CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state is $41 million below revenue estimates this fiscal year but that number could be well above $100 million according to state Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss. A $70 million move by the state legislature helped fill the hole.
Kiss said most of the money came from the legislature’s traffic account established several years ago to be in used in case of emergencies.
“The flexibility that prior legislators—-going back to the initiation of the traffic account or the rainy day fund–I think this year points out the critical importance of that planning,” Kiss said. “Without it we would be able to close a 100-million dollar hole in this year’s budget.”
The former House of Delegates speaker said it would be prudent for future state lawmakers to take the same fiscally conservative approach.
“A continued call for that same type of conservative management and that same type of planning for a worst case scenario or a bad case scenario, blindly assuming things are going to be great because they aren’t,” Kiss said.
The former speaker said the state could have been looking at “massive reduction of services” without the infusion of the approved money from lawmakers.