Public Comments

• I support this bill because all of WV deserves clean water.

• Please pass the bill for clean water.

Disaster Case Management is crucial to the success of long-term recovery:

I urge the House Committee on Energy & Public Works to place HB 5585 on its agenda! 

I sat down and read through Committee Substitute for House Bill 4027, the general appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2027. I can't say I particularly enjoy combing through all your legalese and appropriations language, but I’ve learned that if any of us want to understand what any of you in positions of power in this state truly values, we need to follow the money.

The bill says its purpose is to fund the “economical and efficient discharge of the duties and responsibilities of the state”. I keep thinking about that word — responsibility. In West Virginia, we require our students to meet the Student Success Standards set forth by the Department of Education. In fact, this is a large part of my job as a Behavior Development teacher for middle schoolers. We teach them personal responsibility, empathy, responsible decision-making, and civic engagement. We teach them to consider how their actions affect their community.

If those are the standards we hold our children to, then surely we must hold ourselves — and you, our Legislature — to the same ones. Responsible budgeting means considering long-term impact. Civic responsibility means listening when working families say they are drowning in insurmountable debt, inability to pay their bills, and child care costs. Public service means building systems that allow families to be self-sustaining, not forcing them to patch together survival through grandparents, social networks you all keep gutting, and subsidies that just perpetuate the Cliff Effect.

Responsibility, to me, looks like you all making sure working families can actually function. I pay what amounts to a mortgage every single month in daycare costs. Over $1000. Except instead of building equity, it disappears the moment it’s paid. That money doesn’t go toward home improvements. It doesn’t go into savings... who even know what those accounts are for anymore? It doesn’t circulate through local shops or restaurants. It goes to the absolute necessity of having someone care for my child so I can work.

And I am one of the lucky ones. Most families I know — even with two incomes — are barely holding it together. They rely on grandparents who are already tired. They rely on neighbors. They rely on subsidies if they qualify. They shuffle schedules. They trade shifts and hope nothing falls apart. We don’t say that we are suffering and struggling to our breaking points like it’s a badge of honor. We don’t romanticize the grind. It’s not grit, y'all. We need relief.

I work in public education, and I see how fragile the system is from the inside. When child care arrangements collapse, attendance slips. Parents miss work and stress levels rise. Kids feel it in their bodies and are perpetually dysregulated by the pressure they feel at home. Stability in early childhood isn’t just about supervision, folks. It’s about consistency, healthy attachment, and security... predictability. When that stability exists, children walk into school ready to learn. When it doesn’t, we spend years trying to repair the gaps left from dysfunctional home environments.

We talk constantly about workforce participation in West Virginia and how we have to get more of our folks working. We talk about keeping young families here and encouraging people to have their kids here. We talk about economic development and attracting industries. But none of that conversation is honest if we are not talking about child care. About taking care of our environment. Taking care of the basic needs a village provides for children.

A stable child care industry is a necessity to our social and economic infrastructure. It is the hinge that everything else swings on. If providers can’t survive on these razor-thin margins, centers are forced to close. When our centers close, parents leave the workforce or reduce their hours to the point it's not even worth it to work anymore. When parents reduce their hours, income drops and cue safety nets. When there's nothing left, communities shrink and it's a snowball effect of services shutting down, schools consolidating and jobs go out of business. It is all connected.

When I look at the scale of allocations across this bill, I cannot help but measure them against what families are paying out of pocket just to stay employed. We can fund smear marketing campaigns with false attacks against your opponents. We can fund development offices and new furniture. We can fund new data center initiatives with multi-million dollar price tags and absolutely no regulation to keep our environments safe and livable. Surely we can treat child care like the economic driver it is.

Child care allows parents to work. It allows businesses to retain employees. It allows households to build some form of stability instead of living in constant improvisation. It supports early childhood development in ways that save money long-term in education, health care, and social services. Working families are applying pressure. Right here and now. We are telling you plainly: this is unsustainable.

We are not asking for luxuries. We are asking for breathing room.

If this budget is about responsibility, then let’s be responsible to the families who are doing everything right and still struggling. Invest in child care. Stabilize providers. Increase access. Reduce the financial burden on working parents. Healthy, self-sustaining families do not happen by accident. They require policies that understand how people actually live. Right now, too many families are one childcare disruption away from losing a job, one tuition increase away from real financial strain. We don’t need applause for surviving this. We need structural support so survival isn’t the only option. Stabilize our childcare services. Our communities are counting on this.

Members of the Legislature,

I appreciate the intent of HB 5679 and support several components of the bill. Clarifying that certain central office administrators serve at the will and pleasure of the board strengthens accountability. I also support requiring certified central office administrators to substitute teach periodically. Leaders who shape instructional policy should remain connected to classrooms.

However, two provisions raise concern.

First, the attendance reforms are substantial and operationally complex. They deserve standalone consideration rather than being combined with unrelated financial governance changes.

Second, incentivizing counties to share treasurers creates significant internal control and workload risks. County treasurers already manage complex financial operations, audits, federal reimbursement funding, payroll, and compliance requirements. Expanding those responsibilities across multiple counties increases the likelihood of burnout and compliance failures. Efficiency must not come at the expense of financial stability.

