BILL REVIEW – State Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr explains one of several additional appropriations bills passed by the House and Senate on Monday. –Courtesy photo/WV Legislative Photography

CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Legislature agreed Monday to a second special session this year, but consideration of Gov. Jim Justice’s request for a 5% cut in personal income tax rates and a child care tax credit will have to wait until next week.

Both the House of Delegates and the state Senate convened Monday morning for a special session called by the judge on Saturday. However, in addition to both bodies completing action on six additional appropriations bills, the House and Senate passed concurrent resolutions allowing them to adjourn the special session until 6 p.m. on Sunday, coinciding with the start of the October legislative transition sessions.

The seven-day pause will give the governor and the Legislature more time to negotiate on Justice’s passage of the 5% personal income tax bill, which, when fully implemented, would restore approximately $115 million to taxpayers. The Senate version of the plan, Senate Bill 2025, is in second reading, while the House version, House Bill 225, is pending before the House Finance Committee.

Both House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said those negotiations are ongoing.

“I assume … as far as I know,” Criss said after the House adjourned when asked whether negotiations would continue into next Sunday.

“These are ongoing discussions,” Tarr said after the Senate hearing. “I would say that between now and next Sunday we will have more discussions with the (Republican) caucus.”

Criss and Tarr appear to be on opposing sides of an additional 5% personal income tax cut on top of the 4% cut that goes into effect in January 2025, which will refund taxpayers $92 million. Criss supports finding a way to make the personal income tax cut profitable for taxpayers, while Tarr is more cautious about the long-term effects of lowering personal income tax rates too quickly for income and spending to keep up.

“I am behind this 100%,” Criss said. “I don’t mind giving money to people. The government must be able to dispose of the necessary money. Taxpayers put up with this for a very long time. They need a break.”

“I have my doubts at this point,” Tarr said. “I want to see tax cuts continue into the future, and if we cut income taxes too aggressively, we risk going backwards and having to raise taxes to cover the costs of running the government.”

During a news conference Monday afternoon, members of the House Democratic Caucus criticized the judiciary for calling lawmakers into a special session ahead of their regularly scheduled October period meetings without any consensus on a bill to cut the personal income tax by 5%. Justice, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, was the first to propose a fall special session after the May special session, and he first introduced his tax cut plan in July.

“(Justice) had more than enough time to reach consensus with the House and Senate majorities, but he failed to do so,” Del. said. Mike Pushkin of Kanawha, chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party. “We’re stuck here twiddling our thumbs on taxpayers’ dimes.”

“We are here, at taxpayer expense, taking care of Jim Justice, the emcee of this circus,” said House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio. “We are frustrated, you can hear it in my voice.”

Tarr said the bills passed by the House and Senate on Monday achieved overwhelming approval from lawmakers on both sides of the state Capitol and the Governor’s Office.

“We have looked at potential measures like what was just announced,” Tarr said. “We went back and forth to see where the agreement was between these three houses, and what you saw today is indicative of where the easiest agreement was today.”

The Legislature finalized House Bill 201, approving $10 million for the Communities in Schools program; House Bill 202 giving the Highway Department $150 million in spending authority, already approved by the Legislature in a special session in May; House Bill 203, providing $1.2 million for capital improvements at the state Veterans Home in Barboursville; House Bill 204, providing $375,000 to the West Virginia State Police for recapitalization and improvements; House Bill 206, providing $2.1 million to the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University; and House Bill 207, providing $379,468 to the state Department of Education’s Exceptional Child Assistance program for wage increases not included in the budget bill passed earlier this year.

On Monday, the House passed two other bills that were not passed by the Senate. House Bill 205 would provide the West Virginia National Guard with more than $15.6 million to improve capital expenditures and the Recruit WV employment program. It was 90-1.

House Bill 208 would allow the state to reach an agreement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The bill would allow the state to work with the commission to begin developing rules and regulations relating to, handling and disposal of low-level radioactive materials. The state already regulates the disposal of X-ray and MRI machines, but does not regulate some radioactive materials used to treat cancer or for other medical purposes.

“With this bill, we would comply with the Appalachian States Low-Level Radioactive Waste Agreement,” said House Energy and Manufacturing Committee Chairman Bill Anderson, R-Wood. “This would eliminate duplication of control of these facilities by both the federal and state governments.”

“It makes sense because it gives West Virginia primacy on these issues,” Del. Bob Fehrenbacher, R-Wood. “I think this is a good step for West Virginia because it doesn’t deal with waste from nuclear generating facilities… I don’t see this as opening the door for that waste to come to West Virginia.”

HB 208 passed the House with a 73-18 majority, but not before there were questions about the bill’s purpose and why it was urgent enough to be included in the special session call. A similar bill – House Bill 2896 – passed the House in 2023 by a 91-4 majority but was defeated in the Senate. The only change between the 2023 Act and the 2024 Special Session Act was the transfer of state authority from the Department of Environmental Protection to the Department of Health.

“I’m not sure why there’s such a rush to pass this bill in the special session,” the Del. said. Evan Hansen from Monongalia. “Perhaps it would be possible if this bill went to committee and we could put people under oath, ask questions and get satisfactory answers, and some of my concerns could be allayed. However, a topic like this regarding radioactive waste deserves greater analysis, discussion and investigation to ensure we are taking the right action.”

“I have some concerns about this,” Del said. Jim Butler, R-Mason. “I don’t know if anyone else has seriously considered it, and I don’t know if there’s any sense of urgency that we have to do it in this special session.”

Lawmakers will have 22 bills to consider next week, out of a total of 28 bills introduced in the special session of the Court, including the child care tax credit and other additional measures. Other pending bills include allowing public charter schools to apply for infrastructure funds from the School Building Authority and authorizing clinical trials of opioid treatment programs.

Democratic lawmakers were critical of items that didn’t make it to the special session call, including legislation to close a loophole in state law for homeschooling families to submit assessments. There have been several high-profile incidents of child abuse and neglect in the state over the past year involving families who homeschool their children as well as district school systems that fail to report to schools when those families do not turn in required grade-level assessments. third, fifth and eighth. and 11th grades

“I think it’s not necessarily about what’s going to be the focus of this special legislative session, but that’s not what it’s about, which is protecting our children,” Fluharty said. “The governor, who had enough time, did not enter into any conversation. “This is too complicated an issue for him…the governor admits he doesn’t want to put in the time and effort to solve the child care crisis in this state.”