| West Virginia lawmakers have sent 261 bills to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin for his consideration.
The GOP led legislature, the first in 80 years, had a busy year, whose theme has been called "The Roll-Back Legislature."
Gov. Tomblin said "People are riled up about the repeal of concealed weapons permits," which would repeal legislation requiring residents to undergo a background check and complete a firearms safety course to receive a state permit needed to legally conceal carry a handgun.
He said much of the support for the NRA bill's passage is coming from out of state.
"Our law enforcement people are pretty much unanimously opposed to it," Tomblin said.
The big winner in the "War on Coal" was coal.
The legislature can easy overturn a governor's veto by a simple majority vote.
Here are a few bills waiting his signature:
- Eliminates permits requiring training and background requirements to carry a concealed handgun, free carry at age 21 and over, no background checks on people with mental illness, an National Rifle Association bill widely opposed by police agencies.
- Bill allows alternative teacher certification programs for individuals with degrees in special areas, but do not have teacher certification degrees.
- Bill prohibiting car companies that sell electric cars like Tesla, from having their own dealerships in West Virginia, supported by coal industry.
- Bill allowing people to drink raw milk by entering into herd-sharing agreements, widely opposed as health risk by health officials.
- Bill exempting about 36,000 above ground storage tanks from last year's law aimed to prevent chemical spills and protecting WV water supplies, a bill passed following the chemical contamination of 300,000 WV water customers.
The broad tank regulation bill was opposed by numerous chemical and oil producers as "overkill." The bill has a clause that exempts the public from knowing what is contained in many tanks, even under West Virginia's Freedom of Information Act.
- A bill than expands breweries to hand out beer samples, allowing expanded sales to brewers, brewpubs, retailers and bars. Lowers licensing fees for brewpubs, and sets up a tiered fee system for brewers.
- A bill eliminating longtime straight-party ticket voting in the state.
- A bill making magistrate and judicial elections nonpartisan, including Supreme Court.
- A bill that changes deliberate intent lawsuit protections, focusing mainly on redefining serious injuries in the lawsuits available where a known unsafe working condition hurts or kills someone, based upon the premise that WV is a "judicial hellhole."
- A bill expanding more cities to participate in a home-rule pilot projects.
- A bill to allow banks to make 30 calls or have 10 phone conversations a week with people about collecting debts owed to them.
- A bill that prohibits open containers of alcohol for car passengers.
- A bill that permits 10 unexcused student absences, instead of the current five, before the possibility of sending students to juvenile court or correctional centers for truancy.
- A bill that exempts names of people with concealed carry handgun permits from public disclosure, a mute bill if the "free-carry" bill is passed.
- A bill that limits prevailing wage only to projects $500,000 or greater.
- A bill that scales back coal mine safety and environmental regulations, including shielding coal mine companies from some citizen Clean Water Act lawsuits.
- A bill that shields property owners from lawsuits over open and obvious hazards on their grounds.
- A slow-down bill that requires a state plan to comply with EPA's carbon emissions rule first to get approval from the state Legislature before submission to the EPA, supported by WV coal groups.
- A coal protection bill that repeals the state's alternative energy portfolio standard, which required generating 25 percent of their electricity with renewable or alternative power sources by 2025, a slow-down for alternative energy like solar or wind.
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