If Democrats win back one or both houses of the Legislature in November, Tuesday will be remembered as a red letter day toward that end.
Of course, that was the day of the tobacco tax bill debacle, as House of Delegates leadership saw nearly a third of its Republican caucus form an unlikely alliance with 35 of 36 House Democrats to soundly defeat the only one of three revenue proposals offered by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin that House and Senate leaders have been willing to even consider.
The no-tax Republicans teamed with Democrats who considered a 45-cent cigarette tax as an ineffective half-measure to leave House leadership with egg on its face.
(That included defections from the leadership team itself, including Majority Whip John O'Neal, R-Raleigh; delegates Patrick Lane, R-Kanawha; Eric Householder, R-Berkeley; Randy Smith, R-Tucker; and Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell. Sobonya's vote puzzled many, since she gave a floor speech that appeared to be in favor of the bill, calling on members to vote green, "because there's no other way.")
Barring a deus ex machina moment with sudden consensus for a $1 a pack cigarette tax or for a temporary increase in the consumer sales tax, the Legislature appears poised to send Tomblin a budget bill that closes the 2016-17 budget gap by raiding as much as 60 percent of what's left in the Rainy Day A Fund - a bill that Tomblin almost certainly will veto, sending state government to the precipice of the abyss of shutdown.
Legislative leadership, particularly in the House, seems frozen with fear - unable to secure the votes to make any meaningful increases in revenue, but also unwilling to get out the fiscal machete to do the hard-core hacking to cut $270 million of spending to balance the budget.
(Despite all the talk of waste, fraud and abuse in state government, neither house has been able to come up with budget cuts that amount to much more than 3 percent of the General Revenue budget.)
While June 30 is the obvious drop-dead date to avoid a shutdown, my understanding is the breakdown of state government starts happening earlier in June. For instance, the new budget figures need to be inputted into the wvOasis supercomputer by June 11 or 12 in order to assure the July 3 pay day isn't delayed.
How did it all come to this?
Let's not forget that back in mid-February, Tomblin vented his frustration that the regular session had reached the midway point with no serious discussion on revenue options to help close the budget shortfall.
As I reported at the time: "He chided legislative leaders for devoting vast amounts of time to divisive issues, such as right-to-work, prevailing wage repeal, permitless concealed carry of handguns, requiring voters to carry identification, among other issues, while failing to begin addressing the state's funding crisis."
(The Legislature would later go on to take on gay bashing in the form of a religious freedom bill, and ironically, pushing a resolution to force a constitutional convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution to require Congress to pass balanced budgets.)
Part of Tomblin's frustration may have been the result of the collapse of the committee process as a method to filter out bad legislation.
In prior years, committee chairs had the mettle to keep the wackadoodle bills from ever seeing the light of a committee agenda. The last couple of years, that gatekeeper process has seemed to collapse and legislators have spent countless hours on dubious issues, while the one job they have to do - adopting a balanced budget plan - got put off indefinitely.
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Also on Tuesday, the unlicensed conceal-carry handgun bill became law, legislation designed to appease the small clique of its black T-shirted supporters, but according to multiple opinion polls (and based on the calls and emails I've received) unpopular with most West Virginians, including law enforcement officers, and responsible gun owners who in particular support the gun safety training requirements in the licensed conceal-carry law.
Unfortunately, between now and Election Day, we will probably hear and read news reports about the ramifications of the new law.
We've already had incidents prior to the repeal, as individuals learned that the old ban on unlicensed conceal-carry couldn't be enforced, such as the recent episode where a gun went off in the University of Charleston natatorium.
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Meanwhile, the ongoing special session on the budget impasse continues to play havoc with Bill Cole's gubernatorial fundraising efforts.
A fundraiser at Edgewood County Club set for Wednesday was rescheduled and relocated to the Charleston Marriott for Tuesday evening to avoid conflicting with the special session.
(You may recall that prior to the regular session, Cole pledged to do zero campaigning for governor while the Legislature is in session.)
However, chances are good the special session will be in its 11th day on Tuesday (after legislators take a well-deserved long holiday weekend break.) Complicating matters is that the special guest for the evening, according to the fundraiser invite from the West Virginia Business and Industry Council, is former Texas Gov. (and very briefly, presidential candidate) Rick Perry.
Tried to contact Cole campaign spokesman Kent Gates about contingencies in the event the session isn't over by Tuesday, but didn't receive a reply by my new, way-early deadline for this column.
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Finally, given the $35,000 a day cost, the languid pace of the special session has been puzzling. The Senate's cumulative time in floor sessions did not break the three-hour mark until Thursday morning, the ninth day of the session, and that floor session consisted of laying over the Senate's budget bill for a second straight day.
(Rumor is that votes were delayed while Sens. Bob Ashley, R-Roane, and Jeff Mullins, R-Raleigh, took long Memorial Day weekend vacations, the latter in the Bahamas.)
Reach Phil Kabler at
304 348-1220, or follow
@PhilKabler on Twitter.