As the annual West Virginia legislative session is set to begin, the governor and the House of Delegates have started outlining what they want to do.
The state Senate is a different story.
The governor’s big splash will be State of the State address at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the first day of the session. But he has already outlined some goals, including some economic proposals, the desire for public employee pay raises and tax cuts and approaches to the state’s troubled child welfare system.
The Republican majority in the House of Delegates stood together a month ago and outlined a range of economic and workforce development priorities. The House Democratic minority outlined priorities in a press conference Monday afternoon, after a weeks-long kitchen table tour around the state.
But the Senate focus is less clear.
Although the Senate has a 32-2 Republican supermajority, that group’s focus can often break down with infighting.
COMMENTARY by DAVE WILSON: Consensus or chaos in the Senate?
Senator Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, made waves when he made a volunteer appearance at Friday’s Legislative Lookahead preview of the session and told attendees of the West Virginia Press Association event that the Senate has no agenda.
“I’ll tell you that the Senate Republican majority has no consensus on an agenda at all,” Tarr said. “I expect a bit of a free-for-all, because that’s extremely odd and I’m frustrated by that.”
Tarr vied for the Senate president role in 2024, but the majority chose his fellow Republican Randy Smith of Tucker County instead.
Tarr repeated his assessment today on MetroNews Talkline. He said senators used to gather months before the session and to discuss priorities.
But he said that hasn’t happened this year in the Senate, where he believes up to three factions compete in the majority.
“So yeah, and it’s a frustration of mine to come in, as a senator in a Republican mega majority, come in and really, not know what the plan is set, except for it to be a possible free for all,” Tarr said on statewide radio.
Senator Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier, expressed more optimism for the session during an appearance on WJLS Radio. But he acknowledged that lawmakers need to work toward some consensus.
“You know, we have to look for a consensus on the Senate side. And we’re looking optimistic for several different issues. If we can hone in on, just concentrating on what’s best for West Virginia, I think we can work through maybe kind of other smaller disagreements,” Deeds said.
Deeds described needing to hear more about the governor’s agenda while also taking a look at some of the economic proposals that the House leadership has described.
“I believe we need to really see what the House drops, you know, here in the first week or so — and and see what kind of bills they drop and then also listen intently to what the Governor says Wednesday night,” Deeds said.
“And then, then we have some potential legislation, but that we also don’t want to get in the way of either one of those branches. And so we want to supplement. We want to build that up, if that makes sense.”