photo by: Steven Allen Adams

Pictured from left, Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, Secretary of State Kris Warner and State Auditor Mark Hunt talk before their panel Friday at the West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Lookahead at the Culture Center in Charleston.

CHARLESTON — Barely four weeks into their new terms, members of the West Virginia Board of Public Works are looking at ways to make improvements to their departments and work with the Legislature as the 2025 session prepares to start.

Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, Secretary of State Kris Warner, State Auditor Mark Hunt, and State Treasurer Larry Pack addressed members of West Virginia’s press corps Friday afternoon during the annual West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead at the Culture Center in Charleston.

McCuskey, who succeeded former three-term attorney general and current Gov. Patrick Morrisey, has already hit the ground running, joining a multi-state federal lawsuit challenging an EPA plan to implement a waste emissions charge; overseeing the state’s share in the $7.4 billion multi-state settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family; and leading a 22-state coalition to challenge New York’s climate superfund law.

“We’re super excited in the Attorney General’s office, especially just in the last couple days, to be able to defend the things that West Virginia does best and to be able to defend the things that we’ve done to build this country,” McCuskey said. “We have a myriad of new lawyers that have come in from firms all across West Virginia that are just champing at the bit to make West Virginia the place that I’ve been trying to make it my entire life.”

Warner, the brother of previous Secretary of State Mac Warner, is both the chief business registrar of the state and the chief elections officer. Bringing his prior experience as executive director of the Economic Development Authority, Warner wants to use his office to bring together public and private resources to help entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Much of Warner’s legislative agenda this year focuses on election integrity. Warner wants the Legislature to narrow voter I.D. requirements to only photo I.D.s, enhance penalties for candidates and political action committees that fail to file campaign finance reports on time, add additional transparency to third-party political action committees and electioneering efforts, prohibit municipal ranked choice voting, and clarify who is allowed in polling locations during election day and early voting.

“The integrity of our processes, systems, and personnel is at the heart of our voter confidence,” Warner said. “As the state’s chief elections official, election integrity is a top priority through my legislative priorities. I intend to build on the relationships and expertise that our office has developed over the last eight years…My senior staff and I have been in discussions with members of the Legislature, and we anticipate there to be many more election integrity bills introduced.”

Hunt, who succeed McCuskey as State Auditor, wants to make his office less reliant on funding through the general revenue budget by increasing fees that flow into his office through special revenue accounts.

“We have a $328 million budget, and of that budget, we only have $2.7 million from the general revenue fund,” Hunt said. “So, we return back to the state of West Virginia with the products that we provide and the work that we provide to the citizens, about $250 million every year. The Auditor’s Office, by and large, is self-sufficient.”

Hunt said he will propose raising the fees paid by the securities he oversees as the state’s commissioner of securities, increase the fees the State Auditor’s Office receives from the sale of delinquent properties around the state, and increase the fees his office receives from use by state departments and agencies of state purchasing cards.

Pack, who succeed former State Treasurer Riley Moore who now represents the 2nd Congressional District, said he will take up Moore’s mantle in pushing for a bill to limit the term limits of Board of Public Works members to three four-year terms. The governor is already limited to two consecutive terms, but an effort for a term limit bill for Board of Public Works members fizzled a few years ago in the Legislature.

“I’m all in on it,” Pack said. “I think three terms – 12 years – is enough, but we’ll see if we can get some consensus. If we can, then we’ll be able to run that bill.”

Pack would also introduce legislation making the transition between two different state treasurers smoother. Moore had to resign on Jan. 3 to take his congressional seat, 10 days before Pack would be sworn in as the new treasurer, requiring former Gov. Jim Justice to swear in Pack early.

“The way things worked for succession was pretty clunky, and it was very difficult to make sure that we could get that done,” Pack said. “There are some things we’re looking at with succession. We’ve had some meetings with the Legislature. We’re going to try to make that a lot cleaner deal in case someone either resigns or is incapacitated or is ill and so forth. I think we’re going to work to get that done.”