West Virginia’s legislative session showed mixed results – policy wins with pay raises and tax cuts, but ongoing debates on social issues remained as they were.
West Virginia’s 60-day legislative session ended on Saturday. The state’s Republican-led legislature approved key measures such as pay raises for teachers and state workers, as well as cutting Social Security taxes. However, they couldn’t come to an agreement on some controversial issues.
Lawmakers met in closed session on Saturday to agree on a budget of nearly $5 billion. They also discussed bills covering topics like cutting unemployment benefits, reducing Social Security taxes, and granting a 5% pay raise for teachers and state workers. These proposals are now awaiting Governor Jim Justice’s signature, expected soon.
However, budget discussions faced a challenge when it was revealed that Justice’s office was in talks with the federal government regarding potential concerns over $465 million in COVID-19 funding.
Although lawmakers were able to reach an agreement after discussing several iterations of the budget and ultimately making a final decision, some important issues, such as tax credits for childcare and funding for an agriculture lab, were left out.
Social issues were a big focus throughout the session, leading to the passage of some controversial bills, including allowing the sale of raw milk with a warning label and giving teachers the option to teach intelligent design.
However, not all proposals were successful. Controversial measures such as healthcare restrictions for transgender adolescents and arming teachers in schools either didn’t gain support or weren’t voted on before the end of the session.
Lawmakers passed several bills on Saturday. One of the bills allows the sale of raw milk but requires a warning label about the increased risk of foodborne illness. Another lets virtual public school students and private school attendees skip mandatory vaccines.
In addition, a controversial bill also passed, giving public school teachers the choice to teach ‘intelligent design’. This idea suggests that certain features of life forms are too complex to be explained solely by natural selection, instead attributing them to an intelligent higher power.
However, it’s important to know that most scientists consider intelligent design a religious belief rather than a scientific theory.
Earlier in the session, the House of Delegates passed a bill holding schools, public libraries, and museums responsible for distributing “obscene” materials to children. However, the Senate didn’t address this bill. Also, bills from the House aimed at restricting healthcare for transgender adolescents and allowing trained teachers and staff to carry guns on school grounds were either ignored or unsuccessful in the Senate.
In the final days of the session, lawmakers rushed through a bill about unemployment benefits after lengthy debates. The bill increases work search requirements and keeps the payment rates at $622 per week. It allows people to work part-time while still getting benefits. The average benefits are currently about $420 per week.
This bill is a compromise from an earlier version that wanted to reduce the number of weeks for benefits and change how benefits are calculated based on weekly wages.
The new Social Security tax cut bill expands upon a law from 2019 that lowered taxes on Social Security benefits for the state’s lowest earners. This latest proposal extends the tax cuts to all residents over three years. Starting with a 35% reduction this year, going back to January 1st, the cut will increase to 65% by 2025, and will be completely eliminated by 2026.
As the deadline approached, debates over a proposed constitutional amendment concerning voting rights for non-U.S. citizens and a “Women’s Bill of Rights” revealed the strong disagreements within the legislature.
At the end, West Virginia’s legislative session showed mixed results – policy wins with pay raises and tax cuts, but ongoing debates on social issues remained as they were.
