As of 4 p.m., Wednesday, January 17, 2007, the eighth day of the 2007 Regular Session, 290 bills have been introduced in the House of Delegates. Of those, two have passed the House and will now go to the Senate for its consideration. A sampling of bills introduced include:
House Bill 2006 would involve income tax reduction for gifts to West Virginia charities. The purpose of this bill is to permit deductions from federal adjusted gross income, for personal income tax purposes, for contributions to religious, educational or charitable organizations.
House Bill 2014 would relate to establishing the offense of setting fires in a public right-of-way or road. A criminal penalty would be given for this offense.
House Bill 2026 would provide that identity theft is a felony if a person steals someone’s identity with the intent to commit another crime. Any person who knowingly takes the name, birth date, social security number or other identifying information of another person, without the consent of that person, with the intent to fraudulently make financial or credit transactions in the other person’s name, or with the intent to commit any crime, is guilty of a felony and would be incarcerated in a penitentiary state correctional facility for one to five years, or fined up to $1,000.
House Bill 2033 would relate to false reports of child abuse. Any person who falsely reports child abuse shall be sentenced no less than 40 hours of community service.
House Bill 2038 would provide for a $100 a day penalty for employers failing to withhold an employee’s income for child support obligations. Upon being given notice to withhold, an employer shall withhold from employees a specified amount by the notice and pay such amount to the Bureau for Child Support Enforcement for distribution. Notice given to the employer shall contain only information relative to the amount of child support being held.
House Bill 2056 would relate to the Civil Service Commission and require the State Personnel Board to consider public employees’ seniority as the prevailing factor when awarding benefits or withdrawing benefits under the classified service. Also, the bill provides for current employees to receive preference for filling available positions; and eliminates the use of performance records in determining the order of layoffs.
House Bill 2061 would discourage nonpayment of individual personal assessments levied for noncompliance with current mining statutes and rules by permitting assessed individuals the opportunity to either pay the penalty within the prescribed time or to complete a training class instead.
House Bill 2065 would permit the head of an at-risk family to accept school loans, grants and scholarships without losing assistance while in school. “At-risk family” means a group of persons living in the same household, living below the federally designated poverty level, lacking the resources to become self-supporting and consisting of a dependent minor child or children living with a parent, stepparent or caretaker-relative.
House Bill 2118 would provide for safe schools through alternative education programs for certain students. The State Superintendent shall grant county boards awards for pilot or innovative alternative education programs based on the following criteria: Programs that will serve the most students in the alternative program; programs in elementary schools that utilize in-school suspension and requirements that alternative students work their way back into the regular classroom through improved behavior; programs in middle and junior high schools and high schools that provide at least sixteen hours of instruction per week and requirements that students work their way back to the regular classroom through improved behavior; and other criteria specifically related to ensuring safety in regular classrooms and alternative education strategies to help improve student behavior and learning.
House Bill 2123 would eliminate the consumer sales and service tax on food. The bill also would increase the cigarette excise tax to $1.00 per pack and increase the excise tax on non-cigarette tobacco products to 15 percent.
House Bill 2167 would relate to prohibiting the use of a person’s credit history in insurance transactions.
House Bill 2173 would establish a system where pharmacies share information so that they may be alerted when an individual is attempting to go to multiple pharmacies with prescriptions from multiple doctors to obtain drugs for resale.
House Bill 2191 would relate to exempting start-up businesses founded by West Virginia college or university graduates from various state, county and municipal taxes for the first three years of operation.
House Bill 2194 would authorize issuance of warrants to extract blood analysis of persons charged with driving under the influence. Any person who drives a motor vehicle in this state is deemed to have given his or her consent by the operation of the motor vehicle to a preliminary breath analysis and a secondary chemical test of either his or her blood, breath or urine for the purposes of determining the alcoholic content of his or her blood.
House Bill 2224 would increase both the minimum annual disability benefits amount for a State Police officer and the minimum annual death benefits amount for a surviving spouse of a deceased State Police officer from $6,000 dollars to $10,000 dollars.
House Bill 2274 would relate to calculating child support under extended shared parenting plan.
House Bill 2278 would relate to increases of salary for public employees based upon residential housing costs. Every eligible employee with three or more years of service would receive an annual salary increase equal to 4 percent of the employees’ regular salary, if that employee resides in a county where residential home prices are at least 20 percent above the statewide average for residential homes.
House Bill 2289 would authorize the practice of E-prescribing, by which prescription orders are electronically transmitted between such health care providers and pharmacists. “E-prescribing” means the transmission, using electronic media, of prescription or prescription-related information between a practitioner, pharmacist, pharmacy benefit manager or intermediary. E-prescribing includes, but is not limited to, two-way transmissions between the point of care and the pharmacist. E-prescribing may also be referenced by the terms “electronic prescription” or “electronic order”.
Bills Passed House
(Week of January 10-17, 2007)
House Bill 2051 relates to including lasers as a method of proving the speed of vehicles. The bill would update the provisions of the West Virginia Code by adding laser technology as a method in which the speed of a motor vehicle may be proved for law-enforcement purposes. Laser devices use a time/distance calculation to measure speed. The devices aim a narrow band of light at the target vehicle and measure the time it takes to receive the reflected light.
House Bill 2052 relates to providing that the term “impersonation” of a public official or employee includes the act of operating a motor vehicle which falsely displays an official emblem or other marking. The bill would make it unlawful for a person to knowingly impersonate or purport to exercise any function of a public official, employee, tribunal or official proceeding without legal authority to do so and with the intent to induce a person to submit to or rely on the fraudulent authority of the person.
