Last week, Governor Jim Justice announced that a special session of the West Virginia legislature would begin on September 30. The goal of this session is to pass a child care tax credit and cut the state’s income tax by an additional 5%.
However, Justice has not yet released any draft legislation or communicated any plans to lawmakers. In his video Announcing the special session, he said: “We worked with the leadership of Parliament over the weekend. We have worked on this for countless days over the past few weeks. And this date really seems to be the best for everyone.”
Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, a Republican who represents Putnam County, said MetroNews last week that the legislative leadership had “not held any discussions over the weekend” with the Attorney General, as he had claimed.
Tarr said lawmakers are willing to listen to the governor’s proposal for an income tax cut as long as there is a corresponding financial plan that takes into account the $115 million less in tax revenue for the state.
During his briefing, Justice said he was willing to cut the state budget by the amount of the tax cut “if [lawmakers] can come to me with a proposal,” making cuts, “we’ll look at it.” So he’s certainly willing to make cuts if someone else does the work and figures out what needs to be cut.
Justice also wants to lend a hand ease the stress of child care through a tax credit that would pay West Virginia families $600 to $700 a month for child care. For families earning more than $43,000 a year, the tax credit would be about $300 for one child and $600 for two or more children. Justice did not specify where that money would come from.
While the child tax credit is beneficial, it does little to alleviate the crisis facing the people of West Virginia.
The state needs approx. 20,000 childcare places. Pandemic-era benefits that have helped keep child care facilities afloat in recent years were set to expire at the end of August. This year alone, dozens of child care facilities have closed — eliminating about 700 spots for children — because of funding issues with the federal Child Care Assistance program for eligible families.
There was no mention of plans or draft legislation from the Ministry of Justice to create additional childcare places.
Democrats in the House of Representatives held a press conference earlier this month calls on the governor to give lawmakers the opportunity to pass other child care bills that were rejected during the regular legislative session. These bills have already been considered by the House Health Committee and would provide tax incentives to businesses if they create and provide child care spaces for their employees. If passed, these bills would lend a hand create more child care spaces.
During his weekly virtual Briefing On Wednesday, Justice said, “If it goes off, it’s not my fault. It’s really and truly the fault of the legislature. They need to step in immediately and help.”
Well, yes, the Legislature has to pass the bills so they can get to the governor’s desk and become law. But typically, a governor works with lawmakers to get bills passed. Will Justice be in the Capitol during the special session? Will he meet with leadership to negotiate a deal? Or will he do as he has in the past and introduce his bills and then hope that all his wishes come true?
Each legislator – 134 in total – is paid an additional $200 per day for a special session and interim sessions, and reimbursement for travel expenses. Justice made the announcement on the second day of the September interim sessions, which were held in Parkersburg. The next interim sessions will be held in Charleston from October 6-8 – none of these plans are so urgent that they couldn’t have waited another week.
So why the rush to get these bills passed? Why waste taxpayers’ money when the next interim resolutions are so close?
“We could say, let’s just put this off and deal with it later. Why? Why would we do this? Are we doing this so that someone after me can take the credit?” Justice said during the press conference.
Oh yeah. It’s an election year, and he wants credit for giving voters a few more dollars. He slipped up a few times during his Sept. 4 press conference, saying he wanted to give voters extra tax relief, not taxpayers — remember, not all taxpayers are voters.
Legislature and judiciary called the special session in May was a disappointment and a failure. Will we see history repeat itself?
