Legislative Litmus Test

Mountain State Spotlight, an excellent news organization, sums up the 2024 legislative session this way:


Read their full write-up here.


In particular, the vast majority of bills that were passed failed what I call, "The Legislative Litmus Test."   Here it is, in a nutshell:

1) (Most importantly) Does this legislation benefit every citizen of WV, either directly or indirectly?

2) Is the solution this bill provides to the problem it intends to solve the best that it can possibly be? Is the stated problem really the problem.

3) If the only solution to the problem is punitive, is this bill written as narrowly as possible? In particular, does it really need to be punitive at all? Is there a companion bill that might make this bill, and its punishments, eventually obsolete?


Too idealistic?  I don't think so.  I think that when we apply punitive measures, we ought to make sure there really is no other way to address the problem.  I think that tradeoffs in funding need to be thought through carefully.  And, as I have stated elsewhere, I think we should always beware of false economies.