(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Well, last week was an interesting start to the 2026 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature.

In my previous column, I told you about the comments from former state Senate Finance Committee chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, when he told attendees of the West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Lookahead on Jan. 9 that the Republican caucus in the state Senate had no consensus regarding a public policy agenda.

Now, that seemed a bit crazy to me. I’m a former Senate communications staffer, working the last two years of the Democratic majority and first two years of the new Republican majority. There is always a plan going into a new regular 60-day session. Surely state Senate President Randy Smith would refute this when he spoke at the annual Charleston Regional Chamber of Commerce Issues and Eggs breakfast on Jan. 13.

Well, Smith did tell former WV MetroNews Talkline host Hoppy Kercheval that the Senate had a plan. However, he then never actually articulated a plan and seemed to confirm what Tarr alluded to: that the Senate’s committee chairs were largely running the show and the legislative session would be a free-for-all.

That same day, news broke that state Sen. Laura Wakim Chapman was resigning from her position as chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Resources, claiming that Smith was demanding support from her. In a response, Smith never confirmed or denied Chapman’s claim. Sources have told me that Smith was set to remove her as chair the day before for reasons not publicly spoken about, but when Chapman did her “you can’t fire me, I quit” move, that gave Smith the opening to replace her.

In fact, Smith made a whole bunch of committee and leadership changes last Tuesday, including removing Chapman from membership on the Senate Health and Government Organization committees (Smith forgot to formally remove Chapman from membership on the Senate Rules Committee, which includes major committee chairs).

By last Tuesday night on the eve of the start of the legislative session, rumors began to spread that someone was going to make a motion at the start of the floor session to vacate the chair, a move that could have resulted in Smith being removed as senate president if there were enough votes. That would have then meant the Senate Republican caucus fighting to pick a new senate president. There was even one rumor that Smith might just resign as president out of frustration.

In the end, nothing happened, much as I assumed. I figure that whatever tempers flared last Tuesday were doused by the time the Senate gaveled in last Wednesday. But I suspect that we will see tempers flare in the Senate again before the session gavels out on March 14.

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Turning to Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s second State of the State address, there is a lot of confusion as the first week of the session winds down as to why talk about a 10% personal income tax cut in your speech Wednesday night when your general revenue budget only includes a 5% personal income tax cut.

The way it has been explained to myself and lawmakers, Morrisey’s budget includes a 5% personal income tax rate cut built into its assumptions, which would return approximately $125 million to taxpayers (revenue officials tell me every 1% cut equals about $25 million). But the additional 5% Morrisey wants he would negotiate with the Legislature to find places to cut in order to get to a total 10% cut.

I talked with Morrisey last week following his State of the State address. With the state’s current general revenue collections exceeding estimates by $128 million halfway through the current fiscal year, $237 million available in unappropriated general fund monies, and the $120 million in department budget cuts, Morrisey believes the state can afford the full 10% cut which, if approved, would return approximately $250 million to taxpayers.

But the lawmakers I’ve talked to don’t really know what to think. Keep in mind, Morrisey was working in November on lawmakers to support a possible December special session to consider moving the state from five personal income tax brackets to a flat 3.88% personal income tax rate. But lawmakers were a hard no. Then on Jan. 5, Morrisey said he planned to ask the Legislature to approve a personal income tax rate cut of between 5% and 10%.

Again, finding a Republican lawmaker who doesn’t want to cut taxes of some sort is hard. Yet, nobody wants to go full Kansas (you never go full Kansas) and end up with an upside down general revenue budget that would cause the state to dip into the nearly $500 million income tax reserve fund or even the $1.4 billion Rainy Day Fund (it’s called the revenue shortfall fund for a reason).

Morrisey probably should have just said in his State of the State that his budget included a 5% personal income tax cut with the goal of working with lawmakers to get to a full 10% cut. Because the lawmakers I’m talking to feel like they’re being taken for a ride.

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