Focus Shifts Towards Opposite Chambers’ Bills as Session Nears End

Last Wednesday marked the 50th day of the Legislative Session, also known as Crossover Day. This marked the final day to pass a bill out of the chamber of its origin with the exception of budget and supplementary appropriation bills. The Senate passed a total of 53 bills last week before the end of the day on Crossover Day. The House calendar had 59 bills on third reading on Wednesday and 52 of those were approved and sent to the Senate for consideration. Overall, 148 House Bills were passed by the 50th day this year.

The bills passed in the Senate focused on a wide-variety of issues including education, drug abuse, firearms, veterans and other topics of high-concern for West Virginians. Some employees, including teachers and State Police forensic lab employees, may see salary increases soon after the Senate passed SB391 and SB486.

Brooks McCabe (D-Kanawha) was one senator who spoke in support of SB486, which provides pay raises for State Police forensic lab employees. According to McCabe, the state spends roughly $5 million holding inmates whose trials are delayed waiting for forensic lab test results. Some of these inmates may be innocent, but because of our often slow forensic lab testing, tax dollars and state funds are spent holding them in prison. The idea behind SB486 is to spend a little more money hiring forensic lab employees and providing those employees with a more competitive wage to move trials along more quickly. McCabe estimated that this would save the state millions of dollars and the salary wages would pay themselves off.

Addressing the state’s prescription pill and meth epidemics has been another focus for the Senate this year. While the Prescription-only Pseudoephedrine bill passed earlier in the session, the Senate has now passed SB419, which creates the Overdose Protection Act. The bill creates protection from the citation, arrest, or prosecution of a person who seeks medical help for themselves or others in instances of drug overdose. The bill is designed to encourage those in danger due to drug-use to seek help, rather than risk long-term damage or death in fear of being arrested. The bill passed the Senate unanimously with one absent, not voting.

Finally, the Senate passed SB317 last week, one day before Crossover Day. This bill creates a uniform regulation of firearms, ammunition and accessories throughout the state, rather than allowing cities and counties to regulate gun ownership laws. Senator Bill Laird (D-Fayette), a supporter of the bill, believes these new regulations will create a more consistency throughout the state and will make gun ownership regulations more simplistic. The bill passed the Senate unanimously with two absent, not voting.

One of the most pressing issues facing the state this year is the expected budget shortfall. To address this issue the House passed House Bill 4333, legislation that seeks to free nearly $39 million toward balancing the state’s 2015 budget that begins July 1. The legislation seeks to help close the expected hole of at least $140 million in next year’s budget by taking funds from a variety of one time monies and lottery allocation deductions.

Those deductions include $4.8 million from a fund to support racetrack purses and $1.4 million from casino subsidies. The proposal also seeks cuts in the amount of $6.8 million from various state government funds, which would include $5.5 million from two funds for improvements to the Capitol Dome and Capitol renovations.

The bill also takes $20 million in a one-time reduction for sewer and water infrastructure projects and $5 million from a fund to promote business expansion, formation and recruitment.

The Budget will still need to be reconciled in the extended budget session following the end of the 2014 Regular Session, but this measure seeks to lessen the impact of expected budget cuts.

House members also passed a House Joint Resolution (HJR) which if passed by the Senate would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment during the November General Election. The proposed constitutional amendment in HJR 108 would give certain tax breaks to the Boy Scouts of America’s Summit Bechtel National Scout Reserve in Fayette County. The organization wants to make the facility available to community events but currently cannot or risk losing tax-exempt status.

All the resolution would do is provide state residents an opportunity to vote on the proposed constitutional amendment next November. The Legislature, if the resolution is adopted and a majority of voters approve, would be able to determine the allowable uses of the Summit property.

The Boy Scouts of America held their National Jamboree at the Fayette County site last summer and thousands of Boy Scouts, scout leaders and family members from across the country visited West Virginia.

Two gun related bills were also approved on Crossover Day in the House. First, House Bill 4310 would make permits or applications for a permit to carry a concealed weapon exempt from public records requests. Currently, records of those who want to carry concealed weapons are subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. Second, House Bill 4501 was passed and would allow current or retired law enforcement officers employed as school guards to carry a gun on school property provided that they meet the criteria and qualifications to carry a concealed weapon as a “qualified law enforcement officer” under the criteria set forth in the Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act (LEOSA) of 2004.

With Crossover Day in the past, the Senate will now be focusing their attention on bills that have been passed out of the House of Delegates and the House will focus on Senate bills. High status bills that the Senate will be considering in the next week include a bill that will help fill the budget’s deficit, a bill that will ban abortions after 20 weeks, and a bill relating to a child’s right to nurse. The House is holding daily committee meetings regarding Senate Bill 373, the above ground storage tank bill, the Future Fund, the Move to Improve Act. All bills must complete legislation by midnight on Saturday, March 8, which marks the end of the 2014 Regular Legislative Session.