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CHARLESTON -- The West Virginia Legislature managed to end its 2024 legislative session with a budget for the next fiscal year after the House of Delegates agreed to a compromise on the state Senate's bill changing the structure of unemployment benefits.
Legislators also passed bills important to social conservatives.
House and Senate Republican caucuses met Saturday morning through early afternoon in a combined meeting to hash out a compromise on Senate Bill 841, making changes to the number of weeks of unemployment benefits. The bill passed the House in a 66-31 vote.
SB 841, as it came over from the Senate, would have increased the dollar amount of weekly benefits for the first four weeks of unemployment, dropping the dollar amount every four weeks thereafter.
Instead, the House amended the bill Saturday evening to freeze the taxable wages that are taxable to employers at the approximate current amount of $9,500. The amendment conforms the maximum weekly benefit rate to the current maximum weekly benefit rate of $662. It keeps the maximum number of weeks of unemployment benefits to 26 and the bill would go into effect on July 1, 2024, instead of Jan. 1, 2025.
The bill continues to allow an individual on unemployment to accept a part-time job while collecting unemployment as long as their part-time wages are less than their weekly unemployment benefit. It also requires unemployment recipients to show a minimum of four weekly work search activities out of a possible 10 activities.
The bill includes a new requirement for employers to report the refusal of any recipient of unemployment benefits to accept an offer of employment through a job referral from Workforce West Virginia to the commissioner of Workforce West Virginia. It also requires employers to report those accepting employment through Workforce West Virginia referrals who leave or are dismissed from employment after six weeks.
"This bill keeps the weeks the same," said Delegate Clay Riley, R-Harrison, the co-sponsor of the amendment. "It keeps the threshold the same for our employers so you're not raising taxes. It keeps the average salary the same...and it keeps the weekly benefits the same as the people are receiving now."
The House had parked the bill Friday on its inactive calendar in response to pressure from the Senate to take up the bill, but after Saturday's joint meeting, the House Rules Committee put the bill back on the active calendar.
Delegate Evan Worrell, R-Cabell, raised concerns about the claims of some supporters that the bill is needed for the long-term shore up of the state's unemployment trust fund. The fund currently sits at $390 million and even with an unemployment rate of 4.3%, the fund would only be depleted by more than $20 million by 2028, according to data provided by Riley.
"We don't have a problem; there's nothing that needs to be fixed here," Worrell said. "We've heard of projections and how this fund is going to drop, but that is not true. I'll always advocate for good policy, but this is not it."
"Here we are, just year-in and year-out finding ways to chip away at who actually built this state: the blue-collar worker," said House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio. "The same people will say 'you should just pull yourselves up by the bootstraps,' while at the same time taking away the bootstraps."
While the bill passed, opposition to the bill was bipartisan. Some members decided to support the bill despite reservations.
"As far as improving West Virginia's workforce participation, this bill reminds me of a three-day-old fish. It stinks," Delegate Larry Kump, R-Berkeley, said. "Nevertheless, and on the short-term, while this legislation doesn't do much, I don't think in the short-term it does any harm, but it might do a little good. So, I'm going to hold my nose and tremble and vote yes."
Senators concurred with the House changes to SB 841 in a 24-7 vote Saturday night. Sen. Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, urged support for the compromise, while Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, urged caution.
"We're stabilizing this," Nelson said of the state unemployment trust fund. "(The bill is) there for the stability of the fund. It's there for the certainty of those that are unfortunate and lose a job. And then it's there for the predictability for our employers."
"Workers have a lot of pride, and nobody wants to be laid off. They want to work," Caputo said. "Let's make sure these benefits are there for them when that unfortunate circumstance happens to that family. Let's slow this bill down. I know it's going to pass, but I just got to say that I think it's a horrible, horrible idea to move so quickly on a piece of legislation that could affect so many lives in the state that we love."
As a result of unparking and passing SB 841, the Senate passed a clean version of House Bill 4880, relating to the personal income tax Social Security exemption, passing the bill in a 32-0 vote Saturday night.
The bill would phase out the remaining income tax collections on Social Security benefits for single filers earning more than $50,000 and joint filers earning more than $100,000. The phase-out would be retroactive to Jan. 1, reducing taxes by 35% this tax year and 65% in tax year 2025, with the tax completely phased in tax year 2026.
The Senate Finance Committee had amended HB 4880 to tie the reductions to whether there is a reduction in personal income tax rates in calendar year 2025 depending on tax revenues after this fiscal year. If a trigger meets the 10% threshold, there would be no reduction of income taxes on Social Security benefits. But if the state doesn't meet the trigger, then income taxes on those remaining Social Security beneficiaries would be completely eliminated. But the Senate restored the bill to the House version.
The Senate passed HB 4883, providing teachers, school service personnel and employees of the West Virginia State Police a 5% pay raise at a cost of more than $80 million. The bill passed the Senate in a 32-2 vote. The Senate Finance Committee pulled an amendment that would have reduced the pay raise to 4% and tied it to whether there was a personal income tax reduction.
The compromise paved the way for lawmakers to consider Senate Bill 200, the budget bill. The Senate amended the bill to include a compromise between the House and Senate, setting the general revenue budget for fiscal year 2025 beginning in July at $4.996 billion. The bill passed the Senate in a 31-0 vote and passed the House in a 73-25 vote.
"I think the way the two finance chairs have crafted this budget, I think it is responsible for where we are in the process," House Majority Whip Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, said.
The amended general revenue total in SB 200 is 5% less than Gov. Jim Justice's introduced budget of $5.265 billion, 1% more than the Senate's original version of the budget of $4.934 billion and a 1% decrease from the House's version of the budget of $5.002 billion. SB 200 includes a 5% pay raise for state employees paid through the general revenue budget.