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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the West Virginia House of Delegates took action this week to add more money to the paychecks of public school teachers, school service personnel and the West Virginia State Police. All other state employees are expected to receive a pay raise through the budget bill, but with House Bill 4765, which unanimously passed the House Feb. 19, the three classes of state employees with salary schedules set in state code also would be in line for a 3 percent raise starting July 1. House Finance Committee Vice Chairman Clay Riley, R-Harrison, told Delegates just before the vote the amount would average out to about $1,800 across the three groups — more than $1,500 for the teachers and nearly $900 for school service personnel. The bill goes now to the Senate for consideration. The Foster Youth Post-Secondary Transition Awareness Act, House Bill 4573, and House Bill 4730, which would develop a continuum of independent living and transitional support services for youth aging out of foster care, both passed the House this week with overwhelming support. HB4573 would direct the West Virginia Department of Education to coordinate direct communication about opportunities for higher education, job training, housing, healthcare and support for independent living to students with current or previous foster care experiences. Similarly, HB4730 would require the Department of Human Services to implement a program with the full spectrum of transitional services for young people who soon will exit or recently have exited from foster care. It also would require reports to the Legislature about its activity. The House took unanimous votes this week on House Bill 5101, the Joanna Phillips Domestic Violence Prevention Act, which would enhance criminal penalties relating to domestic violence, and House Bill 4712, Baylea’s Law, which would increase the criminal penalties for DUI causing death, as well as House Bill 4819, which would allow a person with a criminal record who had met specific circumstances of rehabilitation to be licensed within certain categories of professional practice. “We pass a lot of bills in here that increase penalties and make it tougher for individuals to get out of the criminal justice system, and I love bills like this because if you make a mistake, particularly in your youth, that should not be a scarlet letter for the rest of your life,” said Delegate Hollis Lewis, D-Kanawha, just before the vote on House Bill 4819. “Bills like this are important to get people back in the workforce and let people just get on with their lives.” The House also passed House Bill 4009, which would create the Portable Benefit Account Act, with overwhelming support this week. The measure would allow West Virginia’s many independent contractors, freelancers and self-employed workers to maintain their benefits such as retirement savings and health care coverage across multiple clients or from job to job. “Portable Benefits can help our state’s nearly 90,000 independent workers gain stability while holding on to their flexibility,” said Delegate Jonathan Kyle, R-Randolph, and the lead sponsor of the bill. “This would also allow companies to contribute to a worker’s account, which can help them attract talent while still protecting them from any new red tape or classifications.” Eleven bills have completed the legislative process. The 60-day, regular legislative session ends at midnight March 14. Read the full article

The last day to introduce bills is Feb. 17, and 69 House bills have passed the House. The 60-day, regular legislative session ends at midnight March 14.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the House of Delegates finished the week by voting to leverage a tax credit that would bring in private investment for small West Virginia businesses, and the bill is in line to be the first completed legislation of the session. Delegates Passed Senate Bill 1, the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Act, Feb. 13 after having amended most of the provisions of its counterpart, House Bill 4003, into the measure the previous day. The bill would offer a limited tax credit against the West Virginia Insurance Premium Tax to financial institutions that invest in state-certified growth funds. Only businesses principally operating in West Virginia with fewer than 250 employees at the time of their application with at least 60% of their workforce in the state would be eligible to receive the funds, with the West Virginia Department of Commerce overseeing the program. “As someone who grew up in a family that owned their own small business that paid for my education and everything else I needed, this is a bill that I just take a lot of personal pride in,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman J.B. Akers, R-Kanawha, the lead sponsor of House Bill 4003, in presenting the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Act on the floor before the vote. “This bill is focused on existing West Virginia businesses. This is a promise that we have made that we’re going to start focusing as much of our attention as possible on existing West Virginia businesses, and this bill provides them with the capitalization they need to grow.” Akers said it would mirror a federal program already successfully operating in 18 other states, including Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. “We’ve got private investors providing private capital to private companies,” he said. “The government is not involved in this other than … as a safeguard and guardrails.” House Majority Whip Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, who also serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Revenue, spoke about the bill ahead of the vote as well. “I don’t mind telling you that high finance is not necessarily my specialty, and when I looked at this bill it made my eyes spin just a little bit because there’s a lot of detail here and there, but the reality is the impetus of this bill is pretty simple,” Gearheart said. “It makes a pool of capital available to West Virginia businesses that currently cannot access that kind of capital. “Businesses that are successful that have the opportunity to grow and become even more successful and to expand what we do here now can have access to the dollars in order to do that by means of this bill, and it really is that simple.” Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, spoke before the vote to explain how being in a border county gives him the perspective that forms his urgency for this initiative. “We see a lot of this activity,” he said. “I look around the room to Mason County and Cabell County and Jackson County; we see it all the time, we’re competing for those people that live in our valley to locate their businesses on one side of the river or the other. “Finally — finally — in the financial structure of our state, we’re going to have the opportunity to help small businesses.” The bill passed by a vote of 87 to 3 and returns to the Senate for its review. If the Senate approves, the bill will be the first completed legislation of the 2026 regular session and will go to the governor for action. Also this week, the House unanimously approved: House Bill 4011, which would allow expanded material recycling; House Bill 4749, which was written and presented to the Legislature by a teenager who is in foster care, and would expand the Foster Child Bill of Rights; and House Bill 4089, which would require insurance coverage for scalp cooling systems that preserve of hair during chemotherapy treatment, also known as Jessica Huffman’s Law. The last day to introduce bills is Feb. 17, and 69 House bills have passed the House. The 60-day, regular legislative session ends at midnight March 14. Read the full article

One of my clients is an excavation contractor. He told me a couple of years ago his business was robust because of a steady supply of what he characterized as “boulders, rocks and pebbles.” When I smiled, he explained how the big, complex, well-paying jobs were the boulders. They made up the baseline of the business, and by doing them, he was able to pay employees, provide their healthcare benefits and take on other projects while investing in better equipment and more supplies. Then, he explained the rocks: the somewhat smaller, but still very important, jobs that consistently produced a reliable profit. Finally, he explained how the pebbles were the other projects his company did solely because they were important – not necessarily to the bottom line, but maybe impactful to the community, or meaningful for the owner and still critical to the world. He explained how all the work his company did was important in some way, but none of it was possible without the boulders anchoring it.  There are 134 state lawmakers that go to work each year in the state Capitol during the state Legislature's regular session. In a few days, the West Virginia Legislature will convene for the 60-day regular session, and it will be crucial to focus first on the boulders, because the boulders allow us to do everything else. Where the Legislature is concerned, those boulders are the economy. Creating a vibrant and thriving economy also is the first step necessary for conservatives committed to advancing a conservative agenda and furthering conservative principles. The conservative platform is clear and has been for decades: policies promoting lower taxes, higher educational attainment, less need for social welfare programs, decreased demand for abortion, lower rates of substance abuse and reduced crime. The research has been done, and the data are clear: Every conservative policy goal is easier to achieve when men and women are financially secure and capable of making their own choices about what is best for themselves and their families.  By standing together with the state economy as our boulder, we can more easily build with every rock conservatives want to add.  A thriving economy that provides full employment is the largest boulder of them all. Every single conservative goal is more easily achievable in an environment where West Virginians have the economic security to make the decisions best for themselves and their families. The correlations between unemployment and rates of abortion, prevalence of substance abuse, educational attainment and even domestic violence all are strong; as employment increases, each of these circumstances improves. By focusing first on creating a thriving economy in West Virginia, we can improve in every social metric by which we hope to measure progress.  However, if we focus only on the rocks, we leave no room for the boulders, and that is a mistake we must not make. It is critical we prioritize the things that will grow West Virginia’s economy to provide suitable and lasting employment opportunities for our people. Putting West Virginians to work in well-paying jobs will enable us to tackle a host of other societal challenges, as long as we first stand on the boulder. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, has served in the West Virginia House of Delegates since 2014. He is a practicing attorney with a Ph. D. in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame, a certified professional parliamentarian and a certified magistrate court mediator. He also serves on the West Virginia Farm Bureau Board of Directors. Read the full article