CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice has ordered a lantern atop the Statehouse to be lit to reflect his belief that the state will have an emergency on its hands if the budget is cut for the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
The governor also has a morning ‘war room’ meeting dedicated to budget discussions.
The House Finance chairman says he doesn’t need either of those to let him know such cuts would be extremely sensitive.
“We’ve had work groups in House Finance Committee that have looked at a number of agencies, including DHHR and we’ve had them up in front of our committee,” said Delegate Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha.
“We’ve had Secretary Crouch a number of times. He’s talked about what would happen on the negative side, should his agency get hit with a $50 million cut.”
Governor Justice had a press conference in his office Tuesday and then followed up with a discussion today to highlight his concerns over potential cuts to DHHR.
Last Monday, the majority Republicans presented a budget framework meant to stop spending at the $4.055 billion revenue estimate for the coming fiscal year. They left an estimated $150 million in spending reductions undefined, saying that money would likely come from education, higher education or the Department of Health and Human Resources.
Of the state’s general fund for the current fiscal year of just more than $4 billion dollars, DHHR amounts to $1.095 billion. Much of the DHHR costs are for Medicaid spending.
Justice and DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch handed out prepared documents laying out some of the possibilities for cuts of $50 million or more to DHHR. Among the possibilities were cuts to Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities and Aged and Disabled waiver programs.
MORE: Examples of DHHR cuts passed out by the Justice administration
Nelson this week said he is well aware of the concerns.
“Not only some of these programs that I think the governor highlighted,” Nelson said, “but those are single line items in the budget when you talk about IDD and ADD waiver, but a $50 million just to the Medicaid line item – well, that goes to providers and reimbursements so our doctors and hospitals would be the first ones hit and that $50 million has a federal match attached to it..
“So that 50 turns into a much, much larger number, one that we ought to be concerned about.”
Justice had invited members of the Legislature to a “war room” budget discussion in his office today. Only Democrats attended. Among the topics for those who were there was concern that significant cuts to DHHR or education could be detrimental to state growth.
“The path I see that’s moving forward by majority party, we’re going to create a state no one wants to come to,” said House Minority Leader Tim Miley, D-Harrison. “If they cut those two areas, there’s no reason for businesses to come here.”
Senator Ron Stollings, D-Boone, added, “and that’s where they intend to cut – education and health.”
Nelson said he would have liked to have had some of the Democrats who attended today’s session with the governor instead in a 9:30 a.m. House Finance Committee meeting. Delegate Brent Boggs is the minority chairman of House Finance and Delegate Mick Bates also serves on the committee.
Nelson, speaking after a House floor session, said the invitations to the governor’s ‘war room’ aren’t necessary for him to understand the situation. Besides, he said, he has committee work on the budget to get done in short order.
“If he talks about coming together every morning and having a meeting, we need to have some of that but we’re running legislation right now that affects the budget — not only bills that have an expense associated to it but also bills that have a revenue attachment,” Nelson said.
“I’ll give him credit. He’s only been on the job for 60 days, but he’s got to understand some of the legislative process we get to and the need to get bills out by Friday. So come Friday we’ll have a lot of activity in House Finance.”
House Speaker Tim Armstead said this morning on MetroNews’ “Talkline” that legislative leaders who are involved with budget talks intend to be careful with any cuts, although he acknowledged that sacrifices would be necessary.
“We have said all along that these cuts are not going to be easy,” Armstead said. “Is it going to cause the harm the governor is talking about? No.”
Also speaking on “Talkline” today, Crouch of the DHHR reiterated his belief that further cuts to his agency’s budget would be significant.
“We’re really not sure how we’re going to deal with this at this point,” Crouch said today. “The fat is gone, we truly are down to the bone.”