The House Committee on Government Organization convened at 9 a.m. on Friday, March 1 in 215-E to consider several pieces of legislation. Three of the agenda items on this day were study resolutions that originated in the Government Organization Committee, all of which were adopted unanimously.
The first study resolution would require state agencies to issue a comparative study that would analyze interstate and intrastate hauling. The resolution aims to help Public Service Commission haulers, and was adopted and advanced to the House floor with little discussion.
Another resolution involved the study of municipalities and their economies to scale. If adopted, this study resolution would require the legislature to study municipalities to best tailor efficiency incentives in individual municipalities during interim sessions. This resolution was also advanced to the House floor with recommendation that it be adopted.
The final resolution originated and adopted during this meeting was a House Concurrent Resolution that would require the WV Legislature to study BRIM, or the WV Board of Risk and Insurance Management to evaluate their outcomes and efficiency during interims.
In addition to the adoption of the three originating resolutions, the committee also had a consideration of three Senate bills.
Senate Bill 330 was advanced to the House floor with little discussion. The passage of this bill would require state agencies to include their contact information on their directory and website, unless they get expressed consent from the Legislature.
Senate Bill 344 was also advanced to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass. This bill would make clarifications regarding state-owned farms and clarify that they are owned by the Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture. It would also make technical updates to the code and provide that state institutions may purchase items from vendors that state owned farms cannot directly produce.
Senate Bill 667 was advanced to the House floor after little debate regarding the effectiveness of the bill’s passage. Senate Bill 667 would establish the WV Motorsport Committee. The committee would consist of five people including the chairperson and have to report updates to the Legislature annually. The committee would be responsible for establishing racing events and promotion in order to spur industrial and economic growth in the state. The committee would be unpaid, but subject to have their transportation reimbursed.
Several delegates held some reservations about how much of a return on investment a motorsports industry would have in the state.
“We had one of these in the state before, and it honestly didn’t do too much,” Delegate Tony Paynter, R-Wyoming said. “I don’t think the involvement of the state government would help this industry much.”
Chairman Gary Howell, R-Mineral, spoke in favor of Senate Bill 667’s passage.
“When this committee existed in the state before, it began to attract investors before it was cut due to budget cuts,” Howell said. “This is an opportunity to bring investment to the state.”
Senate Bill 615 generated a lot of discussion. The passage of this bill would allow county commissioners an ongoing mechanism to consider compensation increases for elected county official every two years in an amount up to the increase in the annual Consumer Price Index published by the United States Department of Commerce over the prior two years, or three percent, whichever is greater.
Concern over Senate Bill 615 was brought up by several Delegates, who raised concern over the power that the bill would give County commissioners to give themselves pay raises. Delegates were also concerned over the fluctuating nature of the state economy, and how the implications of the bill could change given the year.
Because of these fiscal and accountability concerns, consideration on Senate Bill 615 was postponed until Monday.
