West Virginia lawmakers will meet in special session this week to reconsider several bills that still need work after this year’s regular session and to consider a few for the first time.
Gov. Jim Justice called the special session for Monday, coinciding with legislative interim meetings, to consider 16 bills. Top billing on the agenda is establishing a fund for economic development projects. Officials have proposed putting as much as $600 million in the fund at the end of this fiscal year.
Justice alluded to the special session during a Friday briefing but without much elaboration. “There’s no point in going into any more detail on that,” he said.
The leader of the Democratic caucus in the state Senate says the session could be a little more special, though.
“On behalf of the minority caucus, I feel it is important to highlight critical issues that have been omitted from consideration,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, wrote in a letter to the chamber’s president.
“Many of these issues are time-sensitive and enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support during the regular session.”
Specifically, Baldwin said he remains disappointed that a foster care bill that fell apart in the last days of the regular session remains that way. House Bill 4344 received overwhelming approval from delegates but had several of its elements stripped away in the Senate before failing to reach consensus in both chambers on the regular session’s final day.
At one point, the bill had extra pay raises as an incentive for social services workers, a dashboard meant to provide more information about the foster care system, outlines of services for kinship families and clarification of the role of the foster care ombudsman.
Baldwin had successfully pushed to amend the bill to include a requirement to follow up on any call from a medical professional to a child abuse hotline, a policy inspired by tragedy in the community he represents.
“It is simply unacceptable that we did not pass any legislation during the session to improve our foster care system, and to repeat this error truly demonstrates our misplaced priorities,” Baldwin wrote in the letter to Senate President Craig Blair.
Baldwin also contended the special session should address a bill that would have capped the price of insulin and medical products for diabetics. Both chambers passed House Bill 4252 but ran out of time to concur on the same final version.
He also said the special session should again allow lawmakers to take up a policy affecting taxes and surcharges to benefit Volunteer Fire Departments, and he said legislators should make a priority of examining how the covid pandemic affected county budgets.
And state Democrats like Baldwin have continued their call for a gas tax holiday, like one that passed in Maryland and one being considered in Virginia.
The call for West Virginia’s special session, expected to begin midday Monday, involves 16 different bills. One is the bill to establish the economic development fund. Justice vetoed the bill a few weeks ago because of technical flaws and now aims to have it fixed.
Another is a bill that would exempt Bluefield State College from much of its current state oversight through the Higher Education Policy Commission. That bill was not considered during the regular session and is coming before lawmakers for the first time.
Another bill would officially establish an unemployment compensation insurance fraud unit, a response to the millions of dollars of fraud that mounted during the period of enhanced benefits in the covid-19 pandemic. That bill also missed a passage deadline in the regular session.
A bill would establish a Military Authority Reimbursable Expenditure Fund and providing for the adjutant general to handle it.
A couple of bills have to do with adjustments to the Public Employees Retirement System and another focuses on the West Virginia Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement System. Another includes family court judges in the Judges’ Retirement System.
A bill makes adjustments to the configurations of several state boards and another makes changes to the West Virginia Real Estate License Act. A bill limits the number of medical cannabis testing labs in West Virginia to two. And another deals with prescriptive authority for physician assistants.
A bill prohibits and defines enforcement for flying an aircraft while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Another establishes alternative educational opportunities for elective course credits.
A bill streamlines ways to give to the consistently successful West Virginia University Rifle Team. Another makes some changes to hunting regulations, particularly permitting the use of air rifles when hunting.
Baldwin didn’t object to consideration of most of those bills, but questioned whether other issues such as the foster care system should be the priority.
“I urge you to look at the priorities we are setting as a legislative body and weigh whether or not they are responsive to the needs of our people,” Baldwin wrote.
“Are people desperate for reduced CPS caseworker loads and coordinated services for foster children or are they desperate to create a new reimbursable fund for a government agency? Please consider the message we are sending to our constituency with which bills we choose to take up.”