CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice has issued a call for a special legislative session that includes establishing the Department of Arts, Culture and History.
The special session, which would overlap with regularly scheduled legislative interim meetings, is set to begin at 6 p.m. Sunday.
Under the bill dealing with the arts, the current commissioner of culture and history will become the curator of arts, culture and history. The curator will report directly to the governor.
There are several more items on the special session call.
One is a bill dealing with death benefits for firefighters killed in the line of duty. It is meant to make greater death benefits retroactively effective to Jan. 1 to help families of Pratt volunteer firefighters who died in a crash as they were responding to a fatal accident on the West Virginia Turnpike.
There are also some bills meant to clean up technical issues in legislation that was passed in the regular session. One of those deals with managing the state fleet.
The special session call does not include legislation to West Virginia’s sports betting bill. Governor Justice had expressed support for legislation that would impose “integrity fees” from casinos to professional sports leagues. Legislators have said they are not interested.
The call also does not include legislation meant to address concerns over processing funds for growers and operators under West Virginia’s medical marijuana law. Democrats have called for that lingering issue to be addressed, although much of the concern stems from federal law.