W.Va. Legislature wraps 1st GOP-led session in 8 decades
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – In a frenzied countdown to midnight, West Virginia lawmakers tried to tie loose ends Saturday before wrapping a 60-day session under Republican leadership for the first time in more than eight decades.
Late-game deals to legalize fireworks, raise the cigarette tax, allow smoking in casinos, introduce charter schools and repeal the Common Core educational standards all fizzled.
The charter school fight took weeks in the Senate and ended in a party-line vote earlier in session. The House of Delegates never put it up for a full vote, instead suggesting a task force to study the possible change.
Likewise, the Common Core repeal cleared the House earlier this month, but senators watered the bill down to nothing more than a study of the standards. Even that ended up dying.
In a 49-49 tie vote, Democrats and tea party Republicans helped kill a forced pooled bill that drew outcry about infringement of people’s property rights.
It would have allowed horizontal drilling from missing or unwilling mineral rights owners when 80 percent of the surrounding mineral owners had drilling agreements.
Throughout session, Republicans voted to scale back various laws. It was part of an agenda they say will be conducive to job creation. Many Democrats say some of the measures will end up hurt working class people.
They passed bills limiting a variety of legal protections; storage tank regulations to prevent chemical spills; coal mining safety and environmental standards; and the state’s prevailing wage for public construction projects.
They also worked with Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on a push that will help out the state’s craft beer industry, and passed another effort to aid local distilleries.
Despite shortcomings on other education fronts, lawmakers cleared an expansion of teacher certification, which would permit programs like Teach for America.
Republican gains this election yielded the party enough numbers that GOP lawmakers could override policy vetoes by Tomblin.
Because contentious legislation died, passed too late in session or ended in compromises, Republicans only used the veto override option once.
Lawmakers rebuked the governor on a 20-week abortion ban he vetoed a second year in a row. He considered it unconstitutional.
However, Tomblin hasn’t embraced a bill to delete concealed handgun permitting requirements in the state, citing law enforcement opposition. He said it’s a possibility that he vetoes that.
He also wasn’t thrilled about a bill that would prohibit electric car producer Tesla from opening its own dealerships in West Virginia. Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, owns several Ford dealerships. He abstained from voting on the Tesla proposal.
“One of my goals is to attract businesses or bring jobs into the state,” Tomblin said Saturday. “I have a lot of friends who are car dealers, and maybe they would like to protect their turf, but at the same time, it’s just another business.”
The clock ran out on Uber ridesharing, which was entangled in opposition to including language protecting gay, bisexual and transgender passengers. House Speaker Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, said the bill had insurance, regulatory and Division of Motor Vehicles concerns, too.
The same fate was dealt to a grab-bag of a bill – legalized fireworks, a cigarette tax increase, smoking in casinos, more money for veterans, the option for counties to have final say over new smoking bans and more.
It died, in part, because the final wording defined smoking as smoke from tobacco “or smoke from any other plant,” a seemingly accidental marijuana reference.
Lawmakers are sticking around Charleston until Wednesday to pass next year’s budget.