As of 4 p.m., Wednesday, February 22, the 43rd day of the 2006 Regular Session 1,370 bills have been introduced in the House of Delegates. Of those, 89 have been passed by the House and sent to the Senate for its consideration. Some of the bills that passed the House this week and have been sent to the Senate are:
House Bill 2548 would establish the Diabetes Care Plan Act to set up care plans for students with diabetes by county boards of education. School nurses would develop an individual care plan for any student diagnosed with diabetes, involving the parents, teacher, student and other appropriate school personnel.
House Bill 3258 would permit the sale of nonintoxicating beer within a certain distance from a church only with consent from that church. The license to sell nonintoxicating beer within 300 feet of a church may be refused if the church notifies the Alcohol Beverage Control Commissioner, in writing, that they object to the operation and location of the business.
House Bill 4075 would dedicate money to the Regional Jail Partial Reimbursement Fund in the State Treasury. For every fee for service received in any criminal case against any respondent convicted in circuit court, the court clerk would, at the end of each month, pay $40 into the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority Fund, $5 into the Court Security Fund and $30 into the Regional Jail Operations Partial Reimbursement Fund.
House Bill 4116 would reflect the changes in today’s timber market by raising the amount that timber in a Wildlife Management Area may be sold without a sealed bid. The price would be raised from $500 to $5,000.
House Bill 4120 would allow water service to be terminated if there are delinquent sewer bills where service is owned and operated by a homeowners’ association or privately owned public utility.
House Bill 4243 would change the threshold by which a vehicle is determined to be totaled. When calculating the damage cost, this bill would not allow the replacement cost for the air bag restraint safety system to be included.
House Bill 4272 would remove Class Q licensees from the entitlement on a Class BG (big game) stamp. The stamp allows for hunting of deer during archery and muzzleloader seasons, and bear, turkey and boar during their respective seasons.
House Bill 4283 would give preference to West Virginia veterans in the awarding of competitive bids for state contracts. A successful bid would be awarded to an individual resident who is a veteran and has lived in-state for four years if they do not exceed the lowest qualified bid from a nonresident vendor by more than 3.5 percent of the latter bid. A bid also would be won for completing the project if at least 75 percent of the vendor’s employees are residents of West Virginia for at least two years.
House Bill 4291 would allow a court to deny custody to a parent if they subjected another child or any child residing in the same household or under temporary custody to abandonment, torture, chronic abuse or sexual abuse. This would protect not just the child subject to the abuse, but any other child living in the residence as well. The same would apply if a parent were to commit murder, manslaughter or serious bodily injury to a child.
House Bill 4406 would remove the requirement to evaluate certain classroom teachers at least every three years. Teachers with five or more years of experience who have not received an unsatisfactory rating or evaluation would be excused from being evaluated unless the principal determines it necessary or if the teacher requests it.
House Bill 4470 would update the definition of the Medicare Supplement Policy. The policy would not include Medicare advantage plans established under Medicare Part C, outpatient prescription drug plans established under Part D, or any health care prepayment plan (HCPP) that provides benefits.
House Bill 4481 would establish policies for using ballot-scanning devices for tabulating election results. The use of these devices would be permitted, provided: the county would need at least one precinct ballot-scanning device in each precinct; no print out or tabulation results could be done at the precinct; the tabulation memory device could be removed only after the polls close and the votes could only be counted at the central counting center on the night of election; all voters at the precinct would be required to use the ballot scanning device as a condition of completing their vote; and, if the optical scan ballots from each of the precincts are counted at the central counting center on election night and the results from that count are published on election night. Then, the county could turn off the over vote switch on the central counting device since every ballot would have been evaluated for over votes by the precinct scanning device.
House Bill 4482 would provide for the filing of affidavits of heirship with deed records and require that the estate be administered before the heirs can deed the property to someone else. If an estate involving an interest in real property passes to a decedent’s heirs, then a copy of the affidavit would be recorded by the clerk of the county commission and indexed in the general index of deeds in the name of the decedent.
House Bill 4483 would make the use of a fictitious name with intent to misrepresent the geographic origin or location of a business an Unfair Trade Practice. This bill would protect against deceptive trade practices of services or product suppliers in print advertisements and from calls to local telephone numbers being rerouted or forwarded to a business location that is outside the state of West Virginia.
