Gov. Jim Justice isn’t yet certain when a special legislative session might occur, whether he will sign a bill loosening school vaccination requirements or whether he will approve a bill freezing unemployment benefits.
He also said his veto of a $2 million allocation for research at West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute was part of his desire to spend more broadly on West Virginia healthcare.
Justice provided those status reports during a regular briefing.
Special session
The regular legislative session concluded earlier this month with passage of a $4.96 billion general revenue budget. The governor signed that bill, but Justice also wants to revisit some spending issues.
One was a tax break for childcare that he proposed during his State of the State address. That went nowhere during the 60 days that lawmakers just gathered.
Justice has also taken the position that the legislature cut health services allocations short.
Last week the governor said, “When we call ’em back this will be front and center. And to be perfectly honest we’re not going to be able probably to wait because this is going to take time, time to figure this out. We’re not going to be able to wait until after the elections because this will take time to straighten out from the folks in our revenue department.”
This week, responding to a question from Charles Young of WV News, the governor was not specific about when he’ll ask the legislature to gather again.
“I really still believe that April is a real possibility, but all I’m telling you is between now and June 30, at some point in time, we’re going to bring everybody back in special session,” Justice said, referring to the end of the fiscal year.
“We’re going to surely work with the leadership and everyone. But at the same time, there are issues we have that would be very difficult to address by bringing them back later — and that wouldn’t be good, because we couldn’t get it done.”
He again said, “We’ll get it done sometime during the period, and I lean more toward the sooner the better.”
Senator Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, said today on “Talk of the Town” on WAJR Radio that he hopes a special session could also take a second look at higher education funding.
Oliverio said once there’s more certainty on broad financial questions — like whether the state is in line to hit a trigger to further reduce personal income taxes — then some issues, including $5.1 million for WVU based on the new higher education funding formula, could be revisited.
“If we get to the May special session and it looks like we’re not going to hit metrics for that trigger occur which would be a further reduction to our personal income tax then we could spend those additional dollars on things that make sense,” Oliverio said.
School vaccinations bill
House Bill 5105 removes vaccination requirements for students in virtual public schools, and it also would allow private and parochial schools to set their own standards.
Last week, the governor said he hadn’t decided whether to sign it or reject it.
This week, in response to a question by reporter Rachel Pellegrino of Nexstar televisions stations, he said the same.
“We haven’t gotten it yet. We’re still waiting on that,” Justice said, adding “Give us time to get it at least.”
The governor described being “bombarded” with communication from people who want him to sign or veto the bill.
“I want to be respectful to everyone’s freedoms. I still want to do exactly that,” he said today. “But we’ve also got to protect all of us.”
Health professionals and others have urged Justice to veto.
“When we listen to the healthcare providers, those people who are really smart and know what they’re talking about, we need to pay attention,” said Fred Albert, president of American-Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, speaking on “The Dave Allen Show” on WCHS Radio.
Others have urged him to sign the bill, citing personal freedoms. Delegate Chris Pritt, R-Kanawha, was one of the bill’s sponsors.
“I think this bill is incredibly important in terms of building upon a lot of the expansions of freedom that we’ve seen in West Virginia in recent years,” Pritt said on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
Unemployment bill
On the final night of the legislative session, lawmakers passed an unemployment safety net bill that freezes employer contributions and freezes benefits for people who lose their jobs.
“We did get the unemployment bill yesterday and everything. We’re reviewing,” Justice said in response to Pellegrino of WOWK television.
Labor leaders have expressed concern that the unemployment rate would be locked in and would not be adjusted upward — even if average pay is rising — unless there’s another act of the legislature.
“These are benefits that have been earned by hundreds of thousands of workers in West Virginia,” AFL-CIO President Josh Sword said last week on “Talkline.”
Neurological institute funding
Last week, the governor vetoed a bill intended to provide $2 million support groundbreaking research at West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.
Lawmakers who had supported that funding were baffled.
H. B. 5014 was meant to provide $2 million as a state surplus allocation to support medical research into using ultrasound technology to treat eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. The bill wound up including another $4 million characterized as supporting hospital grants and research programs.
Justice’s veto letter called the legislation too vague.
On MetroNews’ “Talkline” this week, WVU Health System President Albert Wright said he hopes the funding can be revisited.
“That was a headscratcher. We were surprised by that one,” Wright said, describing the importance of the research. “Hopefully we’ll get that back on track and I think we’ve got broad support in the Legislature.”
Today, Justice said he wanted broader funding to boost healthcare in West Virginia. He referred to his own budget recommendation of $100 million to rural hospitals, saying that was ignored and “we just kind of went out and just picked a couple of winners.”
“We did a bunch of things for a few, and we left out an awful lot of our hospitals all across the state,” Justice said today in response to a question by reporter Steven Allen Adams from the Ogden Newspapers.
Seemingly referring to a special session, Justice indicated the funding could be revisited. “Everything will be on the table to be able to put it back together,” he said, “but in this situation I didn’t want a few to be neglected. When we call everybody back in we’ll put it all back together.”