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

There are many firsts for me this legislative session. One of them has been the budget bill moving earlier than I or many other experienced Capitol dwellers have ever seen it move.

The state Senate and House of Delegates came to a compromise on the budget bill on day 51. This was done for the most part to get the bill to Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s desk so he would have five days to consider it prior to the end of the session. If Morrisey does any line-item vetoes to the budget bill, the Legislature would have time to override those vetoes.

Vetoes of regular bills take a simple majority in the House and Senate, but overriding a veto of the budget or line-item vetoes takes a two-thirds majority. The Republican supermajorities easily have the votes to override any line-item veto by Morrisey.

That’s the good part about getting the budget done early. The bad part is that any bills with fiscal notes that are not already contemplated by the compromise budget bill are as dead as they can be prior to day 60.

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The budget contemplates a 5% cut in personal income tax rates, just as it did when Morrisey handed the bill over 55 days ago on the first day of the legislative session (as I write this, the separate bill to cut personal income tax rates has not been amended and recommended for passage by the House Finance Committee).

Lawmakers are still miffed that Morrisey proposed a 10% cut in personal income tax rates in his State of the State address but only included a 5% cut in his budget bill, trying to make the Legislature get its hands dirty and help cut the budget by an additional $125 million in order to return $250 million to taxpayers.

It was never feasible to make the Legislature do the work Morrisey should have done. It’s a part-time legislature with 60 days to pass hundreds of bills, including a balanced budget. Morrisey works 365 days a year and has the entire Department of Revenue at his disposal. If a 10% income tax was possible without putting the budget upside down, then it was on Morrisey and his revenue team to lay out a plan.

When former Gov. Jim Justice sought a 5% personal income tax cut in a special session at the end of 2024, the Legislature only agreed to a 2% cut and Justice took that as a win. Morrisey would be wise to take a 5% cut as a win as well.

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Another thing I’ve never seen: a committee’s message that it recommended a bill for passage suddenly disappear.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Senate Bill 1071, which would have allowed the West Virginia State Police to buy and sell federally regulated automatic machine guns to individuals despite federal law specifically prohibiting state agencies from doing so. The bill’s lead sponsor was state Sen. Chris Rose, R-Monongalia.

The committee recommended the bill for passage, but it had to go to the Senate Finance Committee first. The goal for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, was to get the bill out in time for passage last Wednesday for Crossover Day, even though I’m told Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston, told Willis not to run that bill.

But the committee’s message on SB 1071 totally disappeared. It was never taken up by the Senate, and the bill was never received by the Finance Committee. And between last Monday night and Tuesday morning, Willis – a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate challenging Sen. Shelley Moore Capito from her right flank – came under attack from his own right flank on social media for the disappearing bill. Willis tried to defend the status of the bill Tuesday.

“I just want to correct the record,” Willis said. “The machine gun bill … is not stuck in Judiciary. It’s been reported out of Judiciary.”

So, who is to blame? At least one anonymous X account pushed a dubiously sourced write-up that Willis was responsible. I had already been told by reliable sources that it was solely the decision of Smith. And sure enough, Smith released a statement Friday confirming that he pulled the committee message.

“After consultation with several attorneys and with membership of West Virginia’s two leading and longstanding gun rights groups – the National Rifle Association and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League – I was convinced this bill as it was submitted to us would be unable to pass the House of Delegates and would face numerous legal challenges to its implementation upon passage,” he said in the statement. “I alone decided that the Senate would not take up the bill for further consideration. I did so with no reservation.”

At the end of the day, committee chairs serve at the pleasure of the Senate president. And committee chairs have as much latitude as the Senate president chooses to give them. If a committee chair is going to put a bill on the agenda that the president doesn’t want considered, you can bet there will be consequences.

SB 1071 was introduced on Feb. 23, the last day to introduce new bills in the Senate. And the group advocating for it, the Gun Owners of America (GOA), didn’t even register its lobbyists with the state Ethics Commission until March 2, the day that GOA State Director Alex Guacheta-Shay testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on SB 1071.

Fact of the matter is you, as an individual, can purchase a machine gun now. You just can’t buy machine guns not already registered with the ATF. You can’t buy machine guns manufactured after 1986. But if you fill out the ATF paperwork, agree to an extensive FBI background check and pay a stamp fee, a machine gun can be acquired now. But machine guns are extremely expensive and usually only bought by collectors.

The Gun Owners of America apparently thought they found a loophole around all of that by trying to make the State Police the middle man. Problem is, under federal law, state agencies cannot sell or transfer machine guns to individuals; they can only transfer machine guns to other state agencies or local governments for law enforcement purposes.

Smith might be taking responsibility for pulling the message, but he is also signaling a lack of confidence in Willis for running a bill Smith called “a poorly drafted piece of legislation.” This incident is sure to stoke tempers among the Republican supermajority in the Senate as we count down to midnight on Saturday when the Legislature adjourns sine die.

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