The Senate Finance Committee has approved the committee substitute for Governor Justice’s proposed budget bill to go to the floor with the recommendation that it pass.
The bill, SB 199, passed with a vote of 9-7 split across the party line.
The first version of the bill originally would have made around $26.6 million in cuts to ten state agencies, create about $450 million in tax increases and raise teacher’s salaries by 2 percent.
Republican leadership in the Senate worked alongside Senate Finance Committee counsel to create a committee substitute for the bill that incorporates the provisions of passed Senate Bills 362, 437 and 484.
The resulting committee substitute most notably removes the 2 percent pay raise for teachers, makes an additional, across-the-board 15.1% cut to higher education institutions, eliminates $43.8 million worth of certain DHHR programs, removes the funding increase for the Division of Tourism, eliminates $60.8 million from the State Road Fund and removes the $105.5 million “Save Our State” appropriation to the West Virginia Development Office, among other revisions.
As of now, Governor Justice and the House have not seen the committee substitute for the governor’s budget.
Budget policy analyst Michael Cook presented the committee substitute.
“The bill had to be tailored to the actual revenues we have to work with,” Cook said.
DHHR Deputy Secretary Jeremiah Samples said he was not pleased with the cuts made, but would have to confer with governor’s office before taking any official position on the bill or making any recommendations.
Matt Turner, executive vice chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission, said the HEPC has a “significant concern” with cuts to colleges and universities and said those institutions would most likely have to resort to cutting certain online services.
Senator Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, said cuts to both health programs and higher education would ultimately prove to be “a tremendous burden on the people of our state.”
Senator John Unger, D-Berkeley, was concerned that most of the subcommittee recommendations were not included in the bill, but Finance Chair Mike Hall, R-Putnam, said the bill was essentially consisting half of subcommittee recommendations and half of decisions made by the Republican caucus in the Senate.
Hall said the House is working on their budget suggestions in a similar way.
Unger said he believed the committee was simply ignoring the minority’s vote and input on the bill.
Senator Ron Stollings, D-Boone, said the proposed budget would add cost to next year’s budget, because of the damage it could do to citizens who rely on certain government programs to survive that are being cut.
Stollings said tax increases are the only way to truly guarantee a more balanced budget for the coming years, instead of one-time and continuous cuts.
Senate Majority Leader Ryan Ferns, R-Ohio, said the citizens of West Virginia “cannot bear any more taxes,” which he said are a large part of the reason the state has been losing population.
Senator Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, said the budget would do nothing to help the real problem the state has with providing jobs and economic development.
“This is the worst budget I will ever vote on,” Plymale said.
Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, said he agreed with his minority party’s sentiments and that he is “disheartened” by the actions of the committee in ignoring the inevitable consequences of the bill.
“This is probably the most cruel budget I’ve ever seen,” said Prezioso. “This is just abominable.”
Ferns, however, said the committee was simply doing its duty to the citizens of the state who “demand it from us to show fiscal restraint in our budget.”
“This is hands-down one of the most difficult decisions we’ll ever face,” said Ferns, “But this is the most difficult budget situation our state has ever faced.”
The committee is expected to meet tomorrow at 3 p.m. in room 451M.