I respectfully urge careful reconsideration of the shared treasurer and attendance provisions to ensure this legislation strengthens, rather than unintentionally strains, our school systems.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Mariah Richards

1. Please pass the hb5260 for my wife and others like her in need of an easier way to take the medicine she needs

1. Please pass the hb5260
2. Edabile is the best way for me to take my medication
3. Smoking is very hard on my breathing abilities
4. I need this and am certainly not the only one.

You can go to the store and buy all the alcohol your heart desires but I can't eat Marijuana for it's medicinal properties This blows my mind along with tons of other Americans/West Virginians catch our state up with everybody else we're always the last to do something that's beneficial for our state. BAN ALCOHOL SAVE MILLIONS OF LIVES!!!

HB 5601

I am proud to support this petition to legalize edible medical marijuana in West Virginia. Patients deserve safe, regulated options for managing chronic pain, PTSD, epilepsy, cancer-related symptoms, and other serious medical conditions. Not everyone can or wants to smoke or vape, and edible forms provide a longer-lasting, smoke-free alternative that can be easier on the lungs and more discreet.

Legalizing edibles would expand access for patients who are already legally approved for medical cannabis but need alternative delivery methods that better fit their health needs. With proper regulation, labeling, and dosing standards, edible medical marijuana can be provided safely and responsibly.

West Virginia families deserve compassionate healthcare options. This is about improving quality of life, respecting doctor–patient decisions, and giving patients access to the full range of medical treatments available in many other states. I urge lawmakers to support this important step forward.

Childcare plays a vital role in my life and for my family to make a living. I have four children and when I was pregnant with my second I had to either leave the workforce or find childcare. The cost alone didn’t make sense for our family. That is when I went and opened my own tier 2 childcare center as early childhood education is my background and I was working at the state level with. I have now provided care for my four children in an environment I know is safe, developmentally appropriate and preparing the foundation for my children’s later success. Last year however, I had to leave the day to day work of my center and obtain a full time job with Headstart. I needed insurance for my family and our center wasn’t able to afford my income anymore. I know work full time for Headstart and manage my childcare center full time five day a week. It is not the ideal situation, but it’s the only option I have at the moment to be able to provide for my children, and have a safe place to leave them while I do so.

• strengthen workforce pathways and job placement • target fraud with precision rather than broad administrative burdens • protect taxpayers while supporting workers • maintain flexibility to respond to local economic realities in West Virginia

I’m writing to express support for subsidizing childcare in WV. My infant attends a well-regarded licensed non-profit daycare in WV. Even as a non-profit, it’s clear that the employees are struggling. One lead teacher quit to return to Door Dash; she told me that Door Dash has better pay and more flexible hours. That really alarmed me because services like Door Dash are notorious for underpaying delivery workers.

In my baby’s classroom in the last year, I have seen three teachers come and go due to the low wages and challenging work conditions — including a high rate of infectious illness. I am concerned teachers begin to look burn-out after only six months. Childcare teachers deserve better pay for doing a job that is critical to society: helping raise the next generation!

I’ve done the math and without subsidies nothing can improve. Tuition at childcare centers is already 1-3 times the cost of a mortgage — a brutal expense for most families. Meanwhile the overhead to run a daycare center leaves no slack. Revenue barely covers operating costs.

Failing to support childcare will lead to further population decline. Most people I know would love to have a child, or more children, yet a realistic assessment of the cost forbids those dreams. It’s truly tragic.

I would prefer to see subsidies based on center enrollment, rather than attendance, because the number of staff booked for any given day is based on *enrollment* ratios. That is, one teacher for every four infants enrolled, etc. Daycares can’t control whether a child fails to attend, so they shouldn’t be penalized if a parent decides to keep a child at home on any given day.

It would also be helpful if teachers were eligible for wage subsidies after working a minimum of 20 hours per week — and without any household income cap — as many teachers are parents themselves and some are college students. (But truly, even subsidies for 32 hours and up would be better than none!) Wage support for part-time workers would encourage more employment overall in this critical sector. And that’s what we need to focus on: better wages and more applicants for these jobs!

I’m so excited this is even being considered because I want to see a prosperous future for West Virginia, and affordable high-quality childcare is absolutely critical to making that happen. For the love of babies, let’s pass this bill!

Emergency funding exists for moments like this. When communities are facing urgent infrastructure and public health challenges, we must act swiftly and decisively. Passing this bill will allow critical resources to be directed where they are most needed — to protect health, restore trust, and strengthen communities.

This is not a partisan issue. It is about public health, dignity, and doing right by the people of West Virginia.

Please pass Bill 5585 and ensure that all West Virginians have access to safe, clean drinking water.

Thank you.

Everyone, everywhere needs and deserves clean water. Water is the most important source because it is used for so many things in our everyday lives. People shouldn't have to go through this much to get what is a necessity for them and their families to survive.

Fund our Public Water with the needed funding for clean water. Stop deregulation of Off Site Power Grids. Let the public speak at Public Hearings in their communities.

• The legislature needs to prioritize childcare and take meaningful action this legislative session.
• Childcare employees working 20+ hours per week deserve a child care subsidy, regardless of household income.
• Child care subsidy payments to licensed facilities should be based on enrollment rather than daily attendance.