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Rejected…: Justice takes action on remaining bills, vetoes measure that would weaken child vaccine requirements

Gov. Justice spent Wednesday acting on the remaining 119 bills sitting on his desk. (Photo courtesy of the West Virginia Governor’s Office)

CHARLESTON — Hours before a midnight deadline, Gov. Jim Justice took action on the remaining 119 bills passed by the West Virginia Legislature, including a veto of a bill that would weaken immunization requirements for school students.

The West Virginia Constitution gives the Governor 15 days from the time the annual 60-day legislative session ends — not counting Sundays — to either sign bills, veto bills, or allow bills to become law without his signature.

The countdown began following the end of the 2024 session at midnight on March 9, requiring action on bills by midnight Wednesday. There were 119 bills awaiting action by Justice Wednesday morning.

One of those bills was House Bill 5105, eliminating the vaccine requirements for public virtual schools, private schools and parochial schools. Justice vetoed the bill after immense pressure was brought to bear from doctors, hospitals, public health advocates, pharmacists, and teachers’ unions.

“Since this legislation was passed, I have heard constant, strong opposition to this legislation from our State’s medical community,” Justice said in his veto letter. “The overwhelming majority that have voiced their opinion believe that this legislation will do irreparable harm by crippling childhood immunity to diseases such as mumps and measles.”

HB 5105 would have eliminated vaccine requirements for school students participating in one of the two statewide virtual public schools or future county-level virtual public charter schools, except when those students were participating in activities supervised by the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission. It would have continued immunization requirements for virtual school students if they also participated in in-person school programs.

The bill would have also expanded vaccine exemptions to students attending private or parochial schools in the state, while allowing those schools to set their own vaccination requirements. The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston — one of the largest private school systems in the state — has already said it would continue to abide by the state’s child immunization requirements.

State Code requires children attending school in West Virginia to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B, unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown. West Virginia only provides for a medical exemption to immunizations.

While health freedom advocates saw the bill as a step in the right direction towards giving parents more say over the kinds of immunizations their child receive or whether to be vaccinated at all, public health advocates saw the bill as a step backwards towards joining the surrounding states that are seeing renewed outbreaks of viruses, including measles.

“West Virginia is way ahead of the pack in protecting our children from preventable diseases like the measles, and in this matter, I will defer to our licensed medical professionals who have come forward overwhelmingly to say this bill could and likely would result in reduced immunity and harm to West Virginia’s kids,” Justice said. “Our kids are our future. They are our most important resource, and I will protect them with everything I have.”

Justice also vetoed five other bills Wednesday: Senate Bill 683, amending the definition of “alternative fuel” under motor fuel excise taxes; Senate Bill 714, transferring the duties and licensing from the Board of Osteopathic Medicine to the Board of Medicine; Senate Bill 722, revising the examination of records relating to limited video lottery; House Bill 5338, relating to safe harbors for cybersecurity programs; and House Bill 5604, relating to procurement by state spending units.

Justice signed HB 4883, providing teachers, school service personnel, and employees of the West Virginia State Police a 5% pay raise at a cost of more than $80 million. Pay raises for other state employees paid through the general revenue budget was included in Senate Bill 200, the budget bill, which was signed two weeks ago.

House Bill 4880, relating to the personal income tax Social Security exemption, was signed by Justice Wednesday. The bill phases out the remaining income tax collections on Social Security benefits for single filers earning more than $50,000 and joint filers earning more than $100,000. The phase-out is retroactive to Jan. 1, reducing taxes by 35% this tax year and 65% in tax year 2025, with the tax phased out completely in tax year 2026.

Justice signed Senate Bill 844, redesignating the Educational Broadcasting Authority as the Educational Broadcasting Commission. SB 844 reduces the number of members to the renamed EBA as well as their terms. The bill also places authority to hire the executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) in the hands of the cabinet secretary for the Department of Arts, Culture, and History.

WVPB has been without a permanent executive director since Butch Antolini abruptly resigned last August. A former communications director for Justice, Antolini’s tenure as WVPB executive director came under scrutiny for his treatment of a former part-time reporter and the exit of two newsroom employees.

The Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Board, the nonprofit that raises money for WVPB, has raised concerns about giving direct control over WVPB and its news programming to a cabinet secretary who answers to the Governor. According to multiple sources, current WVPB Interim Executive Director Eddie Isom will retire in May. According to a job posting Wednesday, WVPB is also now seeking to fill several positions, including chief financial officer, director of engineering and IT, and TV operations manager.

By Wednesday evening, only two bills had not been acted on by Justice: House Bill 4911, allowing for the sale of raw milk; and Senate Bill 841, making changes to the number of weeks of unemployment benefits. If Justice doesn’t veto the bills by midnight Wednesday, the bill automatically become law without his signature.

SB 841 would freeze the taxable wages that are taxable to employers to fund the state unemployment trust fund at the approximate current amount of $9,500 and conform the maximum weekly benefit rate for unemployment recipients to the current maximum weekly benefit rate of $662. The bill would keep the maximum number of weeks of unemployment benefits to 26 weeks and go into effect on July 1.

The bill allows an individual on unemployment to accept a part-time job while collecting unemployment as long as their part-time wages are less than their weekly unemployment benefit. It requires unemployment recipients to show a minimum of four weekly work search activities out of a possible 10 activities.

The bill includes a new requirement for employers to report the refusal of any recipient of unemployment benefits to accept an offer of employment through a job referral from Workforce West Virginia to the commissioner of Workforce West Virginia. It also requires employers to report those that accept employment through Workforce West Virginia referrals who leave or are dismissed from employment after six weeks.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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