The House of Delegates met for several hours on Tuesday, passing a few bills quickly.

House Bill 201 was passed 95-1. The bill would exempt military retirement income from personal income tax. The House attempted to include social security recepients into that group, but the amendments were ruled not germane to the bill. The legislation goes to the Senate for consideration.

House Bill 203 was also passed, by a vote of 95-0. The bill relates generally to tax credits for rehabilitation of historic buildings and structures.

House Bill 205 was passed by a vote of 94-1. The bill relates to the West Virginia Jobs Act.               

The House is in recess until 5:30 p.m. today.       

The House met briefly again to pass Senate Bill 2002 – Allowing certain tax information be shared with designated DOH employees. The bill completes legislation.              

Action was postponed on Senate Bill 2003 and the House passed Senate Bill 2005.

The House is in recess until 8:30 p.m.

The House met again to pass SB 2003 – Implementing special hiring procedures for DOH and Tax Division. The bill passed with an additional amendment offered by Delegate Howell. The Senate concurred in the House amendment for the bill to complete legislation.

The House is now adjourned sine die.

Update:

The House met to pass Senate Bill 2002 -Allowing certain tax information be shared with designated DOH employees. The House passed an amendment to the bill which will go to the Senate for concurrence.

The House read House Bill 203 – Relating generally to tax credits for rehabilitation of historic buildings and structures – for a first time.

The House is adjourned until noon tomorrow.

Original:

The House of Delegates met at noon for the Second Extraordinary session.

The House had to make a few appointments as vacancies were left by Delegate Nancy Foster and the late Delegate Tony Lewis.

Del. Diana Graves (R-Kanawha) was appointed to replace Foster and Del. D. Rolland Jennings (R-Preston) to replace Lewis.

Gov. Jim Justice called a special session to address the passage of the road bond, among other pieces of legislation. The House read House Bill 201 – Exempting military retirement income from personal income tax – a first time, and refered House Bill 202 – Allowing certain tax information to be shared with designated employees of Commissioner of Highways – to committee.

The House will re-convene at 5 p.m. today.

The Joint Committee on Education Oversight will meet at 6 p.m. or immediatly following the floor session. The Health Committee Joint meeting was cancelled.

Today, both the House of Delegates and state Senate met briefly to officialy adjourn the 1st Extraorinary Session of 2017 Sine Die, or, “without day”. Before they adjourned, both bodies received a veto message from the Governor regarding HB 113, selling of the Jackie Withrow state hospital by the DHHR.

The House of Delegates and state Senate are asjourned Sine Die.

This evening, both the House of Delegates and state Senate combined to pass the FY 2018 Budget Bill and a package of bills to fund road improvement projects.

Senate Bill 1013, the Budget Bill, passed both bodies today with strike and insert amendment for the budget that limits cuts to Medicaid and higher education through use of transfers and expected surpluses. The bill was an agreed to version with the Senate and House of Delegates which includes $4.225 billion budget for general revenue. The bill goes to the governor for his consideration.

Also, the Legislature passed SB 1006, increasing funding for the road fund, and, SB 1003, relating generally to WV Parkways Authority. These measures will also go to the Governor for his consideration. 

The Legislature also adopted HCR 2, providing for an adjournment of the Legislature until June 26, 2017. 

Both the Senate and House of Delegates will reconvene at 11:00 a.m. on June 26th, 2017.