CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Senate President Craig Blair says the last 10 days of the 2024 Regular Legislative Session will be busy as his chamber works to pass bills dealing with the state budget and unemployment.
“Our budget is ready to go,” Blair said on MetroNews “Talkline” Wednesday, known as Crossover Day in the Legislature where bills must pass their house of origin in order to be considered this session.
Blair said the Senate plans to run the budget bill out of the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday afternoon while suspending rules to pass it on the floor by the end of the day.
Exactly how the Senate will treat state employee pay raises is up in the air, but Blair said he’s hopeful there will be some sort of increase whether it’s Gov. Jim Justice’s proposed 5 percent pay raise or a little less than that.
“I’m hopeful for it and I’ve said that in the past. It might not be 5 percent. It might be 4 percent. It could be 3 percent,” he said.
The House of Delegates has already passed some pay raise bills, but Blair said those bills will remain separate from the Senate’s budget bill.
Blair hinted at possible adjustments to triggers in the state personal income tax cut.
“I’m anticipating a special session in May,” Blair said. “We’re going to fix some triggering mechanisms because, as it stands right now, we have $1.24 billion in the Rainy Day Fund. It doesn’t need any more money in there. We’re set to trigger in about $150,000 dollars that doesn’t need to be moved there.”
Blair said the Senate is also working on ways to have WorkForce West Virginia better address unemployment needs in the state.
Cleveland-Cliffs announced its tinplate production plant in Weirton will idle in April, resulting in potential job losses for 900 workers. Allegheny Wood Products also announced it will closed its doors and eliminate about 600 jobs at multiple locations.
“We’re working on a way to make it so there’s better communication with WorkForce and the employers so that if somebody gets laid off, they’ll go into a system and businesses will be able to see that that welder or that electrician is available for work and that business will be able to talk to t them directly,” Blair said.
SB 840 makes a range of changes, most significantly using West Virginia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate to determine the maximum number of weeks of benefit eligibility. So, for example, if the average unemployment rate is below 5.5 percent, the maximum duration of benefits would be 12 weeks.
That bill specifies that West Virginians would only remain eligible for unemployment benefits if they conduct at least four work search activities each week.
The bill lowers the maximum weekly benefit rate from its current 66 and two thirds of the average weekly wage in West Virginia down to 55 percent. The amount is not to exceed $550, according to the bill.
Blair said he’d like to make changes.
“The high amount that you can draw on unemployment if made the maximum wages which if you draw would be $662. The proposal that we have in place would increase it to $713 and then it would slide down and if you were still on unemployment on the 24th week, you would $458.65,” he said.
SB 841 focuses on unemployment taxes and benefits. It’s a companion bill that reflects some of the changes proposed by SB 840.
“We’ve got to be able to get that tax straightened out so that we can keep the jobs, the economic activity and growth coming in,” Blair said.
The final day of the 60-day session is March 9.