KEARNEYSVILLE — The Martinsburg-Berkeley County and Jefferson County chambers of commerce partnered with Hospice of the Panhandle to host a 2025 Legislative Wrap-Up on Friday, giving business owners the chance to ask Eastern Panhandle representatives questions about the recent session.

Those in attendance included state Sens. Jason Barrett and Tom Willis and Delegates Chris Anders, Wayne Clark, Joe Funkhouser, Mike Hornby, Chuck Horst and Larry Kump. They discussed several topics, including data centers and locality pay.

After each member of the panel gave a brief introduction, Maria Lorenson, development director at Hospice of the Panhandle, started the discussion by asking about the micro grid bill and if it disincentives local EDAs from marketing properties to data centers.

Barrett believes that house bill 2014, as it was introduced, would have discouraged EDAs because of how it was structured. When the bill came to the Senate, several members pushed back, which led to a change that gave 30% of the money, subject to the formula, to the county. That only accounts for money going directly to the county commission, however, as Barrett clarified further. He doesn’t think it discourages them anymore.

It also removes the limit on micro grids in the state, not only opening the door for data centers but allowing them to be larger. A percentage of revenue from the center will go toward all counties, based on population, to help the entire state grow.

Willis talked about how he attempted to pass a locality bill to help teachers, state troopers and other workers in areas like the Eastern Panhandle. When another senator from Putnam County had a bill that focused on meeting the cost of housing in a particular area, he decided to shelf his and put his support on this one.

In the end, however, the cultural differences between counties made passing the bill difficult.

Despite trying to explain that teachers in other areas of the state are at an economic advantage because of the cost of living, the ideas didn’t get through. Some of the other senators were concerned about teachers leaving to find better paying jobs elsewhere.

“We couldn’t convince the legislatures from the southern counties was the bottom line, and even though it was a new bill, it was a new formula, nobody was getting hurt,” Willis said. “It was really disappointing for me. I do have some ideas on how to horse trade that we’re going to talk about in the future.”

The forum ended with several of the legislators encouraging guests to reach out with questions and concerns. It’s through the public’s comments that they can learn what needs to be fixed going forward.