The governor is dealing with a mountain of bills but has been at odds over sports transfer policy

Gov. Jim Justice considered dozens of bills during a deadline-signing blitz. One that troubled him was a bill that would give high school athletes greater leeway when making transfers.

Jim Justice

“It’s a really difficult decision, isn’t it?” Justice said in response to a MetroNews question about the wire bill during a news conference on Wednesday.

Even after being made clear on many of the bills the governor had to respond to throughout Wednesday, there was no word on the sports broadcast bill well into the evening. He had three choices: sign it, veto it, or pass it into law without his signature.

Finally, at 9:32 p.m., the governor’s office released a statement that the judiciary allowed the bill to go into effect without his signature.

The statement said his view was divided by two aspects of the bill.

“I could not veto this bill because I strongly support allowing our HOPE grantees, students in microschools or learning capsules, homeschooled students, and our private students to participate in extracurricular activities across the board,” Justice said.

“However, I will ask the Legislature at the next session to reconsider the transfer rules because if we don’t, I fear we will take our high school athletes down the wrong path and open the door to many unintended consequences.”

Late in regular session, lawmakers combined a bill that would expand athletics opportunities for Hope Scholarship recipients with a policy that would provide better transfer opportunities for high school athletes.

In its original structure, House Bill 2820 would allow Hope Scholarship recipients who attend private schools, microschools, learning capsules, or homeschooling facilities to participate in public school teams unless the sport is already offered at their school.

Then an amendment meant the bill would also include guidelines originally contained in Senate Bill 262, allowing student athletes to change schools at least once and retain their athletic eligibility.

Justice said that made the decision difficult. He is the girls’ basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School.

“If you look at it from the point of view, on one hand, that I’m a coach, I think athletes are moving all over our state and everything, of course your more well-known schools and schools, the better uniforms or better shoes or whatever you have certainly have an advantage over the parity we have across the state,” Justice said.

“From the point of view that our sports don’t compete with each other, it’s best to take that into account as well.”

But the governor seemed to address the aspect of the bill that allows students from private schools and alternative schools to participate in public athletic teams, saying families expect more choices.

“Parents believe they have rights—rights about how their children should be raised, rights about where their children should be able to play—whether it’s a Hope Scholarship child or a homeschooled child “, he said. “Those parents who take care of their children feel they should have real agency.

“I think our legislature has considered every single aspect of it. In all honesty, it’s going to be extremely difficult to challenge our legislature’s decision.”

But again referring to his coaching experience, he said: “This is going to create some imbalance in our sports teams across our state. I don’t really know how to address the decision issue that parents absolutely deserve. I am working on it. I am working on it. That’s all I can tell you.”

As of Wednesday morning, the governor had signed 170 bills into law. By the time the deadline expired, he still had 161 more decisions to make.

He vetoed SB 667, WV Secondary School Activities Commission Periodic Assessment Requirement.

Several notable bills he signed into law during the day were House Bill 3018, which sets a 16-year floor for marriages to minors in West Virginia, including a stipulation that the spouse cannot be older than four years.

He also signed House Bill 3135, which will increase governor’s and constitutional officials’ salaries beginning in 2025.

The governor signed House Bill 2862, which would amend the standards for shareholder voting by the West Virginia Investment Management Board and the Board of Treasury Investments, barring them from considering environmental, social, and governance standards.

He signed House Bill 2310, which was originally an Antique Fleet bill but was amended to change West Virginia vehicle inspections to biennials.

He also dealt with dozens more.

During his briefing, Justice admitted that he was also deciding what to do with the 2007 House Bill, which restricts medical options for youth with gender dysphoria.

He signed the bill late in the day.

One of the complications in his decision making, he said, was just the sheer number of bills he and his administration had to deal with.

“We’re getting through them and everything, but it’s not a quick process. This takes time and we want to be respectful of the votes and how people debated them and how they came up with these bills and passed them,” he said. “But we’ll get through most of them today.”