CHARLESTON - A bill that would raise cigarette taxes in West Virginia to help pay for better health care for the state’s 1.8 million residents has now been introduced in both houses as the state legislature nears the halfway mark of the 2009 regular session.

Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, is the lead sponsor of SB420 that would increase the excise tax on a pack of cigarettes from 55 cents to $1.20, the national average. A companion bill (HB2746) was introduced in the House by Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne.

The $110 million in increased tax revenue each year that would result if the tax is increased would be used to help promote healthy lifestyles for the state’s 1.8 million residents. Perdue said he expects the Senate to take up the bill first.

Another bill recommended by interim studies and introduced last week would require chain restaurants to post calorie counts in places where diners can easily see the information. It, too, faces significant opposition from the restaurant industry.

There was also bad news for the governor and legislative leaders last week on the anticipated budget surplus of $22 million at the end of the state’s fiscal year June 30. Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow said declining tax revenues may force Gov. Joe Manchin to revise his proposed 2009-2010 state budget for the year beginning July 1, 2009.

Muchow said February tax receipts were $45 million less than predicted and that caused House Finance Chairman Harry K. White, D-Mingo, to predict that the governor “will probably come to us within the next week or so with a reduced revenue forecast for the coming budget year.”

The first bill to reduce taxes also cleared its first committee last week when the House Agriculture Committee endorsed HB2521 that would reduce the wholesales tax on home heating oil, kerosene, propane and other off road fuel.

Delegate Harold Michael, D-Hardy, is one of the bill’s sponsors and he said it would cost the state about $1.8 million. He said the legislation removes the portion of the fuel tax dedicated to highway funding because “it was never intended that these products pay a road user tax.”

Legislation has also been introduced on both sides (SB92 and HB2931) to repeal the severance tax on timber for the next three years that would reduce state revenues by $1 million each year. Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, said last month he thinks the tax should be eliminated after learning that surrounding states don’t have this tax.

County magistrates would be required to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or have four years of experience as a magistrate to be eligible for that office under the terms of HB 2840 that has been introduced by Delegate Jim Morgan, D-Cabell, and three other members of the House of Delegates.

Morgan said 107 of the 158 current county magistrates in West Virginia as well as the Supreme Court of Appeals support the bill.

The House of Delegates passed two bills dealing with domestic relations issues. One (HB2694) would prohibit any changes in child custody rights when one of the parents is serving in the United States Armed Forces. The other (HB2738) would change the way protective court orders in domestic violence cases are distributed so that those orders are readily available to all law enforcement agencies statewide. Both now must be considered by the Senate.

The Senate finally passed its first bills last week including SB239 that would reduce from a 55 percent vote majority to a simple majority—one vote more than 50 percent—the necessary approval of a metro government arrangement between a county and the cities in that county.

The bill applies only to counties with population of more than 150,000 which limits its effect to Kanawha County only.

The bill that attracted the most attention in the Legislature last week even though it’s sponsor is the first to admit it will never make it out of committee was HB2918, sponsored by Delegate Jeff Eldridge, D-Lincoln. He wants to ban the sale of Barbie dolls and “other similar dolls that promote or influence girls to place an undue importance on physical beauty to the detriment of their intellectual and emotional development.”

The father of a 13-year-old son, Eldridge said he “hates the myth that if you’re beautiful you don’t have to be smart.”

At least one tax increase was endorsed by legislators during the three days of legislative interim committee prior to the governor’s speech outlining his program for the 2009-2010 budget year.

A joint finance subcommittee considering problems with the state’s nearly 400 volunteer fire departments recommended passage of a bill to increase the state’s tax on insurance premiums from .55 cents per $100 of premium to .75 cents. The anticipated annual new revenue of $5 million would be used to help provide up to $12,000 to individual volunteer fire departments for a years-of-service pension plan for volunteers when they retire.

Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, said these volunteer fire departments are having trouble attracting new recruits and “this is something we can be proud of.” Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, cast the only dissenting vote in the subcommittee on the grounds that this is not a good time for any tax increase.

The following day Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, called for a tax cut, saying it is time the state ends the severance tax on timber after hearing state Forester Randy Dye say that it puts the state’s timber industry at a disadvantage because other states don’t impose a severance tax. Dye said the firms harvesting timber in West Virginia pay a four percent severance tax which is calculated on the value of a tree when it is cut.

“Under our laws, a severed tree is a manufactured product the moment it hits the ground,” Dye told members of the Forest Management Review Commission.

Members of the Republican minority in the House of Delegates also outlined their goals in tax reform at a press conference prior to the start of the session last week.