Democrats don’t have the numbers in the West Virginia House of Delegates, just 9 out of 100 members.
But they say they do have a focus on practical issues that they’ll carry through the coming 60-day session: utility bills, healthcare, childcare and housing.
“We’re going to have laser focus and prioritize four different areas: First with utility bills. We’re going to address health care. We’re going to address child care, and then we’re also going to address housing,” said House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell.
“And those are the key factors to making sure that we can have a vibrant state and a place where people want to live, play and work.”
The effort, they said during a press conference at the state Capitol, will take shape several ways: through bills they plan to introduce, through sustained focus and messaging in committee meetings and in the House chamber and through public outreach.
The Democratic caucus already went on the road to communities around the state on what they called a Kitchen Table Tour.
“This is a people driven caucus. We’ve done that, we’ve gone out, we’ve done the meetings, we’ve listened to everyone, and we’re going to reverberate in this capital what everyone has said, and we will stay on top of with those priorities,” Hornbuckle said.
“There’s nothing else that is worth more important to us than taking care of everything that is on people’s plates at home, right? What they’re what they’re talking about around their kitchen table, and that’s where we want to make sure that our focus is.”
About a month ago, the Republican majority in the House of Delegates gathered to lay out priorities, especially in policies aimed at economic growth.
Hornbuckle said the Democrats would welcome working across the aisle.
“if you’re talking about bipartisanship, we are super excited that the other side is listening to us now, right? And we’re going to hopefully do these things together,” Hornbuckle said.
“But again, I want to make it very clear that we’ve been talking about this thing ever since we got here, and we’re excited that they are following our lead.”
One of the most consistent issues the Democrats heard on their travels around the state, Hornbuckle said, was utility costs. In response, they propose addressing utility bills with a multi-pronged approach, including a freeze on electric rates until mid-2027 and reforming the Public Service Commission to be elected rather than appointed.
“What we have seen here in West Virginia is that our electric rates have increased faster than other states have seen increases,” said Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia.
“And the reason for that has been some bad decisions made by this Legislature and by the Public Service Commission, and we have several bills that will help to address that.”
The most prominent economic development bill passed during last year’s legislative session focused on data centers and their power sources.
Data centers are major power and water consumers. They can be significant tax generators and can also be sources of some employment.
Just as data centers have been lightning rods in other states where they are in greater numbers, West Virginia has had several community controversies about their proposed development over this past year.
The bill that passed last year may receive some aspects of reconsideration, particularly as it deals with local zoning and the share of local tax revenue.
“That data center bill does need to be revisited, and we’ve got a few bills to do that,” Hansen said.
One is to restore local control, he said.
“Just remember, that bill just makes local ordinances null and void, so things like setbacks or noise ordinances cannot be enforced in current code,” he said. “So we need to put local control back in state code.”
Second is to revisit the tax distributions.
“It took taxes that should be going to the local counties that are impacted by the data centers and uses most of that revenue for additional tax cuts for the rich and we want to redirect that toward priorities that actually help working people,” Hansen said.
Third is an aim to improve how the data centers affect local water resources.
“We need to make sure that these data center developers disclose to the public and disclose to the state where they’re getting the water from, what they’re doing with it and where it’s going before they become a certified data center,” Hansen said, “so that there’s transparency in the process and people know what’s going on in their communities.”