2013 Legislative News #8

With this past week's deadline for passage of legislative proposals (bills) from the originating chamber (West Virginia House of Delegates and Senate), most bills died, but many remain.

Now, in the remaining days of this first session of 81st Legislature, the House of Delegates and the Senate will concentrate their efforts on consideration of legislation already passed by the other chamber.

This session will end shortly after Midnight on Saturday, April 13th, but then we will reconvene the following week to vote on the West Virginia State Budget.

Meanwhile, West Virginia Senate leaders continue to express reluctance to even have committee hearings on the numerous 2nd Amendment protection proposals passed by the House of Delegates, and that dynamic will continue to be watched closely by Mountaineer citizens.

Also, and in the House of Delegates this week, a few bills had passed their respective committees and were scheduled for votes on the last day for their consideration (Wednesday. April 3rd), but were pulled from the voting calendar at the last minute by the House Democrat leaders. It is speculated by many that this was done because these leaders ruefully realized that these bills simply would not receive enough votes for final passage from the House of Delegates.

One of these bills was HB 2946.

HB 2946 would have expanded the hours in which alcoholic beverages could be served on Sundays.

My position on HB 2946 was and is that booze is bad, but that public boozing is even worse.

Now, my political views are much more libertarian in nature than politically partisan, mostly because I believe that our personal behavior which doesn't harm others simply should not be the concern of government.

However, that just is not the case with public boozing.

West Virginia is my residence of choice and I love it dearly, but many outside of our mountain refuge sadly visualize our homeplace as filled with strip clubs, gambling dens, and rowdy bars.

So and with HB 2946, here we go again.

HB 2946 was not just about commerce.

Booze has a devastating effect upon our society and families, but it also dramatically adds to death and carnage on our highways.

Now,and on an intensely personal note, some of you know about my conversion to my faith many years ago.

Very few others know that one happy side circumstance of my religious conversion was that, among other things, it rescued me from the ravages of alcoholism, and I haven't had a drink of that stuff since February 22nd, 1969.

I love capitalism and the free market, but let us not allow enteprenurial greed to blind us from prudent public policy.

Pulling HB 2946 from the House of Delegates voting calendar was a sober deliberation and decision.