Legislation to raise the state's cigarette tax from the current 55 cents to $1.55 a pack (SB 420) will be up for a passage vote in the Senate Tuesday, despite facing uncertain odds in the House of Delegates.
“They have the same fiscal problems that we do,” said Senate Finance Chairman Mike Hall, R-Putnam, commenting on the bill's prospects in the House.
The $1 a pack increase would raise $115.3 million of new revenue annually — and could be critical to plug major budget shortfalls in the current and upcoming 2016-17 state budgets, Hall said.
“This is an unusual budget year, caused by the collapse of the coal industry and natural gas prices,” he said.
The Legislature is looking to close projected budget shortfalls of more than $350 million in the current budget, and more than $460 million in the 2016-17 budget year, which begins July 1.
On Monday, the Senate amended the bill to clarify that for the first year, the additional money would go into the state's general revenue fund to close the budget shortfalls.
After July 1, 2017, the additional revenue would be directed to fund the Public Employees Insurance Agency, which provides health insurance to nearly 250,000 public school and public employees and their families.
As amended in Finance Committee, the bill originally would have redirected the $115.3 million to PEIA beginning this July 1.
“This bill goes a long way to take care of our fiscal needs,” Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, said in offering the amendment. “Over the next couple of years, we've got to make some concerted efforts to fill these gaps.”
Prezioso said the higher tobacco tax could have a tremendous impact on state health by discouraging people from smoking.
Sen. Chris Walters, R-Putnam, agreed, stating, “This is a really intelligent way to address both budget shortfalls.”
Also Monday, the Senate:
n Passed 33-0 and sent to the House a bill to set up a Judicial Compensation Commission that would meet periodically to recommend salaries for all judges in the state, ranging from Supreme Court justices to county magistrates (SB 339).
Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, who has served three terms in the Senate spread out over 20 years, said that would eliminate one of the more unpleasant aspects of being a legislator: Having judges lobbying for judicial pay raise bills.
n Passed 32-1 and sent to the House a bill that would allow retailers that sell growlers of craft beer to provide two-ounce samples to patrons (SB 478).
Walters, who advocated passage of legislation last session to permit sales of the 32- and 64-ounce containers of beer at locations other than the breweries or brewpubs, said of the bill, “This is just another way to help the craft beer industry.”
He said retailers are losing “tons of sales” because they are unable to offer samples to patrons to help them decide if they want to buy a growler of a particular craft beer.
n Rejected 20-13 an amendment to a bill that would have added some protections to a bill intended to make it difficult for property owners to bring private nuisance suits against businesses unless the owner can prove actual physical damage or bodily injury (SB 508).
Opponents of the measure said it will make it nearly impossible to sue natural gas drilling operations for noise issues.
“What we're doing here is allowing bad operators to do bad things,” said Sen. Doug Facemire, D-Braxton.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304 348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.