance Committee advanced House Bill 4421 on Wednesday, which creates the “Natural Gas Liquids Economic Development Act” and the “West Virginia Natural Gas Liquids Property Tax Adjustment Act.”

House Bill 4421 aims to encourage the development, transportation and use of natural gas liquids to encourage the growth of the industry in West Virginia. The West Virginia Natural Gas Liquids Property Tax Adjustment Act grants a tax credit to oil and gas companies for the production, transportation, storage, use and consumption of natural gas.

It is estimated that this tax credit will cause a $1 million loss for the state’s General Revenue fund. Supporters of this bill say that this loss can be regenerated with new investments that the tax credit will attract. There will be no reduction for oil and gas companies’ taxes on a county level.

Mark Muchow, Deputy Secretary for the Department of Revenue, testified in committee that this tax credit will mainly benefit smaller investments.

Many members in the committee agreed that this bill shows the state’s willingness to encourage the growth of the oil and gas industry. The hope for many members is that this bill is the start of more legislation that will be able to use more money to support the development of this new industry.

House Bill 4421 was reported to the full House with the recommendation that it do pass.

House Passes Insulin Cap Bill

Juliet Thomas
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House Passes Insulin Cap Bill

The House passed House Bill 4543 Wednesday, which would create a cap on the price of insulin.

House Bill 4543 aims to reduce the skyrocketing costs of insulin by capping the cost of a 30-day supply of insulin at $25 with insurance.

More than 240,000 West Virginians have diabetes, and it is estimated that over 65,000 people have the disease undiagnosed. Most of these people rely on daily doses of insulin to survive. The cost of insulin can exceed $600 per month even with insurance. One in four diabetics ration their insulin due to the high costs. This causes organ failure and even death.

Under this bill, health insurance policies and plans that are issued or renewed by July 1, 2020 must provides coverage for insulin that follows the guidelines of this bill.
Although this bill caps the cost of insulin at $25 per month, nothing stops insurance companies from making the price even lower. This bill covers those with private or PEIA insurance but does not cover those with Medicare or Medicaid.

Barbara Fleischauer, D- Monongalia, is one of the sponsors of this bill. During the floor session, she spoke in the words of the scientist who discovered insulin, “No one should profit from a lifesaving medication.”

This bill has had strong bipartisan support since it was introduced.

The House passed 11 other bills.

The House concurred with the Senate amendment for House Bill 4353, therefore completing action on the bill.

Seventeen bills were advanced to third reading. Fifteen bills were advanced to second reading.

Action for two bills, House Bills 4852 and 2663, was postponed for one day.

The House is adjourned until 11 a.m. Thursday.

Senate Rejects Bill to Eliminate Greyhound Breeding Development Fund

Madison Perdue
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Senate Rejects Bill to Eliminate Greyhound Breeding Development Fund

The Senate met at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday and passed 1o Senate bills and 1 House bill.

The Senate debated SB 285, which terminates the WV Greyhound Breeding Development Fund and redirects all money from the Fund to the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund.

Senator Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, spoke in favor of the bill. “Whether we pass it this year, or next year, or the next, it is going to happen,” he said. Carmichael stated that Greyhound racing is a dying industry that has been outlawed in many venues. He argued that the industry is harmful for dogs, and that it should not be considered a priority for the state’s funding.

Senator Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, spoke against the bill, saying that the industry was not in decline. Weld stated that in 2019, this industry generated $124 million, a 34% increase from the last ten years. Weld also opposed the bill saying that there was no plan described for finding homes for the dogs involved if the industry was terminated.

Senator William J. Ihlenfeld, D-Ohio, also rose in strong opposition to the bill. “This bill would be catastrophic to the city of Wheeling,” he said. He argued that the economic impact of the Greyhound Racing industry is substantial and also stated that he would not support the industry if he found that the dogs were mistreated.

When the Senate voted on the bill, it was rejected 11-23.

The Senate passed SB 747, which requires the Bureau of Public Health to develop a Diabetes Action Plan. This plan would include convening a task force, conducting data, drafting a plan for prevention, disease management and treatment and tracking relevant statistics regarding diabetes.

Senate bills 6, 204, 652, 655, 686, 740 and 748 were also passed and will advance to the house.

The Senate also passed House bill 4501, which amends procedures for refusing offenders from commitment to a jail. The bill also authorizes the acceptance of certain offenders who refuse medical treatment.

Two bills returned from the House to the Senate with amendments. The Senate concurred with the House to complete legislation for these bills.

SB 620 authorizes the Commissioner of the Division of corrections and Rehabilitation to approve home plans for inmates and to establish requirements for the program.

HB 4007 requires a physician to perform life-saving measures on a child born alive during an abortion.

