Gov. Jim Justice speaks at the West Virginia Hospital Association Health Care Leadership Summit last week at the Greenbrier Resort. (Photo courtesy of the WV Governor’s Office)
CHARLESTON — Nearly five months after first saying he would call lawmakers into a fall special session and nearly three months after calling for a 5% cut in personal income tax rates, Gov. Jim Justice issued the special session proclamation over the weekend for lawmakers to gavel in today.
In a press release and proclamation released Saturday evening, Justice issued the extraordinary session call for lawmakers to return to the Capitol beginning at 11 a.m. today.
“We all know my time as your governor is coming to an end. But I promised you that I would run across the finish line, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Justice said in his Saturday evening statement.
The special session proclamation includes 27 items, including Justice’s proposal first made in July for an additional 5% cut in personal income tax rates. While no specific bills will be publicly available until introduced in the Senate and House of Delegates this morning, the wording of the proposal appears to allow for amendments from lawmakers.
Justice, who is the Republican candidate on the ballot in November for the U.S. Senate, wants to end his final three months of his second and final term as governor with an additional personal income tax cut that would return about $115 million a year to taxpayers when fully implemented.
That is on top of a 4% personal income tax cut going into effect in January and the 21.25% personal income tax that went into effect in 2023. If lawmakers agree to his 5% cut, that would bring the total cuts to personal income tax rates under Justice to more than 30%.
“As I call this special session, the goal is clear that we need to help the hardworking people of West Virginia,” Justice said. “I’m hopeful that we can get another personal income tax cut across the finish line. I’ve said it time and again: nothing will help our population grow, create new opportunities and drive economic progress in West Virginia like eliminating our personal income tax.”
Negotiations have been ongoing between the governor’s office and legislative leadership. Some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns with going beyond the personal income tax rate reduction formula and trigger put in place by the 2023 law that cut personal income tax rates by 21.25%. Other concerns include cutting taxes beyond the annual natural growth in tax revenue and future expenses that will put strains on the general revenue budget beginning next year.
“We’re just covered up with meetings with the Legislature and getting their blessing and feelings,” Justice said Friday during his weekly administration briefing. “We all want the same thing and we’re all working together well. This is not like a food fight that is going on. I think without question the economics really work. As we go forward, we need to fine tune that and make absolutely certain we’ve got a real hold on this.”
Justice also wants a child care tax credit he originally proposed during the regular legislative session earlier this year. That proposal would create a child and dependent care credit against the personal income tax in the amount of 50% of the allowed federal tax credit, returning $4.3 million to eligible taxpayers annually.
“We also need to do something to help hardworking families afford childcare,” Justice said. “Right now, families across the country are struggling with extreme childcare costs, and we can’t sit on the sidelines and watch it happen in West Virginia. We need to step in and help. That’s why I’m again asking for a childcare tax credit to lower costs for families. This will make things a lot better for working families.”
The special session call includes 19 supplemental appropriations bills, spending part of the $562 million in surplus tax collections left over after the end of fiscal year 2024 in July and $80 million in unappropriated monies for the current fiscal year. The supplemental appropriation bills would distribute more than $478 million for projects and programs.
Some of these programs include: $10 million for the Communities in Schools program; $40 million for capital improvement projects at rural hospitals; $100 million to provide matching funds for water, sewer, and other infrastructure projects; $17 million for nursing program enhancement support; $5 million for EMS training program support; $125 million for the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund; $10 million for the West Virginia Jobs Investment Trust; and $87 million for the PEIA Reserve Fund.
Other supplemental appropriations include $2 million for the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. The funds will be used to start U.S. Food and Drug Administration trials using ultrasound technology to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and obesity. A similar bill was on the move in the House earlier this year.
The Department of Arts, Culture and History would receive $300,000 from a supplemental appropriation to begin work on new statues in the rotunda of the Capitol for U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln and a statute of West Virginia’s first governor, Arthur I. Boreman. The only statute in the upper rotunda is a statue of the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
The Department of Culture and History is in the middle of a pending lawsuit over murals being installed in the upper rotunda after being accused of avoiding additional approvals by the Capitol Building Commission and not going through a competitive bid process.
Other legislation includes a bill to allow public charter schools to apply to the state School Building Authority for funding.
Another bill would allow the state to be in agreement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The bill is another step for the state toward allowing nuclear energy, with the state lifting a ban on nuclear energy a few years ago. The bill would allow the state to work with the commission to begin developing rules and regulations on radioactive materials and handling.
Lastly, lawmakers will consider a bill that would permit certain research activities and clinical trials related to opioid treatment programs, setting up rules governing such programs within the state.
The Legislature first met in special session in May to approve supplemental appropriations and to return funding to state health and human services departments cut from the budget bill during the regular legislative session when lawmakers and the governor were waiting to see if West Virginia would receive a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education to spend $465 million on schools due to not maintaining the requirements for spending federal COVID-19 education funding.
Justice and lawmakers had expected to hold another special session in August to begin appropriating surplus tax revenue from the end of fiscal year 2024 at the end of July as well as considering Justice’s 5% tax cut plan, but the special session was never called. Despite not being governor after December and a lame duck Legislature with early voting beginning next month and new lawmakers taking their seats next year, Justice said there was still work to be done.
“We’re on the right track, but we need to keep pushing forward,” Justice said. “The growth and momentum we’ve built during my time as Governor is off the charts. It’s truly been a rocketship ride. We’ve also minded the store, and because of that we now have the opportunity to get these things done.”
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.