From the Well | February 24, 2021

HB2358, Updates the meaning of federal adjusted gross income and other terms used in West Virginia Personal Income Tax Act, and HB2359, which updates the meaning of federal taxable income and other terms used in the West Virginia Corporation Net Income Tax Act.

However, the meat of the committee was not on the agenda. Mr. Charlie Denny, Director of the newly created Office of Broadband, discussed the broadband bill, HB2002, which will be taken up by the committee at a future meeting. Following that discussion, Chairman Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, asked Vice-Chairman Zack Maynard, R-Lincoln, to present a policy proposal for the committee’s consideration. The proposal would formally submit to Frontier Communications a request for several documents relating to maintenance, compliance, and performance. The proposal seeks answers to questions regarding unmet timelines, information regarding agreements entered into with Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, storm response practices and others. The proposal requires that the documents be submitted and Frontier executives appear before the committee on March 10 at 3 p.m. in the House Chamber. If the respondent fails, the committee voted to authorize Chairman Linville to issue a subpoena to appear and to compel document production. The motion was adopted unanimously on a voice vote.

A specific time for remarks by members of the House of Delegates has been established to limit the amount of time the full body is together in an enclosed area. While the remarks are streamed live, they do not appear to be archived on the House’s YouTube Channel, http://www.wvlegislature.gov/live.cfm

Delegate Daniel Linville, a member of the Broadband Enhancement Council, asked the Legislature to build the 21st century infrastructure that is necessary for broadband service statewide. He proposed a $2,000 per household subsidy to providers who extend fiber, and $500 per household if fiber is not used, but only after the service was provided. “I want to put $10 million into this,” he said. “Let’s get this done.”

Comparing broadband to roads, Delegate Mick Bates, D-Raleigh, remarked that “the roads to prosperity are looking more like a road to poverty.” He stated that his constituents did not ask him to create an intermediate court of appeals but to “fix the damn internet.” Noting that it is essential for modern living, Bates went on to say that cable companies are providing internet services as an unregulated utility, making millions of dollars. He complained about Suddenlink, a cable provider in his district, saying it provides unreliable service, is constantly increasing charges and not delivering services people pay for, and is known for poor customer service. “These companies need to be held accountable,” Bates said.

Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, remarked in a similar vein, saying “Unless we do something about broadband, it doesn’t matter how we structure our taxes.” He cited the 1933 Rural Electrification Act as an example of what the federal government could do to help rural states get broadband.

The bill called for insurance coverage for up to 20 treatments by each these providers to be covered if prescribed. Therefore a patient may receive 20 treatments from a physical therapist and 20 treatments by an occupational therapist or other provider. However, language in the bill has been interpreted to mean that a cumulative total of 20 treatments were covered.

The bill was amended to make clear that the Bureau for Medical Services and the PEIA shall provide coverage for 20 visits per event for each of the treatment modalities prescribed. It passed and will be considered by House Health & Human Resources.

Other training language in the bill requires Firefighter 1 training to contain a section on the operations of both the Fire Commission and Fire Marshal’s Office. It permits non-certified firefighters with specialized training to be members of volunteer fire departments. The bill was amended limiting the actions of specialized members of fire departments who are not certified fire fighters. According to counsel Brian Casto, the support of the firefighting term was too broad because it is hard to characterize a fire fighter as not acting in support of fire fighting so that term was stricken from the bill.

There was an interesting exchange between Delegate Buck Jennings, R-Preston and Fire Marshal Ken Tyree. Jennings was concerned the hours were too much for volunteers to complete the training because of weekend work and other obligations. Tyree said, he needs the chiefs to work with us but if there’s resistance this bill will allow us to take action without our only current recourse of decertification. Department of Homeland Security Counsel, Stacy Nowiki characterized the portion of the bill allowing for suspension of chiefs and acting chiefs as using a scalpel to remove a bad apple from a tree instead of having to use a chainsaw to cut down the entire tree.

Tyree said they’re not looking to remove chiefs, but rather use suspension as an alternative. “We’ve done everything for the past six years to help fire departments. However, if this provision would have been in place the Fire Commission could have worked with the departments to resolve issues. The threat of decertification has worked at times, but we don’t want to affect the entire department if the leader doesn’t care enough about his department to work on resolving issues.”

Delegate Jennings’ told Tyree his issue was the overall process of possible discipline for a chief and the lack of notification, “A fire chief is voted on by department members, I’m not sure why we would move to this type of punishment without a warning.” Tyree told the committee the Commission has found, at times, some departments doing things outside of the law and usually that act has to do with the department’s chief.

He added, he’s not wanting to lessen a volunteers ability to serve the community. Some complaints may be operation in nature so the Fire Marshal can go to a chief to address the situation and work with him. He pointed out that presently, the only alternative is to decertify a fire department. “Suspensions are one thing, but decertification is difficult because that impacts communities. And having enough staff is critical for a fire department to effectively serve the community,” he said.

Along party lines, Democratic Senators Romano, Lindsay, Woelfel and Ihlenfeld (all attorneys) spoke in opposition to the bill for a variety of reasons including the expansion of government, small businesses will be hurt, and criminal law jurisdiction is absent and the neutral position of the West Virginia Supreme Court regarding the bill.

Sen. Unger spoke in opposition to the bill. Notes that his first reaction was, given the number of times the bill has been before the legislature, if they want it this bad, let them have it. But, Chief Justice Jenkins’ testimony before the Finance Committee changed his opinion. Jenkins was noncommittal about the need for the court. But Jenkins response when asked what would be necessary to expand drug courts in WV was money. The IAC would siphon off money that could be used to expand drug courts.