The Senate also adopted Resolution 46, congratulating the Victory Baptist Academy volleyball team for winning the 2019 WV Christian Education Association State Volleyball Tournament.

The Senate is adjourned until 11:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.

The Senate Finance Committee will meet at 3:00 p.m. today and again at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in room 451M.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet at 3:00 p.m. in room 208W.

The Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will meet at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Senate Judiciary Advances Originating Bill on Drug Treatment

Madison Perdue
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Senate Judiciary Advances Originating Bill on Drug Treatment

The Senate Judiciary Committee met at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday and discussed four bills, all of which advanced to the floor.

House bill 4217 is a rules bundle for the Department of Environmental Protection. Senator Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, proposed a strike-and-insert amendment that would provide for the financial compensation of damaged property. The committee adopted the amendment in a vote of 9-8 and advanced the bill to the full Senate.

Originating Bill 2 was also advanced, and will be reported to the floor where it will receive a bill number. This bill requires law enforcement to create a referral program for substance abuse treatment. The bill would require individuals in possession of certain drugs to surrender those drugs to law enforcement without prosecution. This program would align with current programs already in place in Kentucky.

SB 528 was also discussed and debated by the committee. The purpose of the bill is to more simply define independent contractors and create objective standards to differentiate independent contractors from employees.

The committee also advanced SB 752, which updates codes and regulations regarding the distribution of medical cannabis. The bill increases the locations of dispensaries and increases the forms of acceptable medical cannabis. The bill provides that the Tax Division of the Department of Revenue and 5the Bureau of Public Health are to monitor the price of medical cannabis.

House Bill Seeks to Fund Road Improvements

Juliet Thomas
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House Bill Seeks to Fund Road Improvements

The House Finance Committee advanced House Bill 4613, relating to the reparation of roads damaged from oil and gas drilling.

House Bill 4163 allows the Division of Highways to use the money in the Gas Field Highway Repair and Horizontal Drilling Waste Study Fund in the district where the waste was generated or where the fee was received from oil and gas drilling companies. The Division of Highways has the records of the roads that are most impacted by the horizontal drilling and waste, and the money from the fund will be used to repair the roads.

This bill will bring more money to the counties that are most heavily impacted by the waste from drilling companies. This includes Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, and part of Monongalia counties.

The horizontal drilling waste assessment fee is the fee charged upon the disposal of drill cuttings and waste. The amount charged is $1 per ton of waste. This money goes into the Gas Field Highway Repair and Horizontal Drilling Waste Study Fund.

This fund was created in order to repair roads that have been damaged by oil and gas companies that create wells. In committee, it was established that in some circumstances, the companies are supposed to be responsible for repairing the roads after their jobs are finished. However, it has been difficult to enforce the bonds from the companies.

House Bill 4613 will be reported to the full House with the recommendation that it do pass.

The House Finance Committee also advanced Senate Bill 657. This bill allows for the designation of tourism development districts. Development districts can be created for tourism projects that cost $25 million that are in municipalities with less than 2000 residents. Projects are approved by the development office.

Senate Bill 657 also will be reported to the full House with the recommendation that it do pass.

House Passes Foster Care Legislation

Juliet Thomas
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House Passes Foster Care Legislation

Seven House Bills were passed Tuesday during the House floor session, including major foster care bill, House Bill 4092.

House Bill 4092 aims to do multiple things to improve the struggling foster care system in West Virginia. The bill increases the per diem rate for foster parents and kinship families, providing a total of $30 per day, per foster child. The Department of Health and Human Resources will pay Child Placing Agencies $75 for each child in placement and foster families will be reimbursed 40% of the daily rate that the CPA receives. Additionally, the bill creates a Foster Child and Foster Parent Bill of Rights and sets “reasonable and prudent” parent standards. Lastly, the bill defines minimum standards for the guardian ad litem, which are the attorneys that represent children in the foster care system or family courts.

This bill seeks to benefit foster families, kinship families and Child Placing Agencies across the state.

This bill has had major bipartisan support throughout the legislative session. Although there is a significant fiscal impact with this legislation due to the per diem rate increases, no funds were cut from the bill during the committee process.

Delegate Jason Barrett, D- Berkeley, said during the floor session that it’s worth noting that the bill came out of the Finance Committee with no changes.

“This is an investment in West Virginian children,” he said. “These improvements over time will have hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.”

The House concurred with the Senate amendments for six bills, therefore completing action for these bills. The House concurred with the Senate amendment for House Bill 4007 but also added an additional amendment. The House refused to concur with the Senate amendment for House Bill 4275. Senate Bill 620 was passed with a title amendment.

