West Virginia Legislature Begins Special Session
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CHARLESTON -- The West Virginia Senate made quick work of 44 bills Sunday night on a special session call issued by Gov. Jim Justice earlier that same day, concurrently with the Legislature's special session, while the House of Delegates chose to review most of the legislation before passing the bills.
Justice and the West Virginia Legislature have been working toward a special session to address multiple pressing issues, but Justice issued a proclamation at 3:30 p.m. Sunday calling the Legislature into special session at 4 p.m. Sunday.
The House didn't gavel in until shortly before 5:30 p.m. and the Senate didn't gavel in until after 6 p.m.
"I've said time and time again that I would call a Special Session as soon as I heard from both the Senate and the House that they were ready to take these issues up," Justice said in a prepared statement. "They've told me they're ready, so I'm looking forward to their quick decisions on these important issues."
There are 44 items on the August special session call dealing with the state's correctional crisis, increased funding for fire and EMS, additional funding for highways, the designation of a new state park at Summersville Lake, a fix to the new vehicle tangible personal property tax rebate, and numerous supplemental appropriations.
The Senate suspended constitutional rules requiring bills be read on three separate days to pass 27 bills and send them on to the House. While the House suspended constitutional rules to pass eight bills, delegates chose to read most of the bills a first time and refer the bills to committees for further review. The House Finance Committee will meet at 8 a.m. Monday to review supplemental appropriation bills.
The special session includes several bills to help take the pressure off the state's regional jails and prisons and alleviate the staffing shortages among correctional officers. One bill would create a critical need pay program to provide additional pay in jails and prisons with the highest number of shortages. Another bill would restructure correctional officer pay scales to allow for increases in salary without moving out of certain officer tiers.
August marks one year since Justice issued his second state of emergency to address severe shortages of correctional officers and staff, with statewide vacancies more than 30% and the vacancy rate for some specific facilities more than 60%. The West Virginia National Guard and the Division of Natural Resources have been assisting.
Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said there were several good bills being considered to help retain and recruit correctional officers and help with overcrowding in jails and prisons. However, while one bill gives correctional staff a one-time bonus, Garcia said staff should also receive a pay raise as well.
"The good is we're taking some action. It's also good that we're looking at it comprehensively with how we can try to reduce our prison populations with non-violent offenders," Garcia said. "From my understanding, it only includes correctional officers, and hopefully there is a decent fix to the issue of pay there, but I don't know that is going to do what is needed to do with correctional employees and counselors who are also very important to making sure we have a complete rehabilitation system."
Other correctional bills include clarifying that inmates cannot be charged for temporary identification cards, requiring cities to reimburse counties for regional jail per diem fees when someone is incarcerated by a magistrate court when that person could have been prosecuted in municipal court, and prohibiting the use of state funds for specific medical procedures for inmates.
Other bills deal with reforming pretrial release, such as clarifying the right to pretrial release, clarifying maximum bail amounts for multiple misdemeanor offenses, revising the definition of bail, requiring county persecutors to provide data, and development of pretrial release programs in all judicial circuits.
Justice included bills to provide $12 million in additional funding for local fire and EMS providers on top of $10 million that was included in the current fiscal year budget for fire/EMS. The bills passed the Senate unanimously. Justice said this was a temporary fix, with the goal of developing a permanent funding fix at a later date.
"This is one-time money we're able to provide for our counties, so I will bring all parties to the table very soon, including the counties and the Legislature, so that we can all work together to find a responsible funding stream for our First Responders without raising taxes," Justice said. "We all know that our First Responders are our heroes, so I'm very proud to propose this funding."
More than 200 fire departments and EMS providers wrote a letter to Justice last week asking for assistance for struggling departments. Of the state's more than 400 fire departments, only 11 are full-time paid departments. Communities across the state rely on volunteer fire and EMS for emergency services.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said the fire/EMS funding bills also include transparency and accountability provisions to ensure the funds are used for their intended purposes.
"The bill places certain reporting requirements on any fire department that wishes to remain eligible to take from the Fire Protection Fund," Tarr said. "The bill would also include as a reporting requirement an accounting of the volunteer fried department's revenues and expenses for next two years. Additionally, any volunteer fire department wishing to remain eligible for its share of the funds must begin tracking its accounts on the State Auditor's Open Checkbook system."
Another bill would create a new state park at Summersville Lake on the northern shore in Nicholas County. The 177-acre site would make it West Virginia's 36th state park and the first state park added in more than 30 years. The development of the new state park would be a public-private partnership with public hearings to be scheduled by DNR at a later date. The bill passed the House 83-0.
"I couldn't be more proud to announce our newest State Park," Justice said. "Summersville Lake is an iconic place in our beautiful state filled with a lot of special memories that span generations of families. Now, all those who travel to Summersville Lake will be treated to the greatest outdoor adventure park in the country on the shores of our state's largest lake.
Other bills include a $150 million supplemental appropriation for the Division of Highways for additional road maintenance funding, and a bill to clarify that individuals who paid their entire vehicle tangible personal property taxes would still be eligible for the full rebate on those taxes.
State officials had urged taxpayers to only pay the first half of their vehicle taxes to remain eligible, but the fix will ensure that those who paid the full tax early can still get the rebate. Both the Senate and House passed the bill unanimously.
All in all, the total dollar amount of all the supplemental appropriations bills comes to approximately $721 million. Some of those appropriations include reappropriations between different accounts or additional spending authority. But some of the funds are coming from part of the $1.8 billion in surplus tax dollars from the end of the 2023 fiscal year in June. Of that, the state has more than $451 million to appropriate.
Other supplemental appropriations include $45 million for Marshall University as it expands its cybersecurity program, $4 million for wildfire fighting equipment for the Division of Forestry, $55.8 million for the school aid formula, $210 million for the Governor's Civil Contingency Fund, and $175 million for the Division of General Services.
August interim meetings began Sunday and will wrap up Tuesday. Scheduling a special session during legislative interim meetings can save money with lawmakers and staff already in Charleston. The average daily cost of a special session outside of interim meetings is approximately $35,000.