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Senate approves Tomblin’s revamped budget bill, 27-4

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Senate approved a reworked budget bill from Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Saturday, days after the governor vetoed a version he claimed borrowed too heavily from the Rainy Day Fund.

Republican leaders said the new measure offered a more balanced approach, projecting a revenue increase of $100 million generated by a 65-cent tax hike on cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping products, along with spending cuts of $111.9 million. That slices an additional $10 million reduction in the state’s infrastructure development fund.

It draws $64 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund, as opposed to the vetoed version that borrowed $183 million.

“The new bill from the governor includes much of the work that had been discussed and was included in the last budget bill,” said Mike Hall (R-Putnam), Senate finance chair.

The final vote on the budget passed 27-4.

The House sent the budget bill and the tobacco tax bill to its finance committee Saturday for discussion. The committee passed the tobacco tax bill and sent it to the floor of the House for a possible vote Sunday.

“It’s not the perfect solution to many of the woes in our state,” Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall) said from the floor Saturday. “But it is an attempt to plug some holes in a terribly sinking ship and hopefully gives us some opportunities to right it in the future.”

Kessler said the tobacco tax increase highlighted a need for additional revenue in a state where the coal industry has suffered. Along with making tough decisions on cuts, Kessler lauded the reduced stress on the Rainy Day Fund.

“It’s more than I would like, more than most of us would like, and I’m sure more than the governor would like. But it’s a significantly better take from the Rainy Day Fund than the original $183 million we passed out of here and I couldn’t support for that very reason,” Kessler said.

The measure now heads to the House of Delegates, which already rejected a budget that included a 45-cent increase in the tobacco tax. There are indications more House Democrats might be willing to support the budget with the 65-cent tax hike, provided the measure fully funds West Virginia’s Public Employee Insurance Agency.

“We fully appropriated the request that’s in the governor’s budget,” said Hall. “We fully appropriated the $43 million that (PEIA Finance Board members) requested to keep those deductibles up. That’s what we did.”

The budget bill won’t be taken up by the House Finance Committee until sometime Sunday afternoon, committee chairman Eric Nelson (R-Kanawha) said Saturday evening.

(Front page photo courtesy Perry Bennett, WV Legislative Photography)





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