Lawmakers came into the special session aware of the state’s child care crisis. West Virginia needs more than 20,000 child care spots. Meanwhile, hundreds of providers have closed down this year — despite waitlists for families — due to financial strain and uncertain state funding.
Gov. Jim Justice put two child care focused bills on his special session call. He focused on affordability, and lawmakers approved his plan for a state level Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
Eligible West Virginia families, who already claim the federal child care tax credit, would on average receive around $250 through the state level credit, according to lawmakers. Most families are paying $600 to $700 a month for day care.
The House of Delegates opted to punt on Justice’s other child care bill, which would have given $5 million in funds for a pilot program with an outside company to open five new day care centers and help connect providers with children who could fill spots.
On Wednesday, after the special session concluded, Justice told reporters that the state should have put more money into child care. Justice said he included bills that he thought would be approved.
“When we decide that child care is a real problem and it warrants absolute consideration and concern, then we’ll do something about it and we’ll do something about it in a profound way,” he said. “We didn’t do as much as I wanted to in regards to child care, but we did something.”
House Bill 229, which allocated surplus money for Justice’s pilot program idea, didn’t include the details on how it would be used. Lawmakers said the money would likely go to Wonderschool, a California-based company focused on child care.
“Instead of pouring millions into an out-of-state program, let’s focus on tweaking these programs in West Virginia,” said Del. Wayne Clark, R-Jefferson.
Several lawmakers noted that child care providers had already told lawmakers what they needed, including increased subsidies for day care centers that serve more than 15,000 low-income children in the state.
“Honestly, I don’t know who worked for this other than maybe a lobbyist,” said Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion. “We have heard from the people on the ground that are running these businesses that there are certain things they need. I don’t see [how] giving $5 million to some recruitment agency or some app … how is that not money that’s just going down the drain?”
At Garcia’s suggestion, the House voted 47-40 to table the bill indefinitely. The House and Senate adjourned sine die late Tuesday evening, concluding the special session.
Justice said he had tried to put $20 million into child care but it got whittled down to a $5 million ask for his pilot program.
“Lobbyists were up there going crazy, trying to grab the cheese. The Legislature got tired of it, and said we’re done, we’re not going to do that,” he said.
The Senate signed off on the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit on Tuesday, sending the bill to the governor’s desk on the final day of the special session. It would allow eligible families to claim a credit equal to 50% of the allowable federal child and dependent care credit.
It will cost $4.2 million to implement, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
“The first-ever for working families in West Virginia,” Justice said. “It’s a good start. We’ve got to do more.”
Lawmakers and the state Chamber of Commerce urged Justice to add other child care bills to the special session call. Bills during the regular session, which failed to get up for a vote, had included ideas like helping child care workers pay for daycare and giving businesses an increased tax credit for providing child care.
“We worked hand-in-hand with the leadership and agreed on what’s got a shot and what’s not,” Justice said.
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, said that she was glad that the special session resulted in some relief for families. “We know every little bit helps,” she said.
Young, who has led child care legislation efforts in the House, continued, “I was disappointed but not surprised to see the governor not follow through on this promise to allocate $20 million to child care providers. I look forward to meaningful work in the regular session. Solving child care means bringing providers, parents, employers, tech solutions and our state agencies to the table.”
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“The issue isn’t whether the funds should be used, it’s how they’re used and whether we’re doing it in a responsible, sustainable way.”
By Henry Culvyhouse, Mountain State Spotlight
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at https://mountainstatespotlight.org/newsletter.
In spite of a veto that could have further delayed the spending of $38 million in medical marijuana money collected over the last four years, state Treasurer Larry Pack (R) now says he will release the funds under the original mandate.
Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) vetoed a bill that would’ve required the release of medical marijuana funds to help the homeless and expedite child abuse and neglect cases in the court system. He said the bill tied up monies for future spending.
In his veto letter, Morrisey wrote, “West Virginia must do better to plan for the future, and it can’t totally pre-commit future revenue streams like this if it’s going to have reserves to invest more in roads, water, sewer, site selection, rail, and future tax cuts.”
Morrisey said he was willing to negotiate with the Legislature on how to spend the money.
“The issue isn’t whether the funds should be used, it’s how they’re used and whether we’re doing it in a responsible, sustainable way,” governor’s office spokesman Lars Dalseide wrote in an email.
But the money was already pre-committed in state code.
Pack’s office said 100 percent of that money will now go to various offices and programs prescribed by the original law—more than half to the Office of Medical Cannabis and the remainder of the funds split between a grant program for substance abuse treatment and grants for law enforcement. The move ignores the governor’s wishes for future reserves to tackle infrastructure and tax cuts.
In October, a Mountain State Spotlight investigation revealed $34 million had accumulated in an account held by the Treasurer’s Office from the state’s medical marijuana program.
