The House Finance Committee advanced a bill that would provide an average 5 percent pay raise to State Police, teachers, and school service personnel.
The committee advanced House Bill 2730 in its Wednesday meeting. Later that day, the House took up the pay raise bill for immediate consideration and advanced the bill to second reading.
A public hearing is scheduled for Friday at 8 a.m. in the House Chamber regarding this bill.
The Finance Committee additionally took up and advanced two originating bills. One bill would create a Personal Income Tax Reduction Fund. The bill proposed an incremental reduction of personal income tax rates by 0.5 percent if certain conditions are met.
Another originating bill advanced out of committee would allow the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to submit a waiver application to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to require certain able-bodied adults who receive Medicaid benefits to be employed or participate in a volunteer program for at least 20 hours a week.
Some delegates including Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, voiced their concerns with the bill. Rowe’s biggest concern was that the bill would roll back Medicaid expansion. Rowe also was concerned about the effect the bill could have on local hospitals.
“This would make ineligible the majority of 150,000 people that Medicaid was expanded to cover,” Rowe said.
Delegate Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, supported the bill. Ellington told the committee it could take up to 18 months for the waiver to come through.
“This program will try to get people back into doing something productive so we can take them out of Medicaid,” Ellington said. “Expansion is not guaranteed forever. It can fail. If it fails, we have people who are not able to take care of themselves. If people work already, they will not be penalized. They can continue their education or volunteer.”
The bill was advanced to the House floor in a 14-9 vote.
The committee rejected a bill that would have extended the maximum period of confinement a judge could impose for certain first-time probationary violations.
The committee substitute would have increased the maximum period of confinement a judge could impose for certain first-time probationary violations from 60 days to six months and would have provided judges greater sentencing discretion for certain subsequent probation violations.
House Bill 2109 was reported to the Finance Committee on third reading. However, committee members rejected a motion to report the bill to the floor.
