Republicans dominate the West Virginia Legislature with 89 of the 100 members in the House of Delegates and 31 of the 34 members of the Senate.
So the most consequential disagreements are often Republicans against other Republicans. A new group, the Freedom Caucus, is forming to more formally recognize those differences.
Delegate Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, said the Freedom Caucus currently includes 32 members — including 25 in the House and seven in the Senate.
He said the caucus will focus on “protecting personal freedoms, shrinking the size of government, reinforcing traditional family values and reducing spending.”
He said bills that reflect those priorities often languish in the Legislature.
“I would say that we’re a Republican body, that is true — and the Republican Party platform pushes conservative values — but many times those values that we’re pushing are not actually making it through the Legislature and that’s the issue we’re trying to force with some of these bills that not just conservatives in the state but the Republican Party in the state wants to happen but aren’t getting across the finish line,” Foster said on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
Republicans in the Legislature have shown divides on issues like the specifics of abortion restrictions, vaccination requirements, the financial structure for state insurance, locality pay for government workers in high-expense areas to earn more, tax incentives for manufacturers, legislation meant to bolster coal and gas production and more.
“We will have our own agenda and actually have bills that we specifically want passed. Right now we haven’t had a formal vote on what those will be,” Foster said.
“Obviously one thing is going to be reducing taxes and shrinking the size of government,” Foster said, adding that the caucus is interested in revisiting the governor’s emergency powers that were the subject of scrutiny during months of pandemic actions. “And then also some vaccination freedoms.”
The state just passed a major personal income tax cut, but Foster said that was countered by millions of dollars in surplus spending.
“Rather than doing a 21 percent tax cut, we should have done a 50 percent income tax cut — somewhere between 30 and 50 percent rather than down 21 percent,” he said. “That was not far enough because we haven’t controlled the spending. Otherwise we could move forward much faster on giving West Virginians some relief on their income taxes.”
The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, earlier this year, issued a legislative scorecard meant to measure votes on key business issues, business engagement and leadership qualities.
The leadership team for the Freedom Caucus did not produce the highest scorers.
Foster, the chairman, scored 54.84 out of 100.
Senator Patricia Rucker, the vice chairwoman, scored 43.3 percent. Delegate Geno Chiarelli, the caucus secretary, received 48.39. Delegate Bill Ridenour, the fourth member of the caucus steering committee, scored 53.57.
Foster said the Freedom Caucus will be putting out a scorecard of its own as well as getting involved in political races.
“The goal is just to form together a block and make our opinions heard because there are a lot of conservatives in the House and the Senate. I feel like that’s not the bills that are getting run compared to a more moderate agenda,” Foster said.
“Of course, the Freedom Caucus will be putting out a scorecard and getting involved in primary elections because that’s necessary to get a conservative agenda across in many of these races.