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City Council approves request for support barriers on Sisler Street

KINGWOOD — A request to put up support barriers at the trail head on Sisler Street was approved by Kingwood City Council during this week. Sara Saurino told council the barrier would be a “typical Jersey barrier” that could be moved if needed. She said utility pipes under the area of the trail head make it impossible to use other types of barriers. A Jersey barrier is a modular concrete or plastic barrier that is typically used to separate lanes of traffic and prevent vehicles from crossing over into the other lane. They have a rectangular shape with a wide bottom end to aid ...

Gov.: Human services funding a ‘dog’s mess’

Gov. Jim Justice signed a budget passed on the final night of the regular legislative session — but he wants to call lawmakers back to fill gaps in healthcare and human services allocations. “I will absolutely call our legislators back into special session, and I will call them back possibly very soon,” Justice said at a briefing this week. He cited the need to pass childcare legislation, which went nowhere during the 60 days that lawmakers just gathered. And the governor contended a $4.96 billion general revenue budget passed by the legislature cut health services ...

State officials confident over $465M obligation U.S. Department of Education deadline looming

West Virginia is ahead of a deadline this week to provide supporting documentation to the U.S. Department of Education over the state’s pledge to maintain proportional levels of support for education as a condition of federal COVID relief funds. State officials took note of an obligation to the federal government characterized as $465 million while a general revenue budget was taking shape during the final weeks of the regular legislative session. West Virginia sought a waiver for two consecutive years, pointing toward education spending such as pay raises for teachers and ...

Senate sends Social Security tax break, state worker pay raise bills to governor’s desk

CHARLESTON — The state Senate, after a couple of days of delays, passed a bill representing pay raises for some state employees and another phasing out taxes on Social Security benefits. The bills are key components of what could shape up as the state’s general revenue budget. The Senate earlier tied each of the bills to economic triggers, but backed off that format on Day 60 of the legislative session. The pay raises for state employees and cut for the state taxes on Social Security were two of the main proposals advocated by Gov. Jim Justice in his State of the State ...

Budget bill comes in at wire

CHARLESTON — West Virginia lawmakers passed a $4.96 billion general revenue budget Saturday in the final hours of the regular legislative session. The budget included average 5% pay raises for state employees and a three-year phase-out of state taxes on Social Security, both priorities advocated by Gov. Jim Justice. There was some drama — and waiting — as key policy differences between the Senate and House of Delegates were untangled over the final two days of the session. “It was basically a flat line budget. There was a little bit of an increase, but we did pay raises ...