Pack’s office said the money hadn’t been spent because of legal concerns surrounding the drug. Currently, marijuana is listed as a Schedule I narcotic under federal law, meaning it has no medical use and is illegal.
Pack isn’t the first state treasurer to express concern. State Treasurer John Perdue (D) said his office wouldn’t hold the money in 2018, following passage of the Medical Cannabis Act. Riley Moore (R), who beat Perdue in the 2020 race, never released the money, either.
Going into the 2026 Legislative Session, Del. Evan Worrell, R-Cabell, said he read a report about the amassed funds and wanted to change it. He successfully ran a bill that would force the state to spend the money on a commission to to help thousands of child abuse and neglect court cases, and homelessness services.
Had the governor not vetoed the bill, the money would have been designated to those things for one year. Money for substance abuse research, treatment and the abuse and neglect commission would continue in the following years.
The Treasurer’s Office spokeswoman Carrie Smith said due to the complexity of state and federal laws, the office had been working to release the money for months. She said the money has now been released to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health.
This article first appeared on Mountain State Spotlight and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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Today on MetroNews This Morning:
–The West Virginia Bar is looking at a resolution to reaffirm the independence of the Judiciary Branch of Government
–Kibar Americas is working on potentially restarting operations at the old Novelis plant in Fairmont
–Berkeley County voters will decide on a school bond next month
–In Sports: WVU’s men and Marshall’s women end the season with championships
Listen to “MetroNews This Morning 4-6-26” on Spreaker.
Listen to “Sports Best Left to SSAC” on Spreaker.
Average. Not a star. Not one to ride the pine either.
That’s not a knock – just an honest description of my time as a high school student-athlete. Never the fastest. Never the guy you called on in the clutch. But also, never one to quit or to do anything halfway.
And truth be told, most of us live right there in the middle of the athletic bell curve.
It was clear early on – clear to anyone watching, and especially clear to me – college athletics, much less the pros, wasn’t the future. But the lessons – the real value – those took root.
Persistence… when hustle is more abundant than talent and moving forward means hitting brick walls.
Leadership… getting the best out of others, even when they don’t always want to give it.
Teamwork… learning your success depends on more than just you. Helping others reach their goals brings you closer to your own.
Smarts… finding an edge when others rely on raw ability that you don’t have.
Failure… learning to lose with grace – and maybe more importantly – losing the fear of it altogether.
But somewhere along the way, those goals have become more like a consolation prize than first prize itself.
That’s why what the legislature just did matters.
After some back and forth, lawmakers returned control of high school sports to the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (SSAC). The governor signed the bill, and rightly so, even if he wanted a clearer picture of the emergency rules first.
Plainly, the people closest to high school sports are the best ones to govern it.
Parents move? Let the kid play. No reason to stand in the way of opportunity.
But transferring just to chase a better team, a better program? That may be understandable, but it’s not always beneficial. And sometimes, it comes at the expense of the very lessons sports are meant to teach. What we – the adults – should value more than winning.
Because life isn’t simple.
And these young men and women need the chance to face adversity. A chance to work through it and to grow from it. One day, real life is coming and it doesn’t ease you into the game. It hits like a Mack truck.
Many kids, often the ones who don’t play because of one struggle or another, are forced to face life well before childhood is over. Another commentary for another time, but what those children wouldn’t give for the escape of sports or the coping mechanism it provides – the relief of a game and time with friends sometimes capped with victory or not. All over when a buzzer sounds bringing the reality of life once again with the challenges of abuse, addiction or hunger.
Absent realities from the conversation in the past few years.
Indulge a story that comes to mind.
A pastor once had a son – gifted, naturally athletic. The kind of talent that could’ve taken him far.
But the boy didn’t want to play. He’d toss a ball around for fun, sure, but his real interest was elsewhere. He felt called to something bigger. Like his father, he had a gift for words — a powerful voice, a sharper pen. While others practiced on fields and courts, he wrote sermons and practiced oratory.
A coach once asked the father, “Why aren’t you raising him to be an athlete? He’s got the talent others don’t have.”
The father’s answer was simple, but perhaps remarkable for these times.
“I’m not raising him to play ball. I’m raising him to be a man.”
And for that young man, the path to becoming one wasn’t on a field or a court. It was in a pulpit. Dad knew that.
The path won’t be the same for everyone. Some will learn life’s lessons in sports, clubs or volunteering. Others, still, will find them elsewhere.
But the point is this: the goal isn’t a championship or playing at the next level. The odds don’t lend themselves to that. It’s raising young people into capable, grounded adults.
That’s what was missing from this long-running transfer debate.
And now – with the SSAC back in charge – there’s at least a better chance we focus more on that than we do now.
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