As of 4 p.m., on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011, the 43rd day of the 80th Legislature’s Regular Session, 1,267 bills have been introduced and 82 have passed in the House of Delegates. Of those, 18 passed this week and have been sent to the Senate for further consideration. The bills passed by the House this week include:
House Bill 2542 would clarify certain provisions relating to the access of cemeteries and grave sites located on private land by authorizing agents of family members or decedents to access private cemeteries or grave sites.
House Bill 2555 would create the misdemeanor offense of operating a motor vehicle while writing, sending or reading a text message by means of a wireless communications device.
House Bill 2765 would add provisions to the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (HEART act). This bill would require all plans administered by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board (CPRB) to provide any additional benefits to survivors of participants or members of a plan who died while performing qualified military service on or after January 1, 2007–as if the participant or member had resumed and then terminated employment on account of death.
House Bill 2766 would clarify the authority of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board to determine the participating employer contribution rate under the provisions of the Deputy Sheriff Retirement System. The bill would also remove the10.5 percent cap on total employer contributions paid by the county commissions and concurrent employers.
House Bill 2791 would require the superintendent of the State Police to develop a plan to increase the number of troopers to a minimum of 800 troopers by July 1, 2015.
House Bill 2885 would allow a guardian or caretaker to be employed or in an employment contract with a behavioral health provider for the purpose of providing services to the protected person for whom they are acting as guardian.
House Bill 2889 would create the Jason Flatt Act of 2011–requiring suicide prevention training for all teachers and principals.
House Bill 2918 would change the procedure for suspending, revoking or canceling a business registration certificate and would permit a registrant to appeal an order to suspend, revoke or cancel a business registration certificate, for the purpose of nonpayment of property taxes.
House Bill 2939 would clarify the definition of compensation for purposes of calculating required contribution to the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). Some of the changes include: (1) limiting the definition of compensation for the purposes of withholding contributions or calculating a members final average salary to exclude lump sum or other payments to members that are not comprised in their regular salary, (2) clarifying what happens when a member withdraws his/her accumulated contributions and (3) requiring full payment of all necessary employee and employer contributions if an error involving underpayment of required contributions results in increased payments to a barrier.
House Bill 2971 would make a technical correction under the Consumer Sales and Service Tax to conform to the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. Additionally, the bill would change the term “durable medical goods” to “durable medical equipment”.
House Bill 2993 would make several technical changes to correct weak language relating to incorrect terminology, unworkable effective dates, and to disallow some related transactions within the Commercial Patent Incentives Tax Act.
House Bill 3060 would implement a different procedure for determining the credit for utility taxpayers with net operating loss carryovers relating to the corporation net income tax.
