By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
CHARLESTON — CHARLESTON — Hunters and other gun owners can buy a new firearm and ammo without paying a sales tax one weekend in October in a bill that exited the Legislature before Saturday’s deadline.
Fierce opposition flared anew, however, before the Senate approved the House-led measure on 25-9 vote.
Leading the charge, Sen. Jesse Guills, R-Greenbrier, suggested it was poor public policy to grant a tax break for one segment of society and hinted it might violate a reciprocal sales tax agreement with 21 other states.
Guills told senators they would do better to remove the final 3 percent tax on food and give motorists a holiday on the gasoline tax.
In the grocery store last week, he said, a young couple with two children pushed two carts stuffed with simple canned foods — nothing as exotic as even a pizza.
“And those people had to pay the 3 percent tax,” he said.
With a gas tax break, he said, people in rural counties could afford to take their children to Charleston to see the State Museum.
“When they go home, I hope they don’t lose their tires on their cars that have been struck by potholes,” he said.
The bill was strongly backed by the National Rifle Association, which has always backed Gov. Joe Manchin.
Guills said he has no problems with the NRA’s support of the Second Amendment, but said that is where the group needs to stay focused, not on tax or other issues directly related to firearms ownership.
“I’m for and will support to the day I die the Second Amendment, and the right to bear arms,” he said.
“That’s how this country got started. As far as I’m concerned, it needs to stay there.”
Guills said he tuned in to a radio station and heard two basketball announcers poking fun at West Virginians, say they are easy to spot since they look skyward, never having seen a building in excess of two stories.
“If we pass legislation like this, we will be on Jay Lenno, David Letterman, with headlines saying we’re giving a sales tax holiday for the purchase of weapons and ammo,” the senator said.
The bill is known as the Second Amendment Appreciation Act, providing room for Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, to find criticism.
“In a few years, it will be the Second Amendment, teachers, firefighters, police officers, doctors, lawyers, school service personnel, small business, coal, natural gas, AARP, First Amendment Appreciation Act,” Well said.
“Where do we stop?”
But Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, said the bill could spawn sales along border counties by luring in buyers from other states.
Moreover, he said, it sends a message of support to hunters across West Virginia.
“Any time you can eliminate a tax, step up to the plate and eliminate it,” Chafin said.
Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, said the bill would only cost about $25,000 in taxes.
Besides, he maintained, it salutes a large part of West Virginia’s heritage — hunting and gun ownership.
“I’m very proud of that,” Helmick said. “It’s something that each and every one of us knows. It’s been a part of West Virginia for many, many years.”
Besides Guills and Wells, others voting against it were Sens. Dan Foster, Brooks McCabe and Corey Palumbo, all D-Kanawha, Larry Edgell, D-Wetzel, Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, Don Caruth, R-Mercer, and Dave Sypolt, R-Preston.
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
