WVFA Mountain State Forestry Summer 2021

F E A T U R E D N E W S www.wvfa.org Summer 2021 | West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry 9 2021 West Virginia Legislative Session Wrap-up Despite the lack of access to the capital this year, we were able to reach out to legislators and make an impact. Here is a brief synopsis of some key issues we impacted this year. The legislature will be having a special session this summer regarding reapportionment of legislative districts following the final release of the US Census. In addition. the Governor has suggested a special session changing the personal income taxes if he can reach consensus with legislative leaders. State Funding – Division of Forestry We supported additional funding for the Division of Forestry. Our effort to help were rewarded when the legislature and Governor passed a significant increase for 2021 and an increase in the base funding for the upcoming year. The Division of Forestry was one of only a handful of agencies to receive increased funding. During the pandemic, state funding from timber sales on state forests were delayed and sales were suspended. This supplemental funding is critical to have the Division of Forestry continue to operate and support ongoing logger training, issue timber license and harvesting permits, and assist in critical insect and disease monitoring along with the many programs the Division operates, including forest fire protection. One specific bill was targeted to move all “special revenues” such as state timber sales, state park revenue, and even permit fees from the agency collecting the receipts and place into the general revenue of the state. This would require agencies that use these funds to operate to come back and ask for a supplemental appropriation from the legislature. WVFA opposed this as being just an unnecessary step to use these receipts for their intended purpose. We were able to obtain enough opposition in the Advocacy Update