Legislation that would have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into West Virginia’s fish and wildlife conservation died on the final night of the legislative session.
The bill that created a lifetime senior hunting license stalled in the House of Delegates and efforts by the Senate to force the issue got nowhere.
"The House wouldn’t appoint the conferees and it got late in the day and we just ran out of time," said Senator John Pat Fanning the Monday after the session ended. "We didn’t want to lose the other bill because it meant a lot to the family.
The other bill was legislation making it illegal to fail to render aid to a hunter who has been shot in the field. The legislation was spurred by a fatal hunting incident last spring in Kanawha County in which another hunter killed a 16-year old boy. As a tribute to his son, the father of Nick Caldwell pushed for the change in the legislature.
The Senate attached the senior license bill to that bill in hopes the House would act. When they did not, Senator Fanning pulled his amended legislation and allowed the safety bill to pass.
"We had to backtrack and pass it, there wasn’t any reason to kill their bill,” said Fanning.
Fanning lamented the loss of the bill that would allow senior citizens in West Virginia to be counted as "licensed hunters" for the purpose of recouping federal excise taxes now paid by everybody who buys guns and ammunition. The amount lost is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That money, by law goes to other states instead of West Virginia. It’s the second year the legislation has passed the Senate, but become stuck in the House.
"They (delegates) don’t seem to understand. They say they don’t have enough information,” lamented Fanning over his frustration with his House colleagues. "It would take a blind man to see, that if you just read it, it doesn’t cost us anything. It’s just an opportunity to collect some federal money."
Fanning vowed he’ll be back with the same legislation next year and keep pushing for it.
"We’re going to keep pushing for it because it’s a good bill,” Fanning said.