CHARLESTON, W.Va. — House of Delegates Finance Committee Chairman Eric Nelson says his committee held at least three meetings during the 17-day special session of the legislature where representatives from the Department of Commerce and Division of Forestry were present but not once did anyone mention the possibility of layoffs.
“Not once, not once, was that brought up as related to a cut in the Division of Forestry,” Nelson (R-Kanawha) said Friday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
There’s been some finger pointing between the Department of Commerce and the legislature since Commerce announced plans to layoff 37, mostly state foresters, at the end of the fiscal year. The state Personnel Board tabled the request Thursday but the department has asked board members to reconsider.
Nelson said Friday Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s original 2017 budget submitted to lawmakers in January included a cut for Forestry and the division’s budget was fully funded in budgets from the House and Senate. That budget version was never approved. Tomblin called lawmakers back to Charleston to begin a special session May 16. Nelson said both spending plans submitted by the governor in the special session included a $1.1 million cut for the Division of Forestry, which lawmakers eventually agreed to when the new budget bill passed earlier this week.
The Department of Commerce maintains the legislature decided not to fully fund the Division of Forestry when it agreed to a reduction in a special severance tax the timber industry has been paying for the last six years. The governor’s special session budgets reflected that reduction, the department said.
There’s a reason the legislature cut the severance tax, Nelson said.
“We want to be as competitive as possible to help create extra jobs,” he said. “That’s what we heard from the industry that they needed this to improve their competitiveness in the market and hopefully produce more timber-related jobs.”
The House and Senate both gave unanimous approval to the severance tax decrease in February and Tomblin signed it into law.
Nelson is still wondering why no one told the legislature during the special session that the funding reduction was going to result in layoffs.
“I’m also sick and tired of comments that people make of us rushing through this budgetary process. I would have to say in the last six months–myself, the House Finance Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and all members have spent more time with this budget than any time in West Virginia’s history,” Nelson said. “We are very concerned about the loss in private jobs and it’s going to be a concern about potential cuts in government that also result in reduced employment.”