State Taps Into Rainy Day Fund For the First Time

Lawmakers last Sunday convened the extended budget session to complete work on the Fiscal Year 2015 State Budget. For the second year in a row, non-exempt state agencies took a 7.5 percent reduction in funding across the board. Lawmakers had to craft the budget with the prospects of millions of dollars in looming revenue shortfalls from lower than expected tax collections and managed to balance the budget without cutting critical services to children and seniors.

This year, for the first time ever, the Legislature had to craft a budget which relied on approximately $147.5 million in funds from the Revenue Shortfall Reserve Fund, otherwise known as the “Rainy Day Fund.” West Virginia’s “Rainy Day Fund” is considered one of the country’s strongest, prior to this budget standing at around $922 million. However, the $147.5 million figure was expected to be reduced following action on a bill in the 1st Extraordinary Session which would return millions of dollars through a supplemental appropriation bill to the fund and the balance was still expected to remain strong enough to not adversely affect the state’s bond rating.

The final agreed to Budget Bill, Senate Bill 306, includes an increase of $5 million for in-home care assistance to allow more seniors to stay at home; $13 million placed back into state Road Fund for paving and maintenance; an additional $1.5 million for the Safe Drinking Water Program; $3 million for community based substance abuse treatment; and funding to hire additional State Police to staff the Crimes Against Children Unit.

Other funding restored to the budget bill from the introduced version included $150,464 to the Family Resource Networks and Family Resource Centers, $250,000 to in-home Family Education programs, $80,000 to the West Virginia Children’s Trust Fund for grants to go towards preventing child abuse, $357,900 to the domestic violence prevention, $111,908 for the Child Advocacy Centers including an additional $200,000 keeping funding level for local programs due to rapid growth and expansion and $2 million for the West Virginia State Police.

The budget also added $400,000 for the WV Council for Community and Technical Colleges for the “West Virginia Advance Workforce Development.” This funding is to be used solely for “Advanced Manufacturing and Energy Industry Specific Training Programs” and preparing our workforce. The bill also partially restored cuts to the In-Home & Nutrition Services for Senior Citizens, or “Meals on Wheels” in the amount of $400,000.

Next year, lawmakers will begin working on the Fiscal Year 2016 State Budget with revenue shortfalls again expected.

Senate Bill 373 establishes the Aboveground Storage Tank Act and the Protect Our Water Fund

On January 9, 2014, a chemical called crude methylcyclohexane methanol, or MCHM, leaked through a ruptured aboveground storage tank at Freedom Industries, a chemical processing and storage facility for the coal industry that sits on the Elk River. West Virginia American Water’s intake valve, that supplies 300,000 people with clean tap water, sits a mile downstream from Freedom Industries.

After discovering the leak, Governor Tomblin declared a state of emergency and ordered West Virginia American Water customers to only use the water to flush the toilet or to put out a fire. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and the West Virginia National Guard began distributing clean water across the nine counties affected. The Center for Disease Control, or the CDC, determined the safe non-detectable levels for MCHM are 1 part per million. Based on this threshold, West Virginia American Water established zones throughout the nine counties affected and began lifting the “do not use” ban after that zone’s water was tested.

Originally, Freedom Industries reported that 5,000 gallons of MCHM leaked into the river. The estimate increased twice after its original estimate to 7,500 gallons and then 10,000 gallons. Additionally it was later reported that, although the tank was predominately storing MCHM, it was a mixture of six other chemicals including propylene glycol phenyl ether, or PPH.

Senate Bill 373 is designed to protect water resources and the public health in West Virginia. This legislation establishes the Aboveground Storage Tank Act, the Protect Our Water Fund and revises the Water Resources Protection and Management Act. The bill contains provisions that state all aboveground storage tanks located in the zone of critical concern register with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and undergo an annual inspection. Additionally, all public water systems are required to submit a source water protection plan to the DEP for approval. The plan must include an alternative intake valve incase of contamination, response to contamination and public notification procedures. Under provisions of the bill, the Bureau of Public Health will collect relative evidence in order to conduct a long-term medical surveillance study.