Wednesday begins the annual 60-day period when your elected delegates and state senators descend on Charleston to wade through thousands of bills and decide on what 10% of those bills will be sent to the governor.

I typically look forward to covering the legislative session, but I’ve got some reservations this year. You’d think with one party with significant majorities in both chambers will be able to move bills through both easily and speedily. That is a concern from a transparency perspective, but I think the opposite could happen.

With 31 out of 34 senators part of the GOP, they will have some issues, but probably have an easier time than the House. Many of the senators who won election (or switched parties after the November election) are moderates, or what we used to call traditional conservatives. Some of the shenanigans caused by a small group of senators, sometimes led by Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, will be blunted by the number of new moderates.

But I don’t envy House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, new House Majority Leader Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, or new House Majority Whip Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer. They have a new Republican caucus of 88 out of 100 members, which I suspect will be like herding cats. A group that large will probably have some internal sub-groups aligned by varying degrees of conservatism that won’t always jive with another sub-group’s notions.

One area where I think you’ll see some internal squabbles is over education. Hanshaw once again wants to introduce a bill to provide teacher aides to multiple elementary school grades. He introduced a similar bill last year, but his own House Education Committee never took it up. Instead, the committee focused on making sure schools couldn’t require face masks and fighting the teaching of critical race theory.

I suspect a similar CRT bill will come back up, as well as a bill banning certain kinds of books from public libraries and a bill that would prohibit teachers from being required to address students and staff by pronouns with which they disagree. I know these kinds of culture war issues are closely followed by a small-but-vocal group of people, but given the state’s poor reading, writing and math scores, shouldn’t we first make sure our kids know what a pronoun is?

I get some lawmakers want to rush to move these kinds of bills. But considering the West Virginia public just expanded the Republican super-duper majority in the state, are these really statewide issues that require a centralized response in a state where the majority of the electorate appears to be conservative?

The educational attainment scores of our students is a matter for statewide response. Lawmakers, especially new lawmakers, will need to learn to prioritize the bills they want because 60 days goes by fast.

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Tax reform is another topic that will dominate the session this year, though I can easily see a scenario where, once again, it comes to a stalemate not because no one wants tax reform. In fact, all sides want it. But how that tax reform evolves throughout the session could pit the House, Senate and Gov. Jim Justice against each other.

Lawmakers are staying quiet for now until Justice introduces what he called last week the “largest tax cuts in the history of the state” on Wednesday night during his annual State of the State address. We know what he teased during the fall: another attempt at a 10% across-the-board cut in personal income tax rates and an annual rebate on the motor vehicle tangible personal property taxes residents pay. I assume Justice has something else up his sleeves.

It was only a few years ago when Justice and the Senate Republican leadership were on the same side when he proposed a phase-out of the personal income tax. The House wanted a phase-out, too, but both sides clashed and the bill died. Now, it’s the governor and the House that will likely be on one side with the Senate on the other.

I’m not here to advocate for tax cuts, but with Justice and his Department of Revenue low-balling the tax revenue estimates knowing full well the state will bring in far more tax revenue, and the flat budgets avoiding new spending, it’s time to either cut taxes or craft a budget that appropriates what officials actually expect the state to bring in.

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Of course, lawmakers will be dealing with reforming the Department of Health and Human Resources, addressing issues with the Public Employees Insurance Agency and much, much more.

Whatever ends up happening over the 60 days beginning Wednesday, keep reading my stories to stay abreast of all the goings-on.