The West Virginia House of Delegates on Friday passed its version of the state budget for the upcoming year with several marked differences between the one initially requested by Gov. Patrick Morrisey at the beginning of the session.
With three members absent and not voting, the budget bill passed the House 80-17. Eight Republican delegates — Dels. Chris Anders, R-Berkeley; Elias Coop-Gonzalez, R-Randolph; Henry Dillon, R-Wayne; Laura Kimble, R-Harrison; Bill Ridenour, R-Jefferson; Adam Vance, R-Wyoming and Lisa White, R-Berkeley — joined the chamber’s nine Democrats in voting against the proposed budget.
As proposed, the House’s budget — House Bill 2026 — is based on the previous year’s budget, continuing a tradition of relatively “flat” budgets for the state of West Virginia. It totals about $5.127 billion in base spending.
Morrisey has been critical of this tradition of “flat” budgets. Before the legislative session started, he said the practice has been used to falsely inflate the state’s revenues, making it seem that there is more money on hand in the state through the use of one-time funds that go to necessary programs but that are not included in estimated spending needs.
He said former Gov. Jim Justice’s approach to the budget bred long-term problems that he was now inheriting. In January, Morrisey’s office projected that there would be a $400 million budget hole that lawmakers would need to contend with due to that reliance on one-time funds.
But Del. Vernon Criss, who serves as the chair of the House Committee on Finance, never believed that budget hole actually existed. On Friday, in response to questions from Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, who asked whether that $400 million budget deficit was still a factor in the proposed state budget, Criss reiterated his beliefs.
“It never was,” said Criss, R-Wood.
Earlier this year, Morrisey’s office estimated that revenues for the coming fiscal year would total around $5.323 billion. The governor’s version of the budget had all of those potential dollars being spent, making the largest difference between the House’s budget and Morrisey’s the inclusion of surplus funds. As proposed, the House’s budget holds nearly $129 million as surplus spending that could be allocated later if the funds remain available by the end of this fiscal year.
Criss, who has been vocally critical of Morrisey’s governorship throughout this session, said the governor’s proposed budget was problematic in that it didn’t include that “cushion” of surplus funds that can act as a safety net if revenue falls short and removed line items that allow the Legislature to better track funding allocations and the use of state dollars.
“The governor’s budget was going to spend every dollar and not have any reserve account,” Criss said. “He also collapsed all of the line items, which takes away our job of making sure we are watching the dollars. We appropriate the dollars — that’s our job. When we got his budget, based upon his pro forma sheet, it was useless.”
Proposed amendments and line item funding changes
Before its passage on Friday, members of the House considered 10 amendments to the proposed budget bill, adopting only two of them.
The first of those adopted amendments came from Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, and added $2 million to the Office of Emergency Medical Services for training and support of the state’s EMS.
The second adopted amendment was introduced by Del. Michael Hite, R-Berkeley, and changed how funds are used and appropriated for several of the state Department of Human Services’ waiver programs, including the Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities Waiver program.
All of the other eight amendments voted down by lawmakers during the budget process were introduced by Democrats. All but one were voted down via voice vote.
If approved, those amendments would have:
Transferred $50 million into the West Virginia Flood Resiliency Trust Fund — a currently unfunded budget line — from the Revenue Shortfall Reserve Fund. With six members absent, lawmakers voted 75-19 against the amendment. Their vote came just weeks after devastating flooding hit the state’s southern coalfields, taking lives and damaging dozens of buildings beyond repair.Added $10 million to the Water Development Authority to be used for improvements to the state’s many distressed and failing water systems.Added $32 million in funding for child care subsidies, which lawmakers have stressed over the last two years are needed in the state. Despite that need — and requests from businesses to make the program a priority in order to support working parents — little work has been done by the Legislature on the issue and only about $6.3 million is currently allocated in the House’s budget for child care.Put $20 million into workforce development grants to provide summer employment for teens. That fund is zeroed out in the House’s budget due to the expiration of federal funds.Reinstated the state’s Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs with a nearly $400,000 allocation. That office was completely removed in the budget in the wake of an executive order from Morrisey banning all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the state.Added $5 million in funding for West Virginia State University. Added $15 million in funding for West Virginia University.Increased various allocations to the state’s waiver programs, including an additional $1 million for the IDD Waiver program, $32 million for Title XIX for Seniors Citizens waiver program and $1.3 million for the Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver program.
The House’s proposed budget — as it remains flat — had only a few increases for budget lines throughout. House counsel said at a committee meeting earlier this week that one of those, an additional $30 million for the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, is “just to meet their operational requirements.”
Other increases include an additional $40 million for the employer share for the Public Employees Insurance Agency, $7 million for the Department of Health’s Birth to Three program, $1 million to the House and Senate for auditing services and a $7 million bump for the state’s HOPE Scholarship program, among other small increases.
And while an additional $90 million is being allocated to the state Department of Human Services — replacing some dollars cut in last year’s budget — the department is still underfunded as it deals with an ongoing foster care crisis.
Under the House’s proposal, DoHS will receive just about $121 million for foster care. Morrisey’s budget had about $182 million for foster care, higher than what the House is offering but still less than what the department said it needs.
The agency also faces high vacancy rates of Child Protective Service workers, something the House took into consideration across the board in all agencies in its proposed budget. Agencies with continuously high vacancy rates, according to counsel for the House, were subject to a 2% budget reduction, totalling about $8 million in savings.
Other spending decreases in the House’s budget include an $11 million drop in state dollars in the school aid formula, a $15 million reduction in funds given to WVU and about a $1.2 million decrease in funds for the Judges Retirement Systems.
The Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs no longer exists in the House’s budget while the Department of Arts, Culture and History is moving under the Department of Tourism, and the Department of Economic Development is joining with the Commerce Department. Those agency closures and mergers reflect about $300,000 in savings, according to previous budget presentations.
What’s next
With the House’s vote Friday, its version of the state budget heads to the Senate for consideration.
Meanwhile, however, the Senate is still considering its own version of the state budget, which looks much more similar to Morrisey’s initially proposed budget than the House’s.
On Thursday, the Senate Committee on Finance approved the Senate’s budget proposal. That budget — Senate Bill 300 — is scheduled to be on first reading in the Senate on Monday.
The Senate’s budget sticks with Morrisey’s proposed $5.3 billion in general revenue spending, however priorities for that spending look a bit different.
During a press conference with reporters on Thursday, Morrisey said he wasn’t concerned that the two budget proposals circulating around the Legislature hold stark differences. In response to a question from Ogden Newspapers’ Steven Allen Adams, Morrisey said meetings have been occurring regularly between his team and leadership in both of the Legislature’s chambers.
“I think what you have here is a process,” Morrisey said. “The House has an important opinion, the Senate has an important opinion, the executive has an important opinion and so you have these three groups that come together and then you try to reach a budget that everyone agrees on.”
The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn sine die at midnight on Saturday, April 12.
This article originally appeared on West Virginia Watch.
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