Twelve bills were advanced to third reading. Nineteen bills were advanced to second reading.

Two resolutions were introduced.

The House is adjourned until 11:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Senate Passes Bill to Eliminate Licensure Obstacles

Madison Perdue
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Senate Passes Bill to Eliminate Licensure Obstacles

The Senate met at 11 a.m. Tuesday and passed eight bills, including a bill that intends to remove licensure obstacles for people with certain criminal convictions.

House Bill 4353 creates a rational nexus requirement between previous criminal conduct and decision making for initial licensure. The bill’s purpose is to remove obstacles for employment for persons with criminal records seeking licenses and certifications for certain careers governed by state laws.

The Senate also passed House Bill 4601, which allows members of a police or fire municipal pension plans participating in a DROP to be considered active members in order to determine the distribution of premium tax proceeds.

Six Senate bills also advanced to the House Tuesday.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 778, which creates a supplemental appropriation of expired funds from the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund to various accounts in the Department of Health and Human Resources.

Senate Bill 779 also passed and transfers funds from the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund to the Department of Veterans Assistance.

Senate Bill 725 was passed as well. This supplemental appropriation bill amends and increases items of appropriations to the Department of Education for the 2020 fiscal year.

Senate bills 572, 717 and 780 were also passed and will advance to the House for further consideration.

The House considered and returned Senate Bill 544 to the Senate with Amendments. This bill allows pharmacists and pharmacy interns to distribute immunizations. The Senate concurred with the House’s amendments, completing legislation for this bill.

The Senate also adopted Resolution 45, congratulating the St. Mary’s High School golf team for winning the 2019 Class A Championship. A brief recess was held for the presentation of this resolution.

The Senate is adjourned until 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The Senate Education Committee will meet at 2 p.m. in room 451M.

The Senate Committee on Government Organization will meet at 2 p.m. in room 208W.

The Senate Finance Committee will meet at 3 p.m. in room 451M.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet at 3 p.m. in room 208W.

Senate Finance Advances Bill on Personal Property Tax Elimination

Madison Perdue
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Senate Finance Advances Bill on Personal Property Tax Elimination

The Senate Finance Committee met at 3:00 p.m. today to discuss Originating Bill 4, which creates a 6-year phase out of personal property taxes on manufacturing equipment, machinery, inventory and automobiles.

The bill creates a Special Revenue Account and provides that the Governor and the Legislature are to restore funding to counties and municipalities should the tax be eliminated.

To replace the revenue lost by the tax elimination, the bill calls for an increase from 6 cents per dollar to 6.5 cents per dollar on sales and use taxes.

The bill increases the tax on cigarettes from $1.20 per 20 cigarettes to $2.00 per 20 cigarettes, and raises the tax on other tobacco products from 12% of the wholesale price to 50% of the wholesale price. E-cigarettes and vaping products would also see a tax increase, from 7.5 cents per milliliter to 50% of the wholesale price.

The bill states that all money collected from these taxes are to be deposited into the Special Revenue Account. The Consumer Sales and Use Tax collections are estimated to increase by $116.5 million annually, $88 million of which would come from the tax on tobacco products.

After counsel explained the bill, a representative from the Department of Revenue answered questions from the committee.

The Executive Director of WV Associative Counties also answered questions from the committee and spoke briefly against the bill, stating that the bill takes taxing authority away from counties.

Senator Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, asked the director how this bill would affect counties, then stated that if the tax killed investments and jobs in the state, the counties would likely benefit.

Several members of the committee raised concerns regarding the bill. Senator Douglas E. Facemire, D-Braxton, asked whether this bill would simply give relief to corporations but cause citizens to suffer because of increased taxes.

After much discussion, Senator Ron Stollings, D-Boone, proposed the amendment that $2 million per year retrieved from the tobacco tax be dedicated to tobacco addiction prevention and recovery programs. This amendment was adopted by the committee.

The committee advanced the bill to be reported to the full Senate with recommendation for passage.

The committee also advanced Senate Joint Resolution 9. This is a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to eliminate or lower ad valorem personal property taxes. This however does not permit the Legislature to raise property taxes above their current limits. The resolution eliminates the current constitutional requirement for uniformity of taxation and allows the legislature to set different rates of taxation, assessment or valuation in the state. The resolution will be reported to the full Senate with recommendation for passage.

House Finance Advanced DNR Police Officer Retirement Bill

Andrea Lannom
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House Finance Advanced DNR Police Officer Retirement Bill

A bill, which would establish a new retirement system for West Virginia Division of Natural Resources police officers, advanced out of House Finance Monday.

The retirement system proposed under House Bill 4363, is based off the deputy sheriff’s system, and would allow current officers to participate in the system along with any new officers.

