Photo by Steven Allen Adams State Senate President Craig Blair, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, and House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle answer questions from the press at Friday’s annual West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead in Charleston.

CHARLESTON – School discipline, capital punishment for fentanyl pushers, funding for EMS and non-uniformed corrections staff, and data privacy are just some of the bills legislative leaders in West Virginia plan to push in the upcoming session next week.

Legislative leaders in the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates presented their plans for the 2024 regular session of the Legislature to members of the state press corps during the annual West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead at the Culture Center in Charleston.

The second session of the 86th Legislature begins at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 10, and continues for 60 days, ending at midnight Saturday, March 9. Gov. Jim Justice will give his eighth and final State of the State address to a joint legislative session the evening of Jan. 10, presenting his revenue estimates and budget bill for the fiscal year 2025 beginning in July.

Justice has said he intends to offer the fifth straight pay raise for public employees, teachers, school service personnel, and state troopers. Previous years saw state employees receiving 5% pay raises, with public workers receiving a $2,300 pay increase last year in order to blunt the effects of changes made to Public Employees Insurance Agency premiums.

This year’s 5% pay raise proposal – also meant to counteract the effects of PEIA health insurance premium increases for public employees – could cost between $115 million and $120 million. But state Senate President Craig Blair, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, and House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle all expressed support for a new pay raise package as long as the state could swing it financially for the next fiscal year.

“I personally am in favor of doing that again if our finances will allow us to do that,” said Blair, R-Berkeley. “We want to be able to do that.”

“That is a shared priority for all of us,” said Hanshaw, R-Clay. “The PEIA Finance Board did move forward with a proposed increase. We’ll offset that. We take that seriously. When our state is doing well, we want our employees to do well.”

Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said lawmakers also need to remember public employee retirees. Last year, public employee retirees received a one-time $1,500 bonus for public employees and teachers with 20 years of service and over the age of 70. State employee retirees with 25 years of service who receive less than $1,000 per month also saw a $1,000 monthly benefit increase.

“One of the things that we’ve always championed is having a cost-of-living adjustment for our retirees,” Hornbuckle said. “It’s very, very important for us, especially our state workers. We have to do that. One of the promises that we made them long ago in working for our wonderful state was they’re going to have great benefits. We’ve got to make sure we carry that into retirement because again, that’s about our economy.”

Blair said the Senate will focus on the issue of school discipline. The Senate is looking at legislation, similar to a bill passed last year dealing with grades 6-12, that would focus on Kindergarten through fifth grade. House Bill 2890 allows teachers in grades six through 12 to exclude students from the classroom who are disorderly, interfering in the educational process, or obstructing a teacher from their classrooms for the remainder of the school day.

A new bill could require separate classrooms for students with behavioral issues to create a safer learning environment. These separate classrooms would have specialists trained to assist students with behavioral issues and include cameras to monitor the classrooms.

“What we need to do in the classroom is be able to take that disruptive student out, move them to a classroom where there’s cameras, where there’s specialists, and allow those teachers to do their jobs without the disruption,” Blair said.

Hanshaw said the House is monitoring the new performance-based funding formula for public colleges and universities, which goes into effect this year.

“For far too long, funding to our higher education institutions was based in very large part on whether your school was represented on the House or Senate finance committees. That’s not a viable way to do business,” Hanshaw said. “Working with the higher education institutions in our state, we developed our state’s first ever mathematical quantitative funding formula that will drive the allocation of state resources out into the higher education institutions around our state.”

Under the performance-based model, 30% of a college or university’s funding will be determined by a point system based on how many degrees a school awards, the number of graduates from programs of high need in the state, and getting students considered “academically underprepared” their diplomas, and other factors. Data would be determined by HEPC using a three-year rolling average and other information.

Democratic lawmakers want to ensure that the legislative majority continues to focus on public education and making sure county school systems remain funded.

Republican lawmakers have implemented a public charter school pilot program, passed legislation allowing for micro schools and learning pods, and passed the Hope Scholarship education voucher program that allows families to use a portion equivalent to $4,489 of the money set aside for that student in the state’s per pupil school aid formula for certain educational expenses, including homeschooling and private school tuition.

But the school aid formula for county school systems is based on fall headcount enrollment numbers. As more students leave public school for public charter schools or private education options, the less in state funding county school systems receive. In the case of the Hope Scholarship, the program is limited to students already enrolled in public school, but the program opens up to all children in 2026 and could cost taxpayers as much as $102.9 million annually. And according to the left-of-center West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, more than $300,000 has been spent through the Hope Scholarship for out-of-state education service providers.

“What we’ve also done with the Hope Scholarship – while affording people the ability to go to private schools, micro schools, micro pods, charter schools – we’ve actually had dollars to leave our state,” Hornbuckle said. “We want to be focused this session on how do we bolster our public education system … if we erode it with monies leaving our state with a lack of transparency, then shame on us.”

Blair said he will sponsor a bill this year to bring back capital punishment for fentanyl manufacturers and wholesale distributors. West Virginia’s death penalty was eliminated in 1965. While there have been bills offered nearly every year to bring it back, those bills have been unsuccessful. But Blair believes a bill limiting capital punishment for major fentanyl trafficking crimes will help deter transportation of the dangerous opioid to the state.

“Do I think anybody will ever be put to death in the state of West Virginia? I doubt it,” Blair said. “But what we’re wanting to do is send a message out to these animals that are selling this and manufacturing this to stay the Hell out of West Virginia.”

“Pushers of fentanyl are murderers,” Hanshaw said. “I don’t know any option that can curtail those people’s activity in our society, but it is something that ought to be considered.”

Hornbuckle believes in the legalization, regulation, and taxation of recreational cannabis. Ohio became the 24th state to allow for recreational marijuana, with two other states surrounding West Virginia – Virginia and Maryland – having similar laws.

“We’re a believer in adult-use cannabis,” Hornbuckle said. “That is something that we can have in our toolkit to help pay for items as we go down this journey and moving West Virginia forward … It’s time that we do something. We can protect our people with it by managing it here. We can also see the financial benefits of it. I’m a great supporter in that.”

Hanshaw said the House will continue to look at long-term funding for volunteer fire departments and emergency medical services. While fire departments received $12 million during the August 2023 special session, funding for EMS services has remained elusive.

“One of the priorities for us in the House this year is making sure that we’ve adequately funded those organizations,” Hanshaw said. “That we’re making sure that emergency responders are available to come deal with the tragedies that happen and that confront our daily lives here in West Virginia. It’s a priority for us.”

Hanshaw also said there will be a bill to provide non-uniformed employees of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation a pay increase. Those employees received a one-time bonus during the special session. The House will also look at data privacy legislation. In the House Democratic caucus, Hornbuckle said members plan to focus on incentives for childcare, women’s healthcare, and greater transparency at the Public Service Commission.