After completion and passage of the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget lawmakers were called into the First Extraordinary Session of 2009. Each bill on the Governor’s Call was discussed, debated and passed. These included:
House Bill 102 – which adjusted gross receipts from pari-mutual racetracks with West Virginia Lottery racetrack table games. It increased percentages of racetrack table games revenues that are distributed to host counties and municipalities.
House Bill 103 – created the Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Act which established a minimum alternative and renewable energy portfolio. By the year 2025, at least 25 percent of the electric energy sold to retail customers in this state is to be generated from alternative and renewable energy resources.
House Bill 104 – continues the Motor Fuel Excise Tax Shortfall Reserve Fund although a specific date (June 30, 2013) has been set to terminate the fund.
House Bill 105 -reclassifies retail liquor licenses. Liquor licenses run on a 10 year cycle and are up for re-bidding. The measure allows standalone stores to opt out of competitive bidding and would allow them to pay the minimum bid plus 10 percent.
House Bill 109 – establishes zones of educational innovation that will allow school employees to collaboratively devise and implement 21st Century school improvement strategies that are currently restrained and/or restricted by policies issued by the state board or the West Virginia Code.
House Bill 113 – reissues revenue bonds for tourism and education and provides a procedure for selecting projects which are to receive moneys from the bonds.
Senate Bill 1001 – helps struggling third- and fourth-grade students get back up to par with their peers through a summer instruction program. The additional in-school, after-school or summer school instruction would cover deficiencies in reading, math, or language arts.
Senate Bill 1002 – allows the development of pay rates and employment requirements to support the recruitment and retention of certain classified service positions at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital and William R. Sharpe Hospital. The Legislature found that the two mental health facilities have extreme difficulty in recruiting and retaining health care providers and other employees who assist in the direct service of medical care to patients.
Senate Bill 1003 – establishes the High- Technology Business Property Valuation Act which would make some high tech materials and tangible personal property exempt from the consumers sales and service tax and the use tax. In addition the bill calls for taxing high-tech companies at their salvage value, which is five percent of actual value. The measure is designed to encourage high-tech companies to locate Internet “server farms” in the state.
Senate Bill 1006 – revises dates for action with respect to hiring, termination, resignation or transfer of teachers and school personnel so that hiring determinations may be made earlier in the year to better allow county boards to recruit new teachers. It also allows county school boards to hire graduating college seniors, pending their obtaining a teacher’s certificate. This change permits school boards to participate at job fairs.
Senate Bill 1009 – provides a tax deduction for creation of trusts to support children with autism and also establishes the procedure of creating the funds.
Senate Bill 1010 – allows a county commission to adopt an ordinance that limits the areas of the county in which a business may offer “exotic entertainment”. However, changes in an ordinance prior to the passage of this bill may not affect an existing business.
Senate Bill 1011 – expands the Office of Coalfield Community Development’s authority to develop post-mining land use plans for mountaintop-removal sites. This would assure the participation of the office in working with local economic development authorities in developing post-mine sites.
Senate Bill 1014 – provides $26.5 million to assist flood victims throughout the state.
Senate Bill 1015 – provides $21 million to ease the backlog of past-due payments owed by the state’s Public Defender Services. The program reimburses attorneys who are asked by judges to represent poor people in criminal and other cases.
The Legislature has adjourned Sine Die and will return to Charleston for June Interim Meetings on June 15-17.
