MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — John Williams, D, Monongalia, 80, is running for his fifth term in the House of Delegates to continue work to fight for fairness in PEIA, supports for child care costs, and parity in road funding.
“I ran for office because I wanted to make the place I grew up an even better place to live,” Williams said. “Now, I keep running for office because of my two boys at home, and I want it to continue to be the place I grew up in a lot of ways, but also make it better for them.”
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Williams said he has never voted for an increase to PEIA and has no plans to do so in the future. Several attempts to lobby for surplus money to stabilize the fund have been blocked, leading him to work toward a permanent funding source for an important public employee benefit.
“This benefit is a part of why a lot of people decided they could be public employees,” Williams said. “Because maybe the salary wasn’t that great, but the health insurance was pretty awesome, and I’ll get my family on it too, and we’ve broken that promise.”
The child care tax credit approved by lawmakers is a deduction on annual income tax of real costs incurred during a tax year. A tax credit payment would give more immediate relief to families and increase the number and type of parents that can participate.
“Just the straight-up child tax credit, where if you have a child, we’re going to send you some money because we know this is one of the most expensive times of your life, and we want to help you out a little bit,” Williams said. “Also, stay-at-home parents can take advantage of that too.”
Williams voted in favor of the recent two percent tax cut because the Justice administration identified base spending that would cover the revenue loss. In the days leading up to the vote, Williams tried unsuccessfully to shift that savings and voted with savings for the taxpayer in mind if things like PEIA relief couldn’t be realized.
“Could we do something to help put in services and in government that people use?” Williams asked. “But, I was told to me if that money wasn’t a tax cut, it was going to go to the rainy day fund, and I’d rather people have that money in their pockets than go to the rainy day fund.”
Williams was part of an almost successful effort to redo the DOH road funding formula to allocate funding based on traffic volume. That effort passed both houses but was vetoed by the governor. Those are the collaboration efforts Williams wants to continue in another term with the House of Delegates.
“I submit to that Democrat or Republican, no one in this area has moved the ball as far down the field when it comes to a real fix to our roads as I have—a Democrat in the minority in Charleston,” Williams said. “I work across the aisle to get these issues taken care of, and I’ll continue to do so.”
Williams is running against Republican Summer Hartley.