For the first year, the employer contribution would be 10% with future contributions at 12%. Costs to set up the new system were estimated at $200,000, which the agency plans to cover. DNR Director Steve McDaniel told the committee that the agency loses two to three officers every year to other law enforcement agencies because of retirement options.

“We have lost two officers just this year,” McDaniel said, noting that having more competitive retirement benefits could save money because of the cost to train new people.

The new program was estimated to increase the unfunded actuarial liability to $3.5 million, amortized over 30 years. This includes transfers of 117 current active members of the PERS system to the new program. Under the bill, it is anticipated that officers would be able to retire sooner than under PERS.

The bill now heads before the full House.

Before tabling the bill, the committee debated legislation that would reduce the personal income tax.

House Bill 4892 would reduce the personal income tax by .25% of the current rate once certain triggers are reached. The bill proposed to establish a special revenue fund called the Personal Income Tax Reduction Fund, which would accumulate funds through internet sales, traditional lottery games known as Travel or Keno operated in convenience stores, gross terminal income from video lottery games, revenues from satellite racetrack facilities should they be created, everything from sports wagering, and everything from interactive gaming once it is up and running.

Funds would be used to replenish losses from the proposed personal income tax reduction. Once the revenue secretary determined the amount of personal income taxes that would have been collected had the income tax been reduced .25% compared to what was actually collected, and if the money in the special revenue account was 2.5 times what that amount would be, that would trigger the .25% reduction in personal income tax.

Delegates mentioned concerns with factoring in revenue from sources that are not up and running yet, such as satellite racetrack facilities, and also mentioned concerns that other obligations from these current revenue sources like senior centers, PEIA, and the Promise scholarship, would be superseded by reducing the income tax.

Two amendments were proposed to dedicate various amounts of revenue from adult use cannabis, should it be enacted, toward the special revenue fund created under the bill.

Delegate Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, made a motion to table the bill, which was adopted, because of the remaining questions and because there was no fiscal note.

Additionally, the House Finance Committee advanced Senate Bill 573, which was a supplemental appropriation for the 2020 fiscal year claims against the state.

Senate Passes 11 Senate Bills, 5 House Bills

Madison Perdue
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Senate Passes 11 Senate Bills, 5 House Bills

The Senate met at 11:00 a.m. today and passed 16 bills, five of which originated in the House.

SB 702 allows a school district to develop programs including but not limited to an optional physical fitness program to teach nutrition and physical fitness. The bill also creates a fund from which money can be awarded on a competitive basis to qualifying school districts.

SB 490 addresses criminal offenses against agricultural facilities. The purpose of the bill is to protect these facilities by establishing that damaging, destroying, or depriving the operator of a facility of their property is a criminal offense. The bill males a person who commits such an offense liable for twice the amount of the damages they cause.

SB 746 provides contracted managed care companies with the uniform maternal screening tool for their own covered lives. The data collected by the tool will remain confidential with these contracted managed care companies.

Senate bills 265, 279, 306, 589, 597, 703, 706 and 712 were also passed and advanced to the House for further consideration.

Five House bills were passed on Monday.

HB 4166 prohibits sex offenders convicted of sexually violent offenses from having a supervisory position over children. This also applies to a person required to be on supervised release between the sentencing term of 10 years to life.

HB 2497 was also passed, which clarifies the protections given to an individual under the Whistle-Blower Law. The bill provides that an employer cannot retaliate or discriminate against an employee who reports illegal activity or corruption within the workplace.

HB 4476, 4470 and 4381 were also passed on Monday.

Additionally, the Senate completed legislation for two Senate bills and one House bill which were considered and returned with amendments by the House.

The Senate concurred with the House for Senate bill 310, which updates the terminology of certain terms used in the WV Personal Income Tax Act.

Senate 560 was also considered, which allows certain medical professionals to administer medication in nursing homes under the supervision of a registered nurse. The House proposed a technical amendment, which was amended and passed by the Senate.

The House rejected the Senate’s amendments for House bill 4179. This bill enters West Virginia Recognition of Emergency Services Personnel Licensure Interstate Compact. The Senate receded from their amendments and legislation was completed.

Senate bills 797-836 were introduced and referred to the appropriate committees.

The Senate adopted Resolution 41, designating February 17, 2020 as Pancreatic Cancer Day at the legislature. The Senate also adopted Resolution 42, celebrating the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. After remarks from the Senate in support of this resolution, a brief recess was held for the presentations of each resolution.

Resolution 43 was also adopted, recognizing President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln for Presidents’ Day.

The Senate is adjourned until 11:00 a.m. tomorrow.

The Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will meet at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in room 451M.

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