CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s budget problems will be the main focus of a new joint committee formed within the state Senate and House of Delegates.
Over the next six months, the GATE Committee will meet to discuss ways to balance the new state budget following this year’s Special Session where lawmakers had to quickly fill a massive budget hole before the start of the new Fiscal Year.
“It was difficult to make some of those decisions in a Special Session with the clock running up against July 1. That’s why this is, I think, a better way to do that,” said House Speaker Tim Armstead (R-Kanawha, 40) on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline”.
The 2017 session won’t start until the second week of February in order to give the new governor time to settle in and get his agenda together.
Armstead said during this time they will be meeting with agency officials “in a bipartisan manner” to come up with a package of budget cuts to be presented to the state Legislature.
“Let’s bring the Republicans and Democrats together, sit at the table with the agencies and let’s hopefully, we will be able to come forward by the time we are looking at the next fiscal year budget with a proposal that we already have buy in on,” he said.
The first GATE Committee meeting was scheduled for Monday afternoon at the state Capitol during interim meetings. GATE members are listed here.
The state’s budget problems, mainly resulting from the downturn in the coal industry, cannot and should not be fixed by raising taxes, Armstead said.
“When you have this reduction in your budget, then you know that you’re going to have to — anyone who’s really honest — knows you’re going to have to make cuts somewhere,” he said.
Armstead said the difference between the GATE Committee is separate from a Finance Committee because they’re able to look at cuts from each agency’s budget, individually, to improve government spending. He said he believes there is excess money they can find within the state budget.
“We can reduce the size of our government in a responsible way that doesn’t take away essential programs or reduce essential programs, but truly makes our government more efficient,” he said.
Armstead predicted the total amount of cuts included in next year’s budget could top around $100 million or more.