CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the House of Delegates finished the week by voting to leverage a tax credit that would bring in private investment for small West Virginia businesses, and the bill is in line to be the first completed legislation of the session.
Delegates Passed Senate Bill 1, the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Act, Feb. 13 after having amended most of the provisions of its counterpart, House Bill 4003, into the measure the previous day. The bill would offer a limited tax credit against the West Virginia Insurance Premium Tax to financial institutions that invest in state-certified growth funds. Only businesses principally operating in West Virginia with fewer than 250 employees at the time of their application with at least 60% of their workforce in the state would be eligible to receive the funds, with the West Virginia Department of Commerce overseeing the program.
“As someone who grew up in a family that owned their own small business that paid for my education and everything else I needed, this is a bill that I just take a lot of personal pride in,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman J.B. Akers, R-Kanawha, the lead sponsor of House Bill 4003, in presenting the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Act on the floor before the vote. “This bill is focused on existing West Virginia businesses. This is a promise that we have made that we’re going to start focusing as much of our attention as possible on existing West Virginia businesses, and this bill provides them with the capitalization they need to grow.”
Akers said it would mirror a federal program already successfully operating in 18 other states, including Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
“We’ve got private investors providing private capital to private companies,” he said. “The government is not involved in this other than … as a safeguard and guardrails.”
House Majority Whip Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, who also serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Revenue, spoke about the bill ahead of the vote as well.
“I don’t mind telling you that high finance is not necessarily my specialty, and when I looked at this bill it made my eyes spin just a little bit because there’s a lot of detail here and there, but the reality is the impetus of this bill is pretty simple,” Gearheart said. “It makes a pool of capital available to West Virginia businesses that currently cannot access that kind of capital.
“Businesses that are successful that have the opportunity to grow and become even more successful and to expand what we do here now can have access to the dollars in order to do that by means of this bill, and it really is that simple.”
Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, spoke before the vote to explain how being in a border county gives him the perspective that forms his urgency for this initiative.
“We see a lot of this activity,” he said. “I look around the room to Mason County and Cabell County and Jackson County; we see it all the time, we’re competing for those people that live in our valley to locate their businesses on one side of the river or the other.
“Finally — finally — in the financial structure of our state, we’re going to have the opportunity to help small businesses.”
The bill passed by a vote of 87 to 3 and returns to the Senate for its review. If the Senate approves, the bill will be the first completed legislation of the 2026 regular session and will go to the governor for action.
Also this week, the House unanimously approved: House Bill 4011, which would allow expanded material recycling; House Bill 4749, which was written and presented to the Legislature by a teenager who is in foster care, and would expand the Foster Child Bill of Rights; and House Bill 4089, which would require insurance coverage for scalp cooling systems that preserve of hair during chemotherapy treatment, also known as Jessica Huffman’s Law.
The last day to introduce bills is Feb. 17, and 69 House bills have passed the House. The 60-day, regular legislative session ends at midnight March 14.
