BACK PEW: Why this session may come down to Del. Vernon Criss

By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV

With the end of this campaign-season legislative session in sight, more questions than answers remain. Let’s dive into them. 

FINAL TWO WEEKS. This Wednesday is Crossover Day, which means that any bill that hasn’t passed out of the body in which it was introduced (House or Senate) dies. What will survive, and what will be resurrected next year? (Because nothing ever really dies in the legislature.) During the final two weeks of the session, the House works only on Senate bills and the Senate only works on House bills. It’s a whole new level of politics, as legislators horse trade with each other over pet projects/bills. “If you give mine a good look, I’ll give yours a good look.” 

BUDGET. We currently have three budgets–one from the House, one from the Senate, and one from the Governor. All three are slightly different. Will there be an income tax cut of 5% or 10%? Will the HOPE Scholarship be fully-funded, with budgeted money or surplus money? Will the legislature pass a budget early, so that if Morrisey vetoes it they will still have time to override him? 

PUBLIC EDUCATION. Numerous bills in both chambers relate to propping up struggling public schools. (These struggles were entirely predictable…and were warned about when I was serving in the Senate.) Will the funding formula be changed? Will more money be given for special education? Will the changes take effect now or years from now? Will all counties benefit or only some? Will the budget allow for any new spending in education? I hear that no public school funding is likely to make it in the final budget.

RURAL HEALTH TRANSFORMATION. Gov. Morrisey is aggressively pushing Del. Vernon Criss to pass legislation that will allow his application for Rural Health Transformation funds to be received from the federal government. He wants it done yesterday. Criss and company seem to be holding onto it, likely as a bargaining chip in the budget process. 

DELEGATE CRISS. Criss is the Chairman of the House Finance Committee. He’s as affable a politician as there is. I sincerely enjoyed working with him during my brief time in the House. He’s experienced, straightforward, and reasonable. Just the kind of person you would like to be in a position of authority during a difficult time. And I think the session may hinge on him. Because most of the lingering questions, as outlined above, come back to the budget, which leads back to him. He has a notoriously rocky relationship with Gov. Morrisey, though the two apparently met yesterday. How that meeting went may determine the way the rest of the session unfolds.

RED MEAT. Which of the “red meat” bills to satisfy Republican primary voters will make it to final passage? It appears conceal carry without a permit for 18-20 year olds will make it across the finish line. I would be shocked if it doesn’t. Will the death penalty reinstatement? I’m doubtful. What about machine guns? I imagine House leadership isn’t keen on putting that on an agenda once it gets out of the Senate. HOPE Scholarship? That seems to be settled, with the guardrails left at the scrap yard.

CHILDREN & FAMILIES. What about the kids? Will this be the year child care reform with weight behind it passes? Or that paid family leave becomes state law? Or that major Child Protective Services reforms provide for greater protection for vulnerable kids? The House seems to have a much bigger appetite for all these measures than the Senate.

CLEAN WATER. 60 Minutes put a spotlight on numerous issues in the coalfields, including lack of access to clean drinking water. But instead of lighting a fire under politicians to do something about it, the response has been…deafening silence. Government can only and should only do so much. Basic infrastructure, like for clean drinking water in the richest country in the world, is one of those things it should do.

GOP vs GOP. As discussed at length two weeks ago in this column, the GOP vs GOP battle continues to rage on between competing factions of the Republican Party. In these final two weeks, you’ll likely be able to see the dividing lines more clearly. Republicans hold all the cards, and it will be fascinating to see how they play them. Will the House and Senate align to take on the Governor? Or will the Governor find enough common ground with one or both chambers to spread the political wealth?

So many lingering questions as we approach the end of this legislative session.

That’s the view from the Back Pew.  May God bless you and our legislators this year. 

Stephen Baldwin is a Presbyterian minister and the former Senate Minority Leader from Greenbrier County. He is the publisher of The Real WV.