Marion County's state lawmakers debrief community about 2023 legislative session

Apr. 1—FAIRMONT — Marion County's state lawmakers discussed topics ranging from campus carry to PEIA changes and employment opportunities in West Virginia at a wrap up event held Friday.

The event is hosted annually by the Marion County Chamber of Commerce and was held at Fairmont State University's Colebank Hall. The event is a chance for delegates and senators to share what they worked on or how they stood on issues during the legislative session, which ran from January 11 to March 11. It also gives community members and local officials the opportunity to ask questions and gain insight.

District 13 senators Mike Caputo, D-Marion County, and Michael Oliverio, R-Monongalia County were joined by Del. Joey Garcia, D-76, Del. Phil Mallow, R-75, Del. Mike DeVault, R-74 and Del. Amy Summers, R-73.

Some of the questions asked during the event included topics of how to support small-businesses and build back a declining population, how children will be protected with the campus carry bill have been signed into law and if discussion ever occurs about the return to local instead of regional jails.

An East Fairmont High representative also asked for support on their work to build a multi-purpose health, wellness and training facility on the campus, which would be the first of its kind, available to the entire county and available for STEM and band activities.

An education student at Fairmont State University and K-12 graduate of Marion County Schools said she will being staying in the state after graduation, but had concerns about the safety of children in K-12 schools, specifically kindergarten to sixth grade.

"I helped develop the Safe Schools Act for West Virginia about 15 or 18 years ago. So, we jumped ahead of most of the states in the country. I think what we need to do is just continually review that and see how we can enhance addressing new threats and challenges with this. That has to be our highest priority — protecting our citizens. ... I think the proof's in the pudding. We have not had a school shooting in West Virginia, and I hope to God we never do," Oliverio said.

A community member at the wrap up event shared how local small businesses are struggling and population in West Virginia is declining. Representatives answered with ways they have worked to improve issues, such as decreasing personal income tax and finding people to work.

"Something that didn't pass in the House that passed to the Senate that we really, really need to talk about is figuring out where are the workers? Why aren't they working? And what are they doing to make money? People don't want to think that people are scamming unemployment systems," Summers said.

But, Caputo said he disagreed with Summers's dig at unemployment compensation.

"Unemployment, whether it's six weeks or six months, there is an end. You can't milk it forever. I have been on unemployment; I've been out of work and I know how hard it is sometimes to get back into the work system. ... I can't name 10 people that I know of that are just laying around. ... I ask everybody and they can't even think of one," Caputo said.

The conversation continued between representatives but shifted to the campus carry bill.

"I think we just witnessed the beauty of the system of governance we have in the United States. We had a question on development and economics and we ended up on the topic of campus carry. I think that's a wonderful thing," wrap up facilitator and past chairman of Marion County Chamber of Commerce board of directors Jonathan Board said.

Each representative shared what they thought of the session and what some of their accomplishments were.

DeVault expressed gratitude for the people he worked with throughout the session and said he supported PEIA changes and is passionate about the campus carry bill, among other issues.

"You look at all the school shootings — they look for soft targets; no guns. It just happened in Nashville. ... So will our campus carry stop shootings? I hope. ... Unfortunately, we may have shootings, we may have suicides. That's going to be 'I told you.' Well, I'm praying to God that doesn't happen. You can't look at it that way, we may be stopping things that are not happening. So I was very passionate about campus carry. I grew up with a gun in my hand and my son's will grow up with a gun in their hand," DeVault said.

Mallow said he thought the session went great, with 333 bills passed. He said they had several conversations about how to attract more people to West Virginia and how to help West Virginians county-to-county.

"I couldn't tell you how many times we heard 'What's Florida doing, What's Texas doing?What's Tennessee doing? Why aren't we doing that? How do we get to that model and how are we going to attract people from high metropolitan areas?" Mallow said.

Garcia said he was proud to have passed a bill to prevent child marriage, but was disappointed that a bill to give correctional officers raises did not get finalized. He said issues like campus carry and PEIA are things to be concerned about. Garcia said he though the wrap up went well.

"I'm never scared to say what I think, but I think we have good collegiality with our delegates and senators, even though we have differences of opinions on certain issues," Garcia said.

Until next year, the legislature will meet once a month for three days or so, Garcia said. They will have a break during the summer.

Reach me at sshriver@timeswv.com or 304-367-2549.