CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill vetoed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey this week is being revised by the legislature with plans of sending it back to Morrisey.
The bill, SB 369, contains a bundle of proposed rules that help in the operation of several state agencies, commissions and boards. The rules have been out for public comment for eight months before going through the Senate and House this session.
Morrisey vetoed the bill citing technical problems with a few proposed rules and for what his veto message called the “imprecise and unwieldly regulation of political action committees.”
Morrisey added the proposed rule from the state Election Commission “would likely cause confusion for those attempting to have their voices heard in our political process.”
At issue are political action committees called Leadership PACs.
“Our goal was to assist the person who wanted to create a leadership PAC as to the dues and don’ts. Then we had other important new sections in the rule that we wanted to keep,” Secretary of State Kris Warner told MetroNews.
The rule prohibits the leadership PAC from being used as a slush fund for the candidate, Warner said.
The Senate made corrections to the language during Thursday’s floor session, removing the word leadership, and sent it to the House for action with the hopes of getting the bill back before the governor.
Warner put out a statement earlier Thursday saying he was shocked with Morrisey’s veto of the PAC rule language.
“Not only is it questionable whether a Governor can “veto” a Legislative Rule, this was the first time anyone raised concerns with this Rule’s language in the last 8 months,” Warner said.
Attorneys from the legislature, Warner’s office and the governor’s office worked on the new language.
Warner said it’s unfortunate it won’t have the same public review as the rest of the rules-bundle did.
“So the new language has not been seen by the public, has not gone through the arduous and transparent public comment and legislative rulemaking and review process, and there was no time to conduct the type of necessary legal research and constitutional checks on the new regulations,” Warner said. “This is not how rules should be passed. The public deserves better than a last-minute change in, of all things, campaign finance regulations.”
Morrisey ended his veto message by saying he looks forward to working with the sponsor of the rule and the legislature in the future “to craft campaign finance reforms that better protect citizens’ speech and ability to participate in our political process.”
Warner said it’s important to get the bill signed.
“It was the other new sections in the rule we wanted to keep is the reason we compromised,” Warner said.
The House could take action on the updated bill during Friday’s floor session.