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Leading lawmakers in West Virginia need to enhance penalties for fentanyl sellers, give public faculty academics extra pay raises, take away disruptive college students from lecture rooms and increase funding for emergency responders.
State Senate President Craig Blair and House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw, each Republicans, and House Democratic chief Sean Hornbuckle gave a glimpse of their priorities Friday at an annual assembly with journalists sponsored by the West Virginia Press Association. The 60-day legislative session begins subsequent week.
Hanshaw stated lawmakers additionally need to intently watch how a brand new greater education funding formulation pans out. The Legislature beforehand permitted a mathematical formulation rewarding faculties for diploma attainment, workforce outcomes and graduate wages.
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“For far too long, funding to our higher education institutions was based in very large part on whether your school was represented on the House or Senate finance committees,” Hanshaw stated. “That’s not a viable way to do business.”
In September, West Virginia University’s board made wide-ranging reductions to tutorial applications and college positions because it grappled with a $45 million price range shortfall that’s projected to develop as excessive as $75 million in 5 years. The college in Morgantown has been weighed down financially by a ten% drop in enrollment since 2015, income misplaced in the course of the pandemic and an rising debt load for brand spanking new constructing tasks.
West Virginia Republican Senate President Craig Blair, left, House of Delegates Republican Speaker Roger Hanshaw, center, and House Democratic chief Sean Hornbuckle, proper, interact in dialogue on the West Virginia Legislative Lookahead on Jan. 5, 2024, in Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/John Raby)
A month earlier, Gov. Jim Justice signed a invoice that allotted $45 million for Marshall University in Huntington to open a brand new cybersecurity heart. The governor later rejected strategies that state cash ought to have been used to assist WVU in mild of the state’s $1.8 billion surplus within the 2023 fiscal yr that ended final June.
The new funding formulation kicks on this yr.
“We’re anxious to see how it works,” Hanshsaw stated. “We’re anxious to see what tweaks we need to make to it.”
During final yr’s legislative session, a invoice to improve fentanyl distribution from a misdemeanor to a felony failed to cross. Blair and Hanshaw made it clear at first of Friday’s assembly that they’re decided to get one thing completed. For years, West Virginia has had by far the best fee of drug overdose deaths within the nation.
“Pushers of fentanyl are murderers,” Hanshaw stated.
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Pay raises prompt by the governor this yr for public faculty academics, faculty service personnel and different state workers would assist offset rising well being care prices and would comply with a $2,300 enhance for state workers in 2023, in addition to cuts within the state earnings tax final yr by a mean of 21.25% throughout brackets.
“I personally am in favor of doing that again if our finances will allow us,” Blair stated.
Last yr, lawmakers handed a invoice addressing unruly college students who would serve both in-school or out-of-school suspensions relying on the variety of incidents. Blair stated additional laws may very well be thought-about this yr to transfer such college students to one other classroom the place there could be cameras and obtainable specialists.
“Teachers are having a tough time in the classroom because of disruptive students,” Blair stated. The invoice would “enable these academics to do their jobs with out the disruption.”
Lawmakers additionally need to prioritize monetary assist for the state’s huge community of volunteer fireplace and emergency companies departments. Justice signed laws in August offering $12 million to these departments and stated the state wanted to discover a everlasting supply for such funding.
Hanshaw agreed Friday that “it’s a priority for us.”
Justice additionally has stated he needs lawmakers to revisit a brand new regulation permitting highschool athletes to change faculties one time throughout their careers and be instantly eligible to compete. The invoice grew to become regulation final yr with out the Republican governor’s signature. Justice, who coaches a highschool women basketball crew, grew to become involved after a number of highschool soccer video games concerned lopsided scores to begin the 2023 season.
While Hornbuckle welcomed a evaluate of the regulation, he stated “we cannot have a knee-jerk reaction. We have to find a middle ground. It’s a little more nuanced than you think. And we’ve got to take our time with this.”
West Virginia has one of many nation’s lowest workforce participation charges, and the highest lawmakers addressed methods they may help households with little one care issues.
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After two years of receiving federal subsidies, 220,000 little one care applications throughout the nation have been minimize off from funding this previous fall. Hanshaw stated bigger state employers final yr have been allowed to declare a credit score for growing little one care applications. Now, he needs to develop that chance to some smaller firms.
“The program that we enacted last year, as the data that we’ve been presented with tells us, is going extraordinarily well,” Hanshaw stated.
Justice has made quite a few job bulletins lately, together with on Monday with plans by LG Electronics to develop applied sciences in renewable power, telehealth and different industries. Hornbuckle stated bringing jobs to the state is nice provided that staff can discover methods to look after their kids.
“The No. 1 thing is child care,” Hornbuckle stated. “We’ve got to make sure the people have the ability to go get these great jobs.”
Republicans maintain supermajorities within the House and state Senate.
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