Post by Logan on Feb 8, 2016 2:36:42 GMT -6
Nearing midway point, session still hasn’t dealt with most pressing issues
For years, at about this time every session, longtime Daily Mail political columnist Richard Grimes would write about how the session is almost halfway over, and nothing’s happened yet.
This year, Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, carried on that tradition, with a floor speech decrying that the session is approaching the midway point, with no plans in place to deal with “the horrific conditions of our roads,” to address the state’s substance abuse crisis, or come up with funds to avoid $120 million of cuts to PEIA health insurance benefits.
He didn’t directly mention a lack of action on job creation, but the closest thing the Legislature’s given us so far is right-to-work, which House Judiciary Chairman John Shott, R-Mercer, conceded will not be a “silver bullet” or “cure-all” for the state’s employment woes — consistent with the disputed Deskins study projecting incremental 0.4 percent employment growth — along with the prevailing wage repeal, which leadership conceded is revenue neutral for the state.
(Worth noting, considering that legislators were rebuffed on 10 requests for economic impact studies or fiscal notes on the bill, that the Division of Highways submitted a fiscal note for the 2015 version of the prevailing wage repeal bill, and it concluded the repeal would have, “little to no effect on the overall cost of a highway construction project.”
See more at: www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160207/statehouse-beat-nearing-midway-point-session-still-hasnt-dealt-with-most-pressing-issues
For years, at about this time every session, longtime Daily Mail political columnist Richard Grimes would write about how the session is almost halfway over, and nothing’s happened yet.
This year, Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, carried on that tradition, with a floor speech decrying that the session is approaching the midway point, with no plans in place to deal with “the horrific conditions of our roads,” to address the state’s substance abuse crisis, or come up with funds to avoid $120 million of cuts to PEIA health insurance benefits.
He didn’t directly mention a lack of action on job creation, but the closest thing the Legislature’s given us so far is right-to-work, which House Judiciary Chairman John Shott, R-Mercer, conceded will not be a “silver bullet” or “cure-all” for the state’s employment woes — consistent with the disputed Deskins study projecting incremental 0.4 percent employment growth — along with the prevailing wage repeal, which leadership conceded is revenue neutral for the state.
(Worth noting, considering that legislators were rebuffed on 10 requests for economic impact studies or fiscal notes on the bill, that the Division of Highways submitted a fiscal note for the 2015 version of the prevailing wage repeal bill, and it concluded the repeal would have, “little to no effect on the overall cost of a highway construction project.”
See more at: www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160207/statehouse-beat-nearing-midway-point-session-still-hasnt-dealt-with-most-pressing-issues