CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WVDN) — Members of the House of Delegates voted just after 6 p.m. on Day 51 of the 60-day session to concur with the Senate and complete a budget bill presented by House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, as the compromise and described as “responsible.”
Senate Bill 250, the budget bill, sets the $5.5 billion General Revenue budget for Fiscal Year 2027, which begins July 1, 2026. It includes a 5% reduction in personal income tax rates, and a 3% average pay increase for all state employees as well as public school teachers, school service personnel and the West Virginia State Police. An increase of nearly $40 million above the current year’s funding levels was allocated to adoption and foster care. Medicaid within the Policy and Programming Budget is funded roughly $28 million more than current levels, and the directives were moved from the surplus section of the budget to ensure it is covered. The waiver programs were funded a little more than $5 million greater than the current-year funding levels as well.
The higher education funding formula is funded in full for the first time with this budget, and an overall increase in funding is allocated for the dual enrollment program through the Higher Education Policy Commission. About $117 million in General Revenue funds are allocated to the Hope Scholarship program, as well as $100 million in supplemental funding and $60 million in the surplus spending section. The Treasurer’s Office has $20 million in carryover funding already available for the program.
The budget allocates $29 million to the already-established Personal Income Tax Reduction Fund and nine items totaling roughly $245 million are listed in what is commonly referred to as the “back of the budget” for surplus spending to be dedicated as it is available at the end of the Fiscal Year. Among those priorities are Lily’s Place, a Residential Treatment Center focused on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Reclamation of Abandoned and Dilapidated Properties Program, the West Virginia Division of Highways, local roads and the West Virginia Flood Resiliency Trust Fund.
A bill that would create the private, nonprofit TEAM-WV Corp. to promote economic development, job creation, job retention and business recruitment to the state, overwhelmingly passed the House on March 4. TEAM-WV would not be a state department or agency but instead would create a non-governmental partner for the Department of Commerce to increase its competitiveness in business development.
“I appreciate entrepreneurs because they often think differently than I do; they are what I call outside-the-box thinkers, and I admittedly am not,” said Delegate Eric Brooks, R-Raleigh, ahead of the vote on House Bill 4001, to create TEAM-WV. “I also know that since getting into this political realm and getting to know some entrepreneurs that they run in circles that I don’t run in. They know people I don’t know, and they have the access to resources that I don’t have.
“These folks are often the movers and shakers in our communities and in our state and even in around the country and around the world. They have the resources to make things happen. We know this to be true. And that’s what we want, we want private investment coming into our state.”
Members of the House unanimously passed House Bill 5537, which officials say would repeal unnecessary sections of the state code pertaining to education, on March 3. House Bill 4191, which would address childcare concerns from two different angles, passed the House with broad support March 4. The measure would stabilize the state’s reimbursement rates for providers, would increase an employer’s current tax credits equal to 50% of their investment in a childcare facility and also increase the existing tax credit equal to 50% of an employer’s costs of operating the childcare provided.
Thirty-one bills have completed the legislative process and gone to the governor for action. The 60-day, regular legislative session ends at midnight March 14.
