Legislative lookahead: Marion representatives prep for their upcoming January session

Dec. 24—FAIRMONT — While the holidays swirl around most families, Marion County's state delegates and senators are preparing for the start of the 2023 West Virginia legislative session.

In just a few weeks, legislators from around the state will make the trek to Charleston. Jan. 11 will mark the start of the two-month legislative session and Marion County's delegation is already hard at work.

Changes to the state's district maps in 2022 shook up many seats. In Marion County, all three delegates were required to run for their new districts. Previously the county voted at-large for all three delegates, now the county is divided into three districts.

Dels. Mike DeVault, R-74; Phil Mallow, R-75; and Joey Garcia, D-76, will be representing Marion County in 2023. State Senators Mike Caputo, D-13, and Mike Oliverio, R-13, will represent the majority of Marion and Monongalia counties.

While the representatives have different priorities as the session approaches, there are several topics of interest that they each hope to weigh in on.

Car tax rebate

In the November General Election, Gov. Jim Justice played a key role in defeating Amendment 2, which would've allowed the legislature to reform several aspects of state property taxes, including the personal automobile tax.

Justice promised the public an alternative to Amendment 2 that would get rid of the car tax without slashing county budgets. His solution is a rebate program, but it will have to pass the state legislature, which isn't a sure thing.

However, most of Marion County's representatives hope to bring the public some form of tax relief this session.

"I know the governor is trying to find a way to get rid of the car tax and I certainly want to be supportive of that to give the people of West Virginia some of their money back," Caputo said. "We've got a big surplus and I want to find some ways to put that money back in the pockets of the taxpayers."

Oliverio didn't address the car tax specifically, but did mention exploring tax reform more broadly. He shared Caputo's sentiment, saying the legislature needs to find a way to put a part of the state's surplus into citizens' pockets.

Oliverio will be a member of the Senate's Finance Committee and said they will work to find solutions to make sure this happens.

"In the history of West Virginia we've never been more flush with cash than we are right now," Oliverio said. "I want to see us find a way to get some of these surplus dollars into the hands of citizens who've paid taxes into the state coffers."

A specific target of his would be to be for West Virginia to implement the State and Local Tax Deduction, which allows state residents and business owners to write off their state and local taxes from their federal taxes. According to Oliverio, 25 states have already implemented the program, but West Virginia hasn't.

In the House of Delegates, Garcia hopes the House will also support some form of tax relief, and said he would be in favor of the car tax credit as long as it doesn't hurt the budget of county services.

"We just need to make sure we do that through a mechanism that protects our counties and doesn't raise local funds that are so needed at this time," Garcia said.

He also hopes to push for the state's budget surplus to be used toward safeguards in struggling programs, such as Child Protective Services.

"We can't just wait until there's a huge problem or deficit before we start planning a solution," Garcia said.

Marion County projects

Each of the representatives have several projects or proposals they hope to pursue that would benefit Marion County specifically. Garcia will be a member of the House Technology & Infrastructure Committee and hopes to continue support for broadband projects throughout the county.

In addition, he hopes to continue supporting funding for dilapidated building demolition. The state launched a program to help municipalities demolish blighted structures earlier this year and Garcia hopes to expand that and keep the progress going.

Both Caputo and Oliverio hope to focus their efforts on economic development opportunities in Marion County and work to attract business growth to the area. Both of them also hope to support education.

Caputo stood firm in his defiance against the HOPE Scholarship program and believes public money shouldn't go toward private schools. Oliverio will be a member of the Senate Education Committee, which he believes will have a major impact on Marion and Mon counties, since his district contains both school districts as well as West Virginia University and Fairmont State University.

House of Delegates environment

Del. Garcia will be one of just 12 Democrats out of the 100 members in the House of Delegates this session, down from 22 last session.

In his opinion, the environment won't be much different from the past few sessions. He said that his goal will still be to find common ground solutions to big problems.

"You still need a bunch of Republicans to vote for a bill that you think is a good policy. We still need to work across the aisle and that's the way I think we always need to do things," Garcia said. "I try to represent the people of Marion County. I don't look at something as a Democrat or a Republican policy, I look at if it's a good or bad policy."

Dels. Mallow and DeVault did not respond before deadline.

Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or by email at dkirk@timeswv.com.