The 60 day legislative session came to an end at midnight on Saturday, March 8, 2014. Legislators managed to complete 199 bills (out of 1,876 introduced). The atmosphere at the Capitol became increasingly hectic as the clock inched closer to Midnight. Long discussions about SB 6 (the methamphetamine bill), as well as other controversial bills, in both the House and the Senate led to a harried final hour as legislators rushed to move through as many bills as possible. Several bills met their death as a result of the time crunch, including the much-discussed SB 379 (pay raises for county officials). CCAWV Executive Director Vivian Parsons and lobbyist Jim Bowen monitored this bill closely as it worked its way through Senate and then House committee hearings. The bill was amended in the House Finance committee to move back to ten county classifications (from the Senate’s proposed five) and give a 12% pay raise across the board to all county officials (instead of at a new term of office as the Senate had written). Additionally, at CCAWV’s pressing, the amended bill included changes to the Auditor’s test – insuring that both county revenues and expenditures were taken into account before certifying a county’s ability to afford the salary hikes. Even though CCAWV’s official position was against a salary increase in 2014, we felt this was the best compromise possible, as it gave Commissions a measure of control. However, the Senate rejected the House amendments, effectively killing the bill in the last hours of the session.

Governor Tomblin remedied this by calling a short Special Session of the Legislature on Friday, March 14th. During this session lawmakers passed SB 1005, which essentially was the salary bill that had come out of House Finance. Importantly, it included the amended auditor’s test that CCAWV had fought so hard for. Moving forward, Commissioners will be working with the Auditor’s office to ensure that this is a fair test for all counties.

Other bills that did make it through that will affect counties include:

•SB 307 – Authorizing community corrections programs to operate pretrial release programs (hopefully a means of containing skyrocketing regional jail costs)

•SB 314 – Appropriating hotel occupancy tax proceeds to counties with no more than one hospital (this specifically affects Tucker county)

•SB 359 – Reducing from 5% to 3% the hand canvassing requirements of electronic voting machines (This bill was parked on the regular house calendar to die, but urging from Jim & Vivian netted a compromise to revive the bill and gain its ultimate passage.)

•SB 375 – Excluding certain personal property from TIF assessment (this excludes difficult-to-track property such as personal ATVs and campers)

•SB 439 – Permitting Ohio County Commission levy special district excise tax for Fort Henry

•SB 457 – Requiring programs for temporarily detained inmates in regional jails (another measure to keep

regional jail costs down, this will enable DOC inmates to begin court-appointed classes in regional jails as soon as they are sentenced, rather than waiting until they can be placed in a DOC facility)

All told, the 2014 legislative session was a successful one for CCAWV members. Vivian and Jim, along with the support of the membership, managed to keep counties out of several pieces of legislation that could have been financially damaging, or made Commissioners’ duties unnecessarily more complex.

The importance of membership involvement cannot be understated! Those phone calls made and emails sent by Commissioners are crucial to the success of CCAWV’s efforts at the Capitol. Vivian and Jim worked tirelessly to pursue Commissioners’ interests, but they could not have done it alone.

Thanks to everyone’s hard work, Commissioners can rest easy, at least until next year.