The Lincoln Walks at Midnight Statue sits in front of the West Virginia state Capitol building in Charleston, W.Va. (Lexi Browning | West Virginia Watch)
We’re almost at the halfway point of the legislative session, so let’s take a little look at what our legislators have been doing.
Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, is proposing with Senate Bill 109 to incentivize residents to report drug activity to police by offering reward money.
The money from the Narc on Your Neighbor for Money Act — whoops, I mean the Neighborhood Assistance and Rejuvenation Compact Act — would come from a new excise tax on naloxone and drug testing strips.
Tarr has said the state could market the program by posting mugshots of people convicted of drug crimes to billboards in areas with high drug activity. He said his inspiration came after watching the news and seeing “bodies hanging off of bridges” in a report on cartels in Mexico.
Please don’t let this guy watch “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Taxing products designed to prevent people from dying does not seem like the answer here. Narcan, one of the brand names for naloxone, is already prohibitively expensive for some people. And while there are groups that provide both naloxone and drug testing strips for free, why would we want to make it more expensive for them to help people?
Instead of shaming people convicted of drug crimes and asking their neighbors to spy and tattle on them, maybe the state should consider not banning harm reduction programs? Helping people instead of shaming seems like the more humane option.
Another bill that seems designed to make life harder for West Virginians is House Bill 3016.
The state passed a voter ID law in 2016 and when it went into effect two years later, residents could prove who they were with more than a dozen different forms of identification other than a driver’s license, including a hunting or fishing license, a utility bill or their Social Security card.
HB 3016 would do away with most of those forms of identification and whittles it down to six — all of which require a photo: driver’s license, state ID, passport, employee ID, student ID and military ID. The lead sponsor on this bill is Del. Erica Moore, R-Roane.
The bill also adds text that a valid voter registration card “that includes the voter’s photograph issued by a county clerk in the State of West Virginia or the Secretary of State” will work. Of course, lawmakers also said during a meeting that this isn’t required, and would be up to each county clerk if they wanted to create and issue voter registration cards with photos.
This will just add another layer to confusion to voting. Am I registered? Where is my polling place? Is my registration active? What ID do I need? What kind of voter registration card does my county have?
Absentee ballots aren’t safe either. House Bill 2117 would make it illegal for anyone — including an election official — to mail or deliver absentee ballot applications unless it’s been specifically requested by the voter or their family/caregiver.
Six Republicans thought this was such a great idea, they sponsored the bill: Doug Smith (Mercer), Mike Hornby (Berkeley), Geno Chiarelli (Monongalia), Chris Phillips (Barbour), Michael Hite (Berkeley) and Kathie Hess Crouse (Putnam).
Why is an application for an absentee ballot something that should require consent?
Do they not want us to vote?
Another head scratcher comes from Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha. His bill would reinstate the death penalty in West Virginia for people convicted of killing a law-enforcement officer or first responder. It has a price tag of $26 million to implement. In the last 45 years, only 21 people would have been eligible for the death penalty. It’s odd to me that Stuart, who says he is “unapologetically pro-life” wants the state to spend about $1.2 million per state-sanctioned killing.
But at least, he knows the monetary cost of his bill. That’s more than we can say for House Bill 2515, which would require counties to create alternative learning centers for chronically disruptive students. The bill from lead sponsor Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, has advanced to the Senate, but it has no proposed funding to build the centers or staff them. Details, details.
Today is day 28 of 60. Will the Legislature do better during the second half of the session? For West Virginians’ sake, I hope so.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.