The House Finance Committee convened at 9 a.m. this Tuesday, February 19 in 460-M to consider legislation. The committee advanced four bills to the House floor by the end of this committee meeting, one of which being a bill to establish a Cybersecurity Office in the state of West Virginia.
House Bill 2452 would establish a cyber security framework within certain state agencies. This bill would allow the West Virginia Office of Technology to establish a Cybersecurity Office within their department to facilitate a software program to strengthen the cyber security checks within state agency devices. This bill would be applied to all state agencies except for institutions of higher education, the county board of education, the WV Legislature, and the WV Judiciary. Agencies would be subject to cyber security risk assessment, adherence to enterprise standards, and plans of action in the event of a cyber-attack.
Joshua Spence, the Chief Technology Officer for the West Virginia Office of Technology, was present to answer questions the committee had pertaining to the legislation.
Spence stated that House Bill 2452 would require an upfront cost of $4.2 million in order to hire consultants and purchase the necessary software, but the cost of the agencies addressing the threats to their devices must be absorbed by the agencies. The Cybersecurity Office would be required to report activity to the WV Legislature.
“The threat is here now,” Spence said. “We have the department; this just gives us more functionality.”
House Bill 2452 was unanimously passed by the House Finance Committee, and was advanced to the House floor with the recommendation that it should pass.
Another bill that was passed by the committee was a bill that would allow the WV Lottery Commission to create satellite locations for wagering. House Bill 2901 would allow a licensed racetrack to establish a secondary location for racetrack video lottery terminals and racetrack table games at a location within the county as approved by the lottery commission.
A concern that was raised within the committee was the lack of language in the bill that put restrictions on the Lottery Commission. There are no provisions included in House Bill 2901 that would limit the commission in terms of placing a satellite location near a school or a church.
Doug Buffington, Assistant Lottery Director of the WV Lottery Commission, addressed the concerns of several of these delegates.
“I believe that if this bill were to pass, the Commission would put these terminals in locations that would be best for everybody,” Buffington said. “We’d be sure to listen to the input of all stakeholders.”
After lengthy discussion, the House Finance Committee voted in affirmation for House Bill 2901. They voted to advance it to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.
House Bill 2829 was also passed on this day, a bill that would terminate the state severance tax on the extraction of limestone and sandstone starting in 2021. The bill comes with a fiscal note of $1.2 million, but because of the Division of Highways being the largest purchaser of limestone and sandstone in the state, a lot of that cost would be directly funneled back into the state.
The bill was passed unanimously by the committee, and advanced to the House floor with the recommendation that it do pass.
House Bill 2807 was also advanced to the House floor this day. This bill would provide a reducing modification to the West Virginia adjusted gross income of a shareholder of a Subchapter S corporation engaged in banking business in WV.
The House Finance Committee is in recess until 3:30 p.m. today. They will meet in 460-M again to continue consideration of the posted agenda.
