Charleston Report Delegate Gary Howell

As we enter the final full week of the Regular Session, the pace under the Capitol dome has accelerated once again. At this stage of the process, much of our work focuses on Senate bills that have crossed over to the House, as well as carefully reviewing changes the Senate has made to House legislation that previously passed our chamber. It is a critical time in the session as we work through the remaining bills, resolve differences between the two chambers, and ensure the legislation moving forward is ready for final consideration. In this week’s report, I will highlight several of the key issues and developments that stood out during this busy stretch of the session.
One of the bills we considered this week was Com. Sub. for SB 592, the West Virginia Short Line Railroad Modernization Act.

In West Virginia, the role of short line railroads has grown as major carriers like CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway focus on high volume mainlines and longer trains. Many lower density branch lines that once served mines, timber operations, and small manufacturers have been transferred to smaller operators. These short lines now provide the local switching service that connects West Virginia businesses to the national rail network.
The challenge is that these smaller companies operate with far fewer resources than the large railroads that originally built and maintained the infrastructure. SB 592 is designed to help with maintenance and modernization so these lines can continue serving local industry. That is particularly important for West Virginia’s manufacturing and coal industries, which rely on rail to move large volumes of material efficiently.
During the discussion, a few jokes were made referencing Monopoly, where “Short Line Railroad” is one of the four railroads players can buy. Some members joked that the bill must also include the Reading Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Of course, those railroads were not part of the legislation. But near the end of the session, when the days can stretch well past 14 hours between committee meetings and floor sessions, a little humor helps keep everyone going. In reality, the bill focuses on supporting the smaller working railroads that quietly keep freight moving and help support jobs across West Virginia.
Another important bill that I co sponsored was HB 5692, a supplemental appropriation to the State Road Fund.

This bill provides an additional $100,000,000 to the Federal Aid Programs line item in the State Road Fund. That state funding serves as the required match that allows West Virginia to draw down approximately $400,000,000 in additional federal highway funding. By making this investment, the state is able to leverage a relatively modest amount of state dollars to unlock significantly larger federal resources for road projects across West Virginia.
These funds help accelerate practical improvements that people see and experience every day such as paving worn roads, filling potholes, repairing bridges, installing guardrails, improving intersections, and adding other safety features that make travel safer for drivers and families.
Another bill that produced one of the more unusual debates of the session was SB 645, prohibiting surprise billing of ground emergency medical services by nonparticipating providers.
The version of the bill that came from the West Virginia Senate required insurance companies to reimburse ambulance providers at 400% of the rate paid by West Virginia Medicaid. Even at that level, many ambulance providers note that the reimbursement would still be below the actual cost of providing service, which is part of what made the debate so complicated.
During debate in the West Virginia House of Delegates, an amendment was offered Wednesday to reduce that reimbursement level to 150%, but that amendment initially failed.
On Thursday, Bill Bell moved to reconsider the vote that defeated the amendment. Someone immediately moved to table his motion, which would have stopped the reconsideration, but that motion failed. The House then agreed to reconsider the earlier vote, bringing the 150% amendment back before the body.

At that point another amendment was offered to change the reimbursement level to 225%, but the details were still being finalized and the House recessed for lunch. When we returned, the amendment had been adjusted to 200%, which ultimately passed. The bill then passed the House with the reimbursement level set at 200% of the Medicaid rate, and it will now return to the West Virginia Senate for concurrence.
It was certainly one of the wilder debates of the session and a good example of how legislation can shift multiple times on the House floor before reaching its final form.
Another bill that generated several hours of debate was Com. Sub. for SB 392, relating to personal income tax reduction.
After extensive discussion, the version that ultimately passed provides for an even 5% reduction across each personal income tax bracket, meaning every taxpayer receives the same proportional reduction.

During debate, members of the minority party offered an amendment that would have shifted the reduction unevenly across the brackets, effectively making the tax structure more progressive. That amendment failed. A progressive income tax is a concept that has long been debated in political and economic theory. In fact, the idea of a graduated income tax was identified by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as the second plank of The Communist Manifesto. That historical reference did not come up during the floor debate, although it was discussed by members in the halls of the Capitol before the session.
There was also an effort to offset the tax reduction by increasing taxes on iGaming platforms such as FanDuel and other online sports betting services, but that proposal failed.
Later in the debate, Delegate Linville, with the assistance of Delegate Gearheart, drafted an amendment that removed a proposed tax increase on vaping products while preserving the 5% income tax reduction for all West Virginians. That amendment passed.

In the end, the 5% income tax reduction matched the 5% revenue reduction assumption provided by the Governor in the revenue estimates submitted to the Legislature, which were used as the basis for preparing the state budget.
Your input is always valuable, and I welcome your questions, concerns, and suggestions as we continue working to shape the future of West Virginia.
If you would like to contact me, please feel free to reach out by email at gary.howell@wvhouse.gov or by phone at (304) 340-3121 at the Capitol. You may also contact me on my personal cell at (301) 707-3069.
I will provide additional reports on the final night of the session once we see how several remaining bills ultimately shake out and after the Governor has taken action on legislation sent to his desk.