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Senate committee backs committee substitute for House Bill 4563 after debate over single‑fee EZPass transferability
Summary
The Senate Infrastructure Committee advanced the engrossed committee substitute for House Bill 4563 after heated debate over whether single‑fee EZPass transponders should be statutorily non‑transferable; an attempted amendment to codify non‑transferability failed and the committee adopted the recommendation that the bill do pass.
The West Virginia Senate Infrastructure Committee on Monday advanced the engrossed committee substitute for House Bill 4563 after members debated proposals to limit transferability of single‑fee EZPass transponders.
Senator Lyn Wetzel proposed an amendment to bar transferring single‑fee transponders between vehicles, saying the change would prevent someone from “using it and jump[ing] in one car or the other every day.” Counsel clarified the amendment would codify what the Parkways Authority says is already in the transponder user agreement — that a transponder is connected to a single vehicle — and that codification would require striking other bill provisions to avoid contradictory language. Wetzel said the amendment was intended to make the single‑fee transponder “attached to one vehicle.”
Samuel Polley, chief financial officer for the West Virginia Parkways Authority, told the committee the authority enforces an administrative policy that ties the single‑fee discount transponder to a single vehicle but that customers can change vehicle information online. “You can go on the app right now, go online and you can change your vehicle information,” Polley said, describing the current process that allows a person who buys a new vehicle to update their account without paying another $27.50 annual fee.
Delegate Danielle Linville, who testified for the House side, described the sponsor’s intent to allow families to use a single discount across multiple vehicles and told senators the authority reports roughly $5,000,000 in annual revenue from the single‑fee discount program. Linville challenged assertions that bond covenants would automatically be violated if the program’s revenue declined, saying committee review of bond documents suggested the maximum revenue risk was relatively small compared with the authority’s other financial commitments.
A motion to refer House Bill 4563 for a second reference to the Committee on Finance was moved but failed on a 4–5 division. Later, the vice chair moved that the engrossed committee substitute for House Bill 4563 be reported to the full Senate with a recommendation that it do pass; the chair declared the motion adopted.
The committee’s action advances the bill to the Senate calendar. No final Senate vote was recorded in the transcript; the committee record shows the substitute was reported with a recommendation that it pass.
