Justice says he wants any special session pay for lawmakers capped at 5 days

CHARLESTON, W.Va. —  Gov. Jim Justice announced that he is pushing for a bill to fulfill a campaign promise to limit lawmaker pay to a total of five work days for any special session dealing with the budget.

Justice made the announcement during a special Town Hall version of “Talkline” with Hoppy Kercheval.

The Justice administration says the West Virginia Legislature spent $35,000 a day on a special session last year, and now Justice wants to be responsible and cap the extra pay that members of the House and Senate receive for a special session.

That’s a calculation that comes from this.

“Our lawmakers wasted $600,000 last year because they couldn’t come together to pass a budget on time,” Justice stated in a release. “We’ve got to be more responsible than that. If it takes the Legislature umpteen weeks to pass a budget they won’t get paid beyond five days under my plan. The people of West Virginia expect quick action to fix the budget crisis, and the pay cap will ensure we aren’t wasting time and money to do the job we were all elected to do.”

All members of the House and Senate get an extra $150.00 per day for regular, extended or special sessions. This bill means that the most a member of the Legislature can make would be $750 for a special session on the budget, according to the Justice administration.

“Five days, and then they’re here for free,” Justice said on “Talkline” today.

Members of the Legislature would have to pass the governor’s proposed bill for it to take effect.

The Republican majority in the House and Senate says it’s working diligently on a budget and that producing one this early in the legislative session would be unprecedented.

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

Earlier this week, Senate President Mitch Carmichael emphasized that 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.”

On Thursday, the Justice administration put out a news release 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.

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.”





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