Hello brothers and sisters,
As our fourth week of the Legislature nears an end, here’s a recap of some notable bills:

New:
HB 4344 “Relating to Foster Care” allows for a possible 20% pay raise for CPS workers, but the bill has some other items. It has passed House HHR Committee with amendment and is now off to House Finance Committee.

Still Watching:

**HB 4365 “Relating to discontinuing operation of certain state long-term care facilities” Seeks to close 3 long-term care facilities: Lakin, Withrow, and John Manchin. Workers will be offered the opportunity to transfer to another position in state government if they qualify for such job, or take a year in severance pay and benefits. (Brandon Steele, whose district includes Withrow, is the bill’s sponsor.) Hopemont is not affected by the legislation at this time, but could be through amendment. Referred to the House Government Committee, then the Finance Committee.

**SB 230 “Relating generally to public employees grievance procedure” The bill requires grievance forms to be notarized, and opens up the possibility for the grievant to be held responsible for the state’s legal fees in certain cases. In Senate Judiciary Committee.HB 4453 “Fair Advancements for State Employees” Bill Impacts increment pay and salary increases for state workers. Merit-based or performance-based pay increases would be used instead of across-the-board equal increases for workers. Referred to House Government Organization Committee, and then to House Finance Committee, has not yet been taken up.

HB 4252 “To reduce copay cap on insulin and devices” Reduces maximum copay on prescription insulin from $100 to $35, and sets a maximum copay for devices at $100 — great news for our members who are dealing with diabetes. This has passed the House, and has advanced to the Senate and assigned to the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.

HB 4310 “Specifying when a public employee’s spouse may be covered by PEIA” If your spouse has access to non-PEIA healthcare, it would cause you to pay the full spouse premium, instead of “your share” plus the employer’s share of the spouse’s premium. So, where applicable, this could make the part you pay go up, or make it unfeasible to cover your spouse through PEIA. Referred to House Finance, has not yet been taken up.

Other bills of note:

HB 3124, permitting collective bargaining for public employees. In House Government Organization Committee.

  • HB 3123, the “Family Leave Program” would be as good as any. That would allow four weeks of paid employee leave in a 12-month period for reasons including: birth of a child; adoption of a child; care of a child, parent, spouse, or dependent with a serious health condition. In House Workforce Development Committee.
  • SB 243, “Granting all public employees 10 percent per year permanent pay increase,” In Senate Government Organization.
  • HB 2117, “Providing certain employees of the Highways increases in annual pay,” House Finance.
  • HB 2142, “Establishing seniority rights for public employees,” House Workforce Development.
  • HB 3178, “Suspend state government pay if business is shut down due to a pandemic,” House Government Organization.
  • Several bills to improve pay and benefits for retirees. In committee.

Full text and status of all introduced bills can be found by searching at: https://www.wvlegislature.gov/bill_status/bill_status.cfm.
Many other questions can be answered at wvlegislature.gov, but we may be able to help you more quickly.
Please … if you want to know how a bill stands or who your senator or delegate is, please contact us at [email protected] or (304) 347-4396.

Full text and status of all introduced bills can be found by searching here.

Many other questions can be answered at wvlegislature.gov, but we may be able to help you more quickly.

Please … if you want to know how a bill stands or who your senator or delegate is, please contact us at i[email protected] or (304) 347-4396.