More people on W.Va. payroll in 2004, state auditor reports
Date: Feb 22nd, 2005 5:30:41 pm - Subscribe
Mood: interested
By TOM MILLER - Special to The Herald-Dispatch
CHARLESTON -- The state’s payroll included 45,430 employees on Dec. 31, 2004, according to the annual report from State Auditor Glen B. Gainer Jr. That’s an increase of 892 people from the previous year.
At his budget hearing before a House Finance Committee, Gainer also said 76 percent of all state workers now are paid by direct deposit.
One of the biggest events during the first full week of the 2005 regular legislative session was Gov. Joe Manchin’s ceremonial signing of the workers’ compensation reform bill enacted at the six-day January special session. He signed the bill Wednesday, surrounded by the same collection of business and labor leaders present when he announced his plans for the special session a month earlier.
The Senate passed the so-called "Laci Peterson" bill in a single day by a 32-2 vote Feb. 15 and sent it on to the House where Judiciary Chairman Jon Amores, D-Kanawha, indicated it would be given more deliberate consideration.
The bill that also passed the Legislature in 2004 only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Bob Wise would allow separate criminal charges for both the mother and fetus in violent crimes against pregnant women.
The Senate also was working on a bill submitted by the Manchin administration to remove a gag order in a new ethics law also approved at the January special session. Manchin said he agrees the one provision inserted in the bill at the last minute that prohibits people who file complaints with the Ethics Commission from making public comments until a review board finds reason enough to accept the complaint.
The corrective legislation was sidetracked temporarily on the Senate floor when Sen. Frank Deem, R-Wood, offered an amendment to prohibit free receptions for legislators.
"This doesn’t prevent lobbying groups from having a receptions, only ones where there is no cost to the legislators," he said. "This same provision was approved in the Senate at the special session and then removed by the House of Delegates."
But when the Senate finally considered the amendment Thursday, it was rejected by a 23-10 vote and then passed unanimously and sent to the House.
The governor also announced that 80 percent of the 12,000 people who responded to a public opinion poll about the new design of the State Capitol dome favor a lead-gray background with gilded highlights instead of covering the entire dome in gold.
On Friday, the Capitol Building Commission agreed, voting to go ahead with the public’s choice.
At a budget hearing in the House Finance Committee, new Commissioner Troy Brody of the State Culture and History Division said he’s committed to completing a new multimedia design state museum in the Cultural Center even though the project is likely to cost more than $10 million.
"This is the best museum design we can bring you," he told committee members. "Does it cost more? Yes. This is a ‘wow’ museum."
He said he is looking at ways to find the $6 million of additional funding needed to complete the project.
Following release of a report that the state’s prison population has doubled in the last decade, Chief Justice Joe Albright of the State Supreme Court told legislators in both houses that the increased costs of maintaining more than 5,000 inmates at taxpayer expense is greater than the entire budget of the state’s court system.
Albright, a former House Speaker, suggested the Legislature consider changes in state laws relating to sentencing of persons convicted of nonviolent crimes as a way to deal with this problem.
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