West Virginia will enter next week with new state laws or bills just a few months away from becoming law. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin expected to finish signing those bills by the Friday night deadline.
The bills were passed during the final few days of the legislative session that ended April 13. State law gave the governor about three weeks to review them and decide whether to sign, veto or allow them to become law without his signature.
Some bills are effective from passage while others are 90 days from passage.
Coming down the stretch the governor joked with MetroNews that he had writer’s cramp.
“We’re getting the bills reviewed right now and I think we’ll be able to address all the bills by the Friday deadline,” Tomblin said.
The governor signed the budget bill previously and surprisingly did not use his line-item veto power on the new spending plan. He says that says a lot about his working relationship with state lawmakers.
“We worked very closely with the two finance committees and the finance chairs,” Tomblin said. “And that’s one of the first times in my memory there has not been a line-item veto.”
Tomblin says lawmakers didn’t agree with his proposed budget 100 percent but the changes weren’t major.
“There were some small differences. I’m able to live with that,” the governor said.