2026 legislature: GOP to work on tax breaks, teacher pay; Dems want recreational pot

State Treasurer Larry Pack

Pack spoke of his travels throughout West Virginia during his first year in office and shared what he learned from residents.

“West Virginians — they want good roads, they want good schools, they want good public safety, and they want the state [government] to leave them alone,� Pack told reporters. “Local control is something that the people outside of this Capitol want. That’s something we need to give them.�

According to Pack, the state government helps West Virginia businesses by providing tax cuts and other tax incentives, “but we don’t do a lot of working-people’s tax cuts.�

Among his initiatives in 2026, Pack said, he plans to lobby lawmakers for the elimination of state tax on tips and overtime — a step that has already been taken at the federal level with the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill — as well as to ensure that West Virginia public school teacher baseline salary is $50,000 per year. Raising the salaries of state employees, including teachers, is something that Gov. Patrick Morrisey also listed among his 2026 priorities during a Dec. 11 news conference, although no details were provided at that time.

“Our beginning teacher salary is about $42,000,� Pack said. “We are 50th in the nation in teacher compensation. We can’t be first, but we can be a heck of a lot better than 50th.�

In reference to Morrisey’s recent announcement of his plans to work with the Legislature to reduce personal income tax by as much as 10%, Pack said, “When I heard that, I was really pleased.�

“I’m pleased that this is a priority for him — I’m pleased that he now believes we have enough money to do it,� Pack noted. “We spent about six months last year talking about a deficit that [we] didn’t have. I’m also pleased that he’s jumping on policy that we worked really, really hard on in the last administration,� referring to former governor and current Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., for whom Pack served as acting revenue secretary.

Despite the political support, however, such proposed tax cuts are not universally supported. Speaking last week with the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Gazette-Mail, West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy Executive Director Kelly Allen said essential public services remain underfunded.

Addressing Morrisey’s claims of collecting $128 million above general revenue estimates during the first six months of his first fiscal year as governor, Allen said, “It’s not a surplus, in terms of everything is well-funded, and we have all this money left over that we don’t need for schools, Medicaid or other public services.�

Morrisey intends to use 50% of the property taxes received from planned data centers to offset the cost of the tax cuts. This would seem to contradict Pack’s desire to see — as he put it — “state [government] leave West Virginians alone,� as all data centers — regardless of municipal-placement — will be under the control of the state government, leaving them exempt from local regulation.

When asked how he can reconcile his support for Morrisey’s proposed income tax reduction with his opposition to the lack of local control of data centers, Pack said, “If it’s something that’s based upon something that’s going to happen in the future, I’d really have to look at those details.�

Secretary of State Kris Warner

Warner began his remarks by detailing a recent visit with former Braxton Citizens’ News publisher Ed Given, who shared a story about a courthouse fire some time ago that resulted in the loss of all county records.

To recover as many records as possible, Given told Warner, the county approached the local newspaper, “because the newspaper had been reporting the deeds and transfers, and that’s where they started to rebuild the courthouse.�

In more recent years, legislation such as 2008’s SB 339, 2024’s HB 5279 and last year’s HB 3271 have been introduced. While no proposals have yet been enacted, the intention is to require counties to digitize public records, thus protecting them in the event of disasters, such as last January’s fire at the Monroe County Courthouse or the June flooding of the state Capitol’s basement.

One digitization method now used by more than 30 West Virginia counties is the IDX Broker System — a software platform traditionally used as a database for MLS property listings.

When asked if there were any plans to move all counties to either IDX Broker or a similar system to ensure both uniformity and ease of records-access statewide, Warner deferred to his Chief of Staff, Donald Kersey.

“We did work with the legislature a couple of years ago to give counties funding for that purpose,� Kersey said. “The counties right now … they’re working on it. I think that it’s a matter of personnel. A lot of these counties, they have two staff [members].�

“Short answer is: We’ll do everything we can to incentivize them,� Kersey added. “But that’s outside of our statutory duties and our constitutional role. But records now need to be digitized.�

State lawmakers

During the afternoon’s legislative leadership panel, House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, reiterated much of the “jobs first, opportunity everywhere� agenda he announced last month, while House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, noted, “We have to find a way to get revenue.�

“One thing that I think should squarely be on the table … is adult-use cannabis,� Hornbuckle said. “That’s not the silver bullet — it's not. But one thing it does speak to is extra revenue that can help with things like failing infrastructure.�

During the 2025 legislative session, Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, proposed an amendment to the state’s constitution which would allow for the possession, manufacture, and sale of adult recreational-use cannabis. As with similarly introduced Democratic proposals in previous years, Hansen’s proposal was never taken up in committee.

When asked if he would be open to such a proposal in 2026, and willing to work with his caucus to ensure its fair review in committee, Hanshaw said, “We’ve had members of the Republican party also introduce that bill.�

“Historically there have been two groups of folks who have been hesitant to move forward on that,� Hanshaw added, noting the first group’s hesitancy is due to “philosophical reasons,� while the second group did not want the state to be at odds with federal law.

“I don’t know where our members are today,� Hanshaw said.

Senate Education Chairwoman Amy Grady, R-Mason, discussed the diminishing value of the high school diploma, as well as her desire to re-evaluate the state’s graduation requirements, noting that, “We have students [who] are graduating high school [who] still can’t read at a third-grade level.�

“The graduation requirements that we have for our high school students are assuming every one of those students is going to a four-year institution,� Grady said. “And the reality is many of them aren’t. Many of them want to go right into the workforce. Many of them want to go to a two-year program. Many of them want to go to a technical college.�

“One thing I would like to focus on this legislative session is revisiting those graduation requirements and revisiting the credentials that we have for a diploma,� Grady added.

What’s next

The 2026 legislative session is to begin Wednesday morning, with Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s State of the State address scheduled for 7 p.m. that evening.