Local News

Legislative Luncheon

State senators, delegates meet public

ELKINS -- Four legislators were on hand to answer questions at the annual Elkins-Randolph County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Luncheon Thursday afternoon at The Arts Center.

Delegate Ty Nestor, R-District 66; Delegate Elias Coop-Gonzalez, R-District 67; state Sen. Robert Karnes, R-11th District; and state Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-11 District, fielded questions from Sidney Megna, who was the 2021 American Legion Auxiliary Rhododendron Girls State governor.

Toward the end of the luncheon, Megna asked, "Is there anything outside of what we talked about, any bills or anything dear to you, that you hope will come to fruition in the future?"

Hamilton answered first and talked about a recent bill regarding education.

"One of the bills that we compromised on this year was one on Kindergarten through third grade in public education," he said. "The bill was originally set to put an aide in each classroom kindergarten through third grade.

"Well, kindergarten already has one and when we looked it was going to cost $33 or $34 million dollars a year. So we sent the bill over to the House and ran our own bill, and I think we came up with a compromise.

"Next year in '24 you're gonna have an aide in first grade, '25 you're gonna have one in second grade, and in '26 you'll have third grade," Hamilton said.

"Our kids are leaving those grades and they can't read. And if they can't read we are going to lose them, period. So I think we compromised, I wanted to see it installed now, but that couldn't be."

Nestor was up next and talked about House Bill 2879, which would provide a pay increase to state correctional workers in West Virginia.

"I have put that forward for two years and we tweaked it a little bit this year," Nestor said. "Representing both Randolph and Pocahontas counties, we have Denmar (Correctional Center and Jail in Hillsboro) along with the Tygart Valley Regional Jail and Huttonsville Correctional Facility in those two counties.

"In the 305 days that I'm not working as a legislator, I've gotten many calls over the previous few years about the safety of those facilities. The National Guard have been taking up the slack (filling in working in correctional facilities) and not having enough people who are trained through the Department of Corrections Academy in these facilities is a safety issue.

"We have a problem with recruitment and retention, there are some constraints about moving that bill and getting more pay for individuals to attract and keep them," Nestor said. "But it is a vital concern and I believe we will have a session to address it...

"We want to get people who want a career in corrections to come there and stay there. That is a bill that I really want for local reasons, but for state reasons too. It's just a shame that we are a state that has to rely on the National Guard to come and do a job when we could create a career for someone that has great pay and benefits."

Coop-Gonzalez then spoke about what it means to be a delegate, noting he wants to be involved in the community as much as he can. He also told those in attendance that he was available any time, saying, "I'm here to talk to you guys, call me if you have any issues... I want to be able to help the people I was elected to be a voice for."

Karnes said he wanted to keep in touch with citizens in the areas he represents and to find out what issues they want him to work on.

"We are going to meet throughout the year, as we did last year, at various meetings, whether it's with the chamber, a local civic organization, or the schools, etc.," Karnes said. "That is to gain a better perspective of what people think on a variety of issues -- what the pinpoints are, where government is failing. Then hopefully we can take that back into the session."

Karnes also talked about tax reform, saying, "For me, one of the things I want to do, now that we've started this ball rolling with serious tax reform, is make sure we don't come off course. One tax bill, we had some stuff in there for veterans as far as exemptions. We had cars, as far as you getting a rebate on your car tax, and so on.

"But the really big piece is the income tax piece. That bill actually contains triggers, so going forward there will be automatic deductions and it will continue to ration the income tax down until West Virginia doesn't have an income tax," he said. "And that will put us in a group of really elite states, states that you're familiar with as far as growth... So that's what I want to see and part of my job is to make sure we don't get off track."

Thursday's event was sponsored by Performance Chevrolet, and Holland Enterprises was the associate sponsor. All proceeds from the luncheon will go to support the tuition costs for two local students who will attend American Legion Auxiliary WV Rhododendron Girls State.