CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin used his line-item veto power 46 times before he signed the state budget bill into law Tuesday. The governor cut $11 million out of the bill approved by state lawmakers last week.
Tomblin administration Communications Director Chris Stadelman said the legislature wanted to take $25 million out of the state’s Rainy Day Fund to balance the budget but he governor decided it should be no more than $14 million.
(Read Tomblin budget veto messages here)
“The (financial) picture is going to improve moving forward but the more you spend this year, the more you build that baseline, the less our surpluses are in the future and the less opportunity there is to expand programs going forward,” Stadelman said.
The governor slashed funding in areas of health care, education and special projects.
“It would have been very easy for him politically to go ahead and spend extra money out of the Rainy Day Fund this year, but that’s just not the way Governor Tomblin operates,” Stadelman said. “He’s going to leave the state in a fiscally solid position when he leaves office in 2017.”
Some of the line-item cuts are as little as $8,000.
“In the grand scheme of a $4.3 billion budget it’s not a lot of money but that’s how serious he (Tomblin) was that we manage the state’s finances responsibly,” Stadelman said.
The spending plan goes into effect July 1.