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WV Senate Passes Bill Requiring Job Impact Statement For Proposed Legislation
By: Associated Press
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The West Virginia Senate has passed a bill that would give legislators a better sense of the economic impact of the bills they consider.
The bill passed unanimously Tuesday authorizes the governor, the Senate president or the House speaker to request a jobs impact statement for any piece of proposed legislation. It would order the state Development Office to review legislation and make estimates for how many jobs a bill would create or destroy.
The estimates would need to include both raw jobs numbers and general employment figures.
Environmental groups have opposed the bill, saying its sole purpose is to make it harder to pass environmental regulations.
Similar versions of the bill have been proposed before, but it got a boost this year because Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin requested it.