On day 16 of 60-day session, Justice seeks emergency furlough bill

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — On the 16th day of the legislative session, Gov. Jim Justice is asking state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing for employee furloughs in the event of a fiscal emergency.

According to a release from the governor’s office, Justice wants the ability to issue an executive order to furlough state workers in response to the state’s ongoing financial difficulties. The bill also would define the rights of state employees with respect to their employee benefits during the furlough period, the announcement stated.

In true Jim Justice lingo, the statement included a reference to animal waste.

“Because West Virginia’s finances are such a dog’s mess, furlough legislation is a necessary precaution to stop the bleeding if we don’t act,” Justice stated.

Previous Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin introduced a similar bill last year as the state faced a budget shortfall.

At the time, Tomblin said “This would allow the governor in a case where there was no budget, no funding mechanism, to be able to furlough employees or if there’s not enough money to make it through a year, to furlough employees a day a week, a day a month.”

Tomblin asked for his furlough bill to be passed much later in the process, in mid-May as the Legislature was about to reconvene in a special session to work on the budget.

His furlough bill was introduced, assigned to Senate Judiciary the same day and then went nowhere.

This session, Legislators in both houses have said they are working on budget proposals and will present them significantly earlier than usual.

Usually, the budget is finalized the week after the regular 60-day session. But the estimated $500 million budget gap — and the special session required last year for the budget — make these unusual circumstances.

“We are going to pass a budget,” said Jared Hunt, spokesman for the House of Delegates.

Nick Casey, the governor’s chief of staff, said the furlough bill was submitted now because of the $123-million gap in the current fiscal budget.

State officials had expected to use the Rainy Day fund to close that gap, but the Moody’s downgrade announced this week highlighted the perils of continuing to dip into reserves, Casey said.

“We’re really concerned not just about the new budget year that starts on July 1; we’re concerned about the current budget year,” Casey said during a brief interview in the state Capitol.

“This legislation, if approved by the Legislature, would allow us to deal with the current $123 million problem that we face between now and the end of June.”

Casey said the request is precautionary.

“Nobody wants to furlough anybody but the state — they discovered last year when the legislative session went on almost to the end of the fiscal year — was ill-prepared to deal with the risk of a shutdown,” he said.

“How do you let people go? Everybody thought back then that they would lose their pension benefits; they would lose their health benefits. Nobody wants that to happen. So the thought was that the furlough gives some flexibility to the executive branch.”

Justice tied his request for the ability to furlough to the Moody’s rating agency downgrade of West Virginia’s general obligation bonds this week.

He also looped in his proposed $105 million Save Our State fund, which would target spending for infrastructure and economic development.

The Republican majority in the Legislature has been skeptical of SOS because they believe the proposal isn’t detailed enough and because it’s an additional $105 million in spending up against the half-billion dollar budget gap.

Justice stated, “West Virginia’s credit was downgraded because our state keeps kicking the can down the road, and it will get worse if we don’t wake up.

“The longer it takes to pass my Save Our State plan and fix the budget crisis, the deeper we’ll be in the ditch and it will require furloughs.”





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