Government, News

This Week in Charleston – March 29-April 2

By Delegate David Kelly
[email protected]
Phone: (304)-340-3226

    To date we have passed 200 bills out of the full House. 88 bills have passed both houses and the Governor has signed 39 of those into law. The House passed a budget bill on Friday, April 2. We will continue to work with the Senate to ensure that the Governor receives a balance budget.

    SB 275, creates an intermediate court of appeals in West Virginia also passed the House this week.

   House Speaker Roger Hanshaw said, “I think we’ve struck a good balance from a policy perspective here. It relieves some of the backlog of the trial court and gives an access point for West Virginians who are looking to have disputes resolved.”

    We unanimously passed House Bill 2918,  which expands what had been a pilot program for Family Drug Treatment Court to the entire state. The bill makes the program permanent and provides for the possibility for a parent who had been prohibited from participation because of an involuntary termination of parental rights of another child.  Family Drug Treatment Courts involve partnerships with treatment providers, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources as well as other agencies. The vision of the program is to provide parents and families with needed treatment and accountability. I am proud to say that I was the lead sponsor of this bill.

    House Bill 2499 completed legislative action this week. This bill now goes to the Governor for his action. It has four narrow and targeted tax reductions designed to make West Virginia attractive for future investment and job creation:

  • It provides property tax relief for firearms and ammunition manufacturer.
  • It permits a slightly higher manufacturing investment tax credit for those types of manufacturers
  • It creates a tax credit for federal excise tax placed on small arms and ammunitionIt exempts sales on specified defined small arms and small arms ammunition from state sales and user taxes.

   House Bill 2266 passed through the House this week this bill expands Medicaid coverage for post-partum women up to one year after birth. The bill is now in the Senate awaiting debate.

    We also completed House Bill 2145, which permits counties to support more specific training for student aides in public schools.

    Delegate Christopher Toney said, “This would allow our counties, if they want, to provide more specific training at no cost to the aide and would create two new classifications for classroom aides.. This would create the positions of Special Education Assistant Teacher and Behavioral Support Assistant Teacher.”

   We are headed into the final stretch of the session aimed at making West Virginia a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

    The goal of the 85th Legislature continues to be “making West Virginia a better place to live, work, and raise a family.”