The Senate Committee on Judiciary met today to discuss five House bills.
House Bill 2585 would creating a felony crime of conducting financial transactions involving proceeds of criminal activity. The punishments for these crimes would be tiered monetarily and each transaction would be deemed a separate offense. There was a strike and insert amendment.
Senator Miller (D-Greenbrier) once again warned the committee of adding jail time offenses because West Virginia will soon have to build new jails.
The bill was reported to the Senate with the recommendation that it pass as amended.
House Bill 2675 relates to primary elections and nominating procedures. By changing a number of sections of code, ballot races would be reordered so that nonpartisan races and partisan races would be reorganized. This would make it so that county surveyors and those in non-partisan elections in the judicial branch would have their races with others in their county.
Senator Woelfel (D-Cabell) moved to amend the bill so that a “none of these candidates” option is available for the Presidential election on the ballot so that voters can express their distaste for either candidate.
Senator Smith (R-Tucker) questioned council about what would happen if someone changed their name to “none of these candidates”. They said it has happened before in Indiana but there are contingencies in place to prevent too much confusion.
Council cited that in 1901 there was a case that declared it unlawful to cast a vote for someone who wasn’t a qualified candidate but could not confirm that the decision was grounded in the constitution or the way that code read at the time.
The bill was laid over to tomorrow’s agenda after the germaneness of the amendment was in question.
House Bill 3030 relates to appeals as a matter of right in the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. The bill would make sure that all appeals would be granted the right to hearing by the Judicial branch. There was a strike and insert amendment. The bill was reported to the Senate with the recommendation that it pass.
House Bill 2546 would allow replacement costs of employer provided property to be deducted from an employee’s final paycheck if the property is not returned. The purpose of this bill is to address employees that gain employer provided property and don’t return it. This would make an agreement between the employer and the employee so that the employer can have their things returned to them otherwise they will receive a reimbursement taken out from the employee’s final pay check. The employer would only receive the amount of money for the item’s current value and not value at the time the property was given.
Senator Romano (D-Harrison) moved to amend the amendment to make it more clear how the depreciation of the item’s value would work under the bill. The amendment to the amendment was adopted. The amendment was also adopted.
The bill was reported to the Senate with the recommendation that it pass as amended.
House Bill 2857 would create the West Virginia Safer Workplaces Act. The article created would be limited to the private sector. The bill would allow employers to test employees for drugs and alcohol, says how samples should be collected, provides that employers pay for the tests and transportation to the tests, it must be carried out through a written policy, and discipline from the findings of the test.
Senator Romano moved to amend the bill so no employee can be fired from taking legally prescribed drugs so long as the employee is using it as prescribed. The amendment was rejected.
The bill was laid over until the next meeting with amendments pending.
