WV Republicans Reconfirm House, Senate Leaders

December 7, 2022

Mountaineer News

West Virginia Politics

CHARLESTON, WV - After Republicans bolstered supermajorities in the West Virginia House of Delegates and Senate, lawmakers voted to reconfirm the chambers’ leadership for at least another two years.

Republican senators selected Sen. Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, to remain as the Senate president and Republican delegates selected Del. Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, to stay as the speaker of the House.

Both leaders will head into the 2023 legislative session next month with strong supermajorities: Republicans with an 88-12 majority in the House and a 31-3 majority in the Senate. The biggest issue that will be on the legislative agenda is the state’s income tax. Republican Gov. Jim Justice announced earlier this year that he is working on legislation that would reduce the state income tax, which is meant to be the starting point in fully eliminating income taxes in West Virginia. Justice introduced an income tax reduction plan two years ago. Even though lawmakers agreed on lowering the income tax, the House, the Senate and the governor failed to reach a deal on how they would go about it, which left the state without any income tax reform. Last year, the governor introduced a similar bill during the regular session and during a special session. Both times, the bill passed the House, but failed to get a vote in the Senate.