CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey delivered his budget for the upcoming fiscal year Wednesday night as part of his first State of the State Address.
Lawmakers discussed the gaps in the budget and how that might mean some changes for the Mountain State when it comes to state funding.
In West Virginia, we’re spending more than we are bringing in, according to the state budget director. However, he believes that a six-year plan will keep the Mountain State in good financial shape moving forward.
“The further out you go, the harder it is,” said West Virginia State Budget Director Mike McKown. “All of these are guesses. It is our best guess, an educated guess I guess.”
“You put all your wants down and your needs,” said State Treasurer Larry Pack. “Most often there’s a gap.”
And there is a gap this year. According to Governor Patrick Morrisey’s budget, West Virginia’s expenses for the next fiscal year add up to $6.1 billion. With projected revenue only estimated at $5.7 billion, it leaves the Mountain State with a $400 million gap in spending and what’s available to spend this fiscal year.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s right, wrong, overestimating or underestimating, that’s the number,” McKown said. “They build expenses around that, but if we get three-quarters through the year and we think we’re not going to hit the budget, we’re required to reduce our spending. It’s exactly what we do with a household budget. It just has a lot more zeroes on it.”
House of Delegates Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle (D-Cabell) believes one costly expense should be cut, and that’s the Hope Scholarship’s funding for private schools.
“The Hope Scholarship directly takes money from public education. That’s one of the problems,” Hornbuckle said. “This year, the department put out a report that potentially 12 schools could close. That’s students without schools and jobs. It’s going to hurt our economy. We have to reign in this Hope Scholarship especially with taxpayer dollars leaving our state.”
State budget director Mike McKown believes cutting spending or using surplus funding from previous years can help reduce the $400 million gap in the governor’s budget.
“It’s not the utopic way to build a budget, but we have the funding there,” McKown said. “It was either that or cut budgets by another $160 million.”
“It may mean some cuts or some reduction in spending where they did not use dollars that were appropriated previously,” said Del. Clay Riley, (R-Harrison). “You have reappropriations that carry as far back as 2011.”
While lawmakers are determined to balance West Virginia’s books, Hornbuckle points to a lack of teacher raises in this year’s budget, despite the governor mentioning raises in his State of the State Address.
“That was a very confusing message. He said 2 percent cuts but not cutting education. That math doesn’t add up,” Hornbuckle said. “Our perspective is that we will not cut education or Medicaid. We can’t afford to.”
Governor Morrisey also spoke in his State of the State Address about cuts in West Virginia, but his budget director says this can only be done if there is money to allow such cuts.
