CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Work to fill the state’s $270 million budget hole continues in a special session Monday and Delegate Kelli Sobonya (R-Cabell,18) says members of the House of Delegates need to work together to come up with a solution.
Sobonya said state residents are looking to the legislature for a way out of the state’s current budget crisis.
“I’m taking the initiative on behalf of my constituents to do the best job I can to make sure that the priorities of the people are going to be recognized and I challenge each of you to do the same,” she told members of the House during a Friday floor session.
Democrats in the House are looking to amend the tobacco tax bill to make it a $1 dollar per pack increase in the cigarette tax instead of Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s proposed 45-cent per pack increase.
The state Senate passed the 45-cent increase last week. The measure would also bring the tax on smokeless and chewing tobacco from 7 percent to 12 percent and establish a tax on e-cigarettes.
Also, delegates hope to look at a list of proposed budget cuts crafted by the House Finance Committee.
Sobonya said although she’s not a member of the Finance Committee, she took the initiative to put calls out to state agencies for a reason.
“When the buck stops with me and my constituents, they’re going to look to me and say ‘Did you do everything you could do to turn over every rock, leave no stone unturned to make sure that we have the leanest government that we can ever have before we dip into the pockets of the taxpayers?'” she said.
Sobonya cited the decline of the coal industry and “the failure” of previous leadership with budget problems lawmakers are continuing to sort out, but said she knows they’re “up to the task.”
“We are going to be able to lead,” she said. “I hope that we can do it as a team.”
The House floor session will begin at 11 a.m.