Gov. Jim Justice speaks with media near the Senate Chamber Tuesday morning hours before a press conference calling on lawmakers to pass his pay raise bill for teachers, school service personnel and state police troopers. (Photo Courtesy/WV Governor’s Office)

CHARLESTON — After the defeat of the West Virginia Senate’s education reform package, Gov. Jim Justice asked lawmakers to quit sitting on his pay raise bill for teachers and school service personnel.

Justice held a press conference Tuesday afternoon hours after the House of Delegates killed Senate Bill 451, the education omnibus bill.

“That education bill is dead,” Justice said in the Governor’s Conference Room full of applauding teachers and school service personnel. “I’m glad of that.”

Among the bill’s provisions, it included a 5 percent pay raise for teachers and school service personnel. Justice originally announced a 5 percent pay raise proposal in October, which also included public employees.

The pay raise for public employees is built into the fiscal year 2020 budget, but separate bills exist in the House and Senate independent of SB 451 to raise the pay for teachers and school service personnel, as well as state police troopers. SB 445 is in the Senate and HB 2730 is in the House.

“I’m calling the legislators…to pass my pay raise bill, the bill I sent to them, the clean bill,” Justice said.

“I’m calling upon them to do that now. Do that right now. I think there is a real opportunity to move forward here and that needs to be the first step.”

Justice said he didn’t support everything in the education omnibus bill, especially provisions for education savings accounts and a permanent public charter school program. But he also said some provisions of the bill should be moved as individual bills, such as funding counties in the state at a minimum of 1,400 students and providing $24 million for counselors, psychologists and nurses in schools.

“There were several things that were there that are really important to us and they’re good things,” Justice said. “There may be other things, but today we’ve got to move forward.”

Speaking directly to teachers and staff, Justice asked them to return to their classrooms. Hundreds of teachers and school service personnel packed the state Capitol Tuesday for the first day of a statewide strike called by the American Federation of Teachers, the West Virginia Education Association, and the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association.

“I’m calling upon you to go back to work,” Justice said. “Go back to work right now. Go back to work tomorrow. Give this process now a chance to really work. You’ve voiced your concerns.”

Justice said a few weeks ago that any bill that had a permanent charter school program would be vetoed, but he expressed openness to a small pilot project similar to what was in the House version of the bill. He reiterated those comments Tuesday.

“If we want to put some money into that and do a study of those programs toward the future, that’s fine,” Justice said. “No matter how well intended or not well intended, we didn’t need to do this now.”

Another proposal Justice promised in October of last year was additional money for the Public Employees insurance Agency. Legislation was introduced on behalf of the governor to use $105 million in surplus tax collections for long-term stabilization of PEIA, with an additional $45 million coming from fees paid by state agencies.

“My whole goal on PEIA is to find a sustainable model, and as we continue down the path of bringing in additional revenues, we can put more money in,” Justice said. “I don’t think making a $150 million contribution to a PEIA Rainy Day Fund needs to go unnoticed.”

HB 2730 is on the agenda for this morning’s House Finance Committee at 9 a.m. Justice said he hasn’t heard whether the Senate plans to run SB 445 or not.

“We made a commitment to award all our educators,” Justice said. “We need to get on with what we made the commitment to do.”