Latest news with #HB2139
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A look at bills that died before Crossover Day at the Capitol
Apr. 2—MORGANTOWN — Wednesday was Crossover Day at the Legislature: Day 50 of the 60-day session, the deadline for bills to pass out of their house of origin and cross the Capitol to the other chamber. As it happens every year, many of the bills we follow and report on are left to die without floor action. Here's a look at some we've called attention to. House bills HB 2033 says a foster or adoptive family's sincerely held religious or moral beliefs on sexual orientation or gender identity may not serve as a condition for eligibility to foster or adopt. The Department of Human services may not deny a current or prospective family eligibility based on those beliefs. And the state may not use the family's beliefs that a particular placement is not in the best interests of the child. A House Health subcommittee approved the bill but the full committee never took it up. HB 2376, saying DHS may not require a foster child to be immunized if the foster family objects to immunization based on religious or moral convictions, suffered the same fate. HB 2139 was an attempt to end the tax on income derived from tips. A House Finance subcommittee approved it but it died in the full committee. The House of Delegates and Senate tried advancing bills to require each public school — including charters — to have on campus a wearable panic alarm system. Each employee would be trained how to wear and use the alarm. HB 2394 was approved by the House Education Committee but died in Finance. SB 434 was similarly approved in Senate Education but died in Senate Finance. Senate bills Another tax bill, SB 610, to exempt overtime pay from personal income tax, was approved by a Senate Finance subcommittee but likewise died in the full committee. SB 751, to ban making, selling or distributing lab-grown meat, passed out of Senate Agriculture but died in Judiciary. SB 439 was aimed at raising the property tax on windmills. It passed out of Senate Energy but died in Finance. SB 448 aimed to allow coal companies to take a severance tax credit for road improvements and purchases of production equipment. Senate Energy approved it but Finance let it die.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate committee moves bill to exempt overtime pay from income tax
Mar. 10—dbeard @ MORGANTOWN — Following the lead of President Trump, state senators are considering a bill to exempt overtime pay from personal income tax. The Senate Workforce Committee OK'd SB 6010 on Monday and sent it to Senate Finance. The exemption would begin in the 2026 tax year. A Tax & Revenue Department fiscal note with the bill estimates tax revenue loss ranging from $70 million to $100 million. Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow told the committee that Alabama was the first state to try this, with a temporary exemption set to run from January 2024 through June of this year. Alabama had to modify the exemption after actual looses far exceeded the estimates. News reports from Alabama say the fiscal note with its original bill estimated a loss of $45 million, and supporters foresaw the loss to be made up through increased consumer spending. Muchow said that after nine months, Alabama's revenue loss topped $230 million, so the law was amended to only apply to workers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, "establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments." If Congress passes a federal overtime exemption law, Muchow said, the Legislature would need to update state code next year to conform to the federal one. The legislature annually passes legislation to conform state code to federal code. Sen. Scott Fuller, R-Wayne, raised the issue of workers who receive comp time off instead of overtime and asked Muchow what would happen in those instances. Muchow said that's one factor that could raise the cost of the bill, along with salaried workers who press their employers to switch them to hourly, and workers who press their employers for more overtime. Two issues not discussed in committee were the $400 million revenue shortfall projected by the governor for next fiscal year, and a House bill — HB 2139 — to exclude income from tips from personal income tax. That bill is sitting in House Finance and is estimated to cost the state about $5 million.
