West Virginia Legislature has no empathy for the vulnerable

The House finance committee advanced Senate Bill 841 to the full House of Delegates on Monday, March 4, 2024. The bill would cut unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 24, among other changes. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)

With less than a week left of the 2024 West Virginia regular legislative session, lawmakers are only ramping up the absurdity.

On Thursday, the House Judiciary held a vote on an amendment that could have made twerking at a high school dance a felony. Perhaps someone watched “Footloose” and missed the whole point of the movie before coming up with this amendment. High schoolers will be relieved to know it failed on a vote of 11-11.

Another bill that’s still advancing would require “In God We Trust” in every school, but one delegate thought one sign per school wasn’t good enough — it has to be in every classroom . Schools would be on the hook for paying for the framed photos or posters. West Virginia University would need at least 700 signs. What a ridiculous waste of money when schools and colleges are already struggling with funding. This bill is expected to be taken up in House Judiciary this morning, but things could always change .

Many bills are no longer in play, including several that would have actually benefited West Virginians.

All of the bills about child tax care credits — dead.

A bill to stop discrimination based on natural hair texture — dead.

Two bills for school pay raises — dead.

Unfortunately, a lot of bad bills are still alive — many that attack vulnerable West Virginians.

The bill banning gender-affirming care, which hundreds of medical professionals signed a letter opposing — still going. So is legislation that would prohibit syringe service programs from distributing safe smoking supplies , although experts agree that smoking drugs is safer than injecting, and leads to lower rates of overdoses, HIV, hepatitis and other diseases that can be contracted from sharing syringes or using old, broken syringes.

The Legislature has shown us that they have some range — not only are they targeting children, people with substance use disorder and LGBTQ people, but the unemployed, as well.

On Feb. 24, the Senate considered Senate Bill 840 , which would have cut the max number of weeks someone can be on unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 12 when the unemployment rate is below 5.5%. When the rate is at or above 9%, it would cap at 20 weeks. It would also cut the maximum payment from $630 per week to $550.

Have these people never looked for a job? Looking through multiple articles online, the average job search varies widely from three to six months. It took me two months after completing graduate school to find a job that I was overqualified for, paid terribly and didn’t offer any benefits, and it took seven more months after that to get a job in the journalism field.

Any time you cut unemployment, you’re hurting people. It seems like the members of West Virginia’s Legislature have never been on unemployment. As someone who has been, let me tell you about it:

• The first week you’re unemployed is called a waiting week , and you won’t get paid for that. Hope you’re up-to-date on your bills.
• You have to opt in to have federal taxes taken out of your benefits check. It’s something easy to look over, especially because signing up for unemployment can be overwhelming if it’s the first time you’ve lost a job. And for some reason, the state unemployment office can’t withhold state income taxes . So while you’re trying to live on less money, possibly going through your savings, you need to remember you’re absolutely going to owe come tax season.
• Currently, unemployment pays a maximum of $630/week in West Virginia. If you were making significantly more than that before, it may be difficult to live on that money until you’re able to find a new job. Bills don’t stop just because your job did. The median rent in a city like Charleston is $1,000, according to Zillow. Factor in food, utilities and gas, and then add kids to the mix and even that current maximum of $630 a week doesn’t go very far.

On Wednesday, the Senate killed SB 840 and amended the unemployment legislation, Senate Bill 841, to something slightly less terrible than the SB 840 — the duration of employment benefits was only reduced by two weeks, from 26 weeks to 24.

The biggest change would be in the amount of unemployment benefits you’d receive. For the first four weeks, you’d receive 70% of your previous average weekly wage instead of maxing out at $630 per week. For every subsequent four weeks you’re unemployed, the amount would be reduced by 5% until you’re only receiving 45% of your average weekly wage.

The House finance committee passed SB 841 on Monday evening, and it will now go to the full House.

Searching for a new job is stressful when you’re employed — and it’s substantially more stressful when you’re not. Knowing that each month you can’t find something, your pay is getting cut, it’s like you’re being punished for a job market you can’t control.

I keep hearing lawmakers say they’re worrying that someone will take advantage of something, and that’s their reason for not wanting to protect abused children or not wanting to end the exemption on marital rape .

And that’s their reasoning for cutting unemployment benefits, because they again assume everyone is taking advantage of the system.

Remember when several states, including West Virginia, cut the extra COVID-19 unemployment benefits early because they thought it was keeping people out of the workforce? Studies show that the cuts didn’t result in a surge of people getting back to work.

For people who don’t want others to take advantage of getting paid without working, lawmakers in West Virginia have a pretty sweet deal. Did you know that our state legislators make $20,000 for working 60 days a year? And they also get additional pay of $200/day for working during the seven scheduled three-day interims a year and for reporting to a special session. Plus they receive per diem for travel.

And starting in 2025, they’ll receive a $10,000 raise they approved during the 2023 session, giving them a yearly salary of about $30,000.

The median household income in West Virginia is $55,217 — and that’s for people who work full time, all year. The average West Virginian would have to work more than six months to make what a legislator will make in two months.

It seems many of our lawmakers are detached from reality. Perhaps they should spend more time talking to their constituents and experts, and less assuming the worst of everyone.

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