Lawmakers return to Charleston for first interims since end of session

Lawmakers will return to Charleston this weekend for interim meetings, marking their first return to the state Capitol since the 2024 regular session wrapped last month.

From Sunday through Tuesday, legislators are scheduled to receive reports and updates on various state programs and departments as well as proposed bills that failed to become law during the 60-day session, among other things.

Interim meetings are held regularly throughout the year when the Legislature is out of session. Rarely is action taken during interims, but the information shared is often used to inform legislation introduced during regular or special sessions.

It’s likely that a special session will be called by the governor next month to deal with questions within the state’s budget, and some discussions from April interims may inform what lawmakers could be acting on during that time.

Here’s a look at some of the things expected to come up during this month’s meetings:

The state budget

At 9 a.m. on Monday, lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee will hear from fiscal leaders in the state regarding priorities for the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget.

During the session, legislators did approve what was referred to as a “skinny” budget in the face of a $465 million potential clawback from the federal Department of Education due to the state underfunding education initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though federal education officials have said that the “clawback” is unlikely to actually happen, legislators took a conservative approach to the proposed budget, leaving multiple items previously marked as spending priorities — including child care, support for EMS and firefighters, Medicaid funding and programs to support people with disabilities, among others — without money.

Throughout the regular session, legislative leaders said the upcoming special session would see at least some of those initiatives revisited.

In the scheduled meeting, it’s possible that lawmakers could receive an update on the “negotiations” Gov. Jim Justice previously said he was having with the federal government regarding the unlikely clawback. They could also learn more about the feasibility of providing funding to line items left out of the current budget and challenges that may come in August, as a trigger could be hit that would implement further personal income tax cuts, leaving the state with lower general revenue funds.

Those tax cuts would take place depending on revenue collections and could amount to a $250 million decline in revenue over the next two years. Coupled with lawmakers voting this session to eliminate social security income taxes for all West Virginians and implement pay raises for certain state employees, it’s unclear what the state’s financial picture could look like if that trigger is hit.

Senate Finance Chair Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said at the end of the regular session that — given the uncertainty — lawmakers will either have to “make sure” the trigger is not hit or postpone it “in some way.”

Legislative auditor

During the regular session, lawmakers approved and the governor signed Senate Bill 687, which goes into effect June 5 and gives the Senate President and the Speaker of the House near-total authority over the legislative auditor’s office.

The legislative auditor’s office, in current form, performs audits and analysis of state agencies and reports its findings directly to the Legislature as a whole. With SB 687, the office will work at the direction of the statehouse leaders.

The bill was controversial during session, at one point failing in the Senate before being brought back for a revote. In the House, several Republican members joined Democrats in voting down the bill.

Critics of SB 687 said it removes legitimacy from the legislative auditor’s office and reports conducted under it while politicizing what was once a highly regarded legislative watchdog. Supporters of the bill said it would protect the office from bad actors looking to weaponize the mostly public information and findings generated within it.

At 3 p.m. on Sunday, lawmakers on the Joint Standing Committee on Government Organization will hear from attorney Carl Fletcher on the implementation of the bill. 

Health care, facilities and more

Related to the budget challenges, lawmakers on the Joint Standing Committee on Health will hear back-to-back presentations at 4 p.m. on Monday regarding child care funding, the Medicaid budget and proposed cuts to the state’s services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

According to the posted agenda, Janie Cole, commissioner for the Bureau for Family Assistance, will kick off the meeting with a discussion on program costs for child care in the state.

Leading up to the regular session and even during it, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle — including party and chamber leaders — stressed the importance of state-supported child care in West Virginia. They said that providing funding for child care would alleviate burdens some families are facing while also serving as an economic boon for recruiting industry and businesses.

Despite the support, however, every bill introduced that would have provided funding for child care died during the session.

Following Cole, Cynthia Persily, secretary for the state Department of Human Services will present to lawmakers on West Virginia’s Medicaid budget.

According to an analysis by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, the $4.997 billion “skinny” budget approved by state lawmakers for FY 2025 did not include Justice’s proposed increased appropriations for Medicaid or an increase in the tax for managed care organizations to fund the program into the future. That left the program with a $147 million state funding shortfall for fiscal year 2025. 

Earlier this month, advocates for West Virginia Medicaid called on state policy makers to fund the health care program and consider it a priority for the upcoming special session. 

Part of that underfunding for Medicaid includes cuts to the state’s IDD waiver program, which Ray Ratke, CEO of enCircle, will also discuss with lawmakers. EnCircle is a company that employs dozens of direct care workers to help take care of 27 residents across six group homes in the Martinsburg area. 

Persily will be returning to the Legislature on Tuesday, where she and others are scheduled to present to the Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Resources Accountability at 1 p.m. regarding challenges with health facilities in the state.

Among the presenters is John Pritt, representing Hopemont Hospital. It will be the first time that leadership from Hopemont have publicly faced the Legislature following reports by West Virginia Watch on a patient who died in January while in the hospital’s care. 

The man, who was elderly and nonverbal, died from burn injuries after being left too long in a whirlpool of scalding water at the state-run long-term care facility. That incident was just the latest in a series of reports showing mistreatment and neglect of patients in state-run facilities across West Virginia. 

Not all meeting agendas for April interims were posted by publication time for this article, and all scheduled meetings are subject to change at any time. For the full interim schedule and available agendas, visit the Legislature’s website.

Meetings held during interims will be streamed for the public to watch from afar. Visit https://www.wvlegislature.gov/live.cfm to tune into meetings.