CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Senator Mike Woelfel wants to know what the Senate is doing about the state budget.
The Senate majority says it’s coming along at a rapid pace.
During the Senate’s floor session today, the Democrat from Cabell County asked a series of questions that he said were aimed at determining the progress on filling an estimated half-billion hole in the budget for the next fiscal year.
Woelfel began by noting that the 60-day legislative session is about one-quarter complete already.
“What is the status of the Senate’s budget? What is our situation on the budget?” asked Woelfel, who serves on the Judiciary Committee but not on the Finance Committee. Usually if you serve on one, you don’t serve on the other.
Senate Majority Leader Ryan Ferns, a Republican from Ohio County, rose to field Woelfel’s questions. Ferns said that, last week, the Finance Committee was broken into subcommittees to focus on different categories that might be affected by the budget.
Doing so, Ferns said, will allow the subcommittees to focus and enable the Senate to produce a budget more quickly.
Woelfel took that to mean the Senate is looking at budget cuts. He followed up by asking, “Does the status of our budget include any revenue enhancements?”
Ferns responded, “It is not to my knowledge that any decisions have been made in either area.”
Woelfel again followed up: “Is it fair to say at this point, our budget proposal will be to not have any revenue enhancements brought before us?”
Ferns said it’s too early to say.
“I wouldn’t say that’s accurate,” Ferns said. “I don’t think any final decisions have been made.”
Woelfel then wanted to know if anything at all has been decided.
“Have any prelim decisions been made?” he asked. “I’m certain we can agree that going into June would be unacceptable to the citizens of our state.”
Ferns said the goal is to produce a budget quickly with enough time to adjust to unforeseen circumstances.
“I think the goal is to be able to represent a budget well in advance of normal procedure for presenting a budget, to be able to deal with any roadblocks,” Ferns said.
Woelfel wanted more assurance. Last year, legislators had to go into a special session to reach a budget agreement.
“Do you have a reasonable feeling of certainty that we’ll be able to complete our deliberations on the budget before the end of the session?” Woelfel said.
“How certain are you that we will do our solely-mandated constitutional obligation – that is, pass a budget bill and approve it?”
“I feel very confident that we will,” Ferns said.
After the floor session, Woelfel said his constituents have been asking him about the status of the budget and he needs to be able to tell them.
“We’re 25 percent of the way through the session, and in my communities — in Cabell and Wayne counties — everyone wants to know what we’re going to do about the budget,” Woelfel said.
“It seems to me the time is now to ask questions about what our plan is and what the majority party intends to do to get us out of this half a billion dollar debt that we’re facing.”
Woelfel said he’ll be asking again.
“This has got to be our first priority and our second priority and our third priority,” he said. “What are we going to do to balance the budget of our state.”
Senate President Mitch Carmichael, after the floor session and also earlier on “Talkline” with Hoppy Kercheval, said the budget is being expedited.
“This will be a lightning fast budget this year,” said Carmichael, R-Jackson. “For those who are trying to level criticism at this Legislature for not doing a budget in the first 10 days, I mean that’s ridiculous. That’s purely partisan politics playing that game.
“The budget has always been extended into an extended session (usually the first week after the regular session). This Legislature will deliver this budget in a record time frame before the end of the session.”
The Republican majorities in the Senate and House have said they favor beginning with cuts to close the half-billion gap.
New Gov. Jim Justice has advocated the opposite approach — $450 million in “revenue enhancements,” mostly tax increases. Justice has said he isn’t looking for a fight but also has said he doesn’t think lawmakers have the guts to balance the budget on cuts.
Carmichael said, “Unless we run into some issue with the governor’s office, they’re unwilling to work with us in a particular manner, we will deliver a spending document at unprecedented speed, and I’ll be very proud to put that before the people of West Virginia and say that this Legislature stepped up and delivered in a big way.”
While the Senate Finance Committee has been working on the budget, another committee — a Select Committee on Tax Reform created by Carmichael — has been exploring the possibility of eliminating the state income tax and replacing it with a broad consumer sales tax.
Carmichael said the two efforts aren’t mutually exclusive.
“We’ll have options as we go through the process,” Carmichael said. “But because we are so intent on delivering this year’s budget, we kept the tax reform components out of the full finance committee and we chartered a select committee to deal with just revenue measures.
“That bill will go to the full Finance Committee and then to the floor.”
The House of Delegates is said to be closing in on its own budget framework. The House, particularly Speaker Tim Armstead, has not acted as enthusiastic about a plan to replace the state income tax with a consumer sales tax.
Carmichael said the two sides can work it out.
“We’re working closely with the House,” he said. “They are not as tuned in to tax reform as they are on delivering this year’s budget. We want to fix this year’s budget. We are absolutely going to do that in a timely manner.
“But what we want to do also is set this state up for long-term growth and prosperity.”