MORGANTOWN – Wednesday was Crossover Day at the Legislature: Day 50 of the 60-day session, the deadline for bills to pass out of their house of origin and cross the Capitol to the other chamber.
As it happens every year, many of the bills we follow and report on are left to die without floor action. Here’s a look at some we’ve called attention to.
House bills
HB 2033 says a foster or adoptive family’s sincerely held religious or moral beliefs on sexual orientation or gender identity may not serve as a condition for eligibility to foster or adopt. The Department of Human services may not deny a current or prospective family eligibility based on those beliefs.
And the state may not use the family’s beliefs that a particular placement is not in the best interests of the child. A House Health subcommittee approved the bill but the full committee never took it up.
HB 2376, saying DHS may not require a foster child to be immunized if the foster family objects to immunization based on religious or moral convictions, suffered the same fate.
HB 2139 was an attempt to end the tax on income derived from tips. A House Finance subcommittee approved it but it died in the full committee.
The House of Delegates and Senate tried advancing bills to require each public school – including charters – to have on campus a wearable panic alarm system. Each employee would be trained how to wear and use the alarm.
HB 2394 was approved by the House Education Committee but died in Finance. SB 434 was similarly approved in Senate Education but died in Senate Finance.
Senate bills
Another tax bill, SB 610, to exempt overtime pay from personal income tax, was approved by a Senate Finance subcommittee but likewise died in the full committee.
SB 751, to ban making, selling or distributing lab-grown meat, passed out of Senate Agriculture but died in Judiciary.
SB 439 was aimed at raising the property tax on windmills. It passed out of Senate Energy but died in Finance.
SB 448 aimed to allow coal companies to take a severance tax credit for road improvements and purchases of production equipment. Senate Energy approved it but Finance let it die.
