CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice, a Democrat, blasted Senate Democrats for their vote against a key part of a state budget plan he supports.
The governor also urged Democrats in the House of Delegates to not repeat that vote.
“Here’s my problem. We are doing too many things for the sake of politics,” Justice said. “Yesterday you saw something happen that was terribly, terribly disappointing and unbelievable to me. Unbelievable. You saw the Senate Dems vote unanimously against a proposal that had been put forth in big part by me.
“Well, that feeling of you turn around and feel like you’ve carried the flag, you’ve done all you can do. You are all alone. It’s not any good. It really wasn’t a vote against me. It was petty politics. But I’ve said many, many times on the other side of petty politics is a name, a family, a school, a university and on and on and on.”
Justice made his remarks from a table at the front of the House of Delegates, where he has been at odds in recent weeks with the Republican majority over its resistance to a budget package the governor has been negotiating with the Republican majority in the state Senate.
The state Legislature is five days into a special session to try to determine a budget for the coming fiscal year. The governor vetoed a budget passed during the regular session, objecting to cuts to state programs. The special session costs an estimated $35,000 a day.
The governor went into the Senate on Tuesday afternoon to encourage lawmakers to vote for the plan he favors, which would raise some taxes, including the state sales tax, while lowering the personal income tax with the goal of eliminating it over time.
Senators voted 19-11 to approve “The Tax Reform Act of 2017,” the main plank of state budget plan of $4.35 billion. All the Democrats present voted against it.
A similar bill passed the Senate almost two weeks ago, 32-1, with Justice and Senate President Mitch Carmichael then extolling the bipartisan nature of the vote.
Democrats in the Senate couldn’t vote for “The Tax Reform Act of 2017” this time because too much uncertainty remains over its contents, said Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso, D-Marion.
Instead, Democrats offered an amendment that would have taken out reductions in the personal income tax and substituted an exemption to taxes on Social Security.
One concern for Democrats is the effect of the bill on lower and middle wage earners. The bill would raise the state sales tax to 6.95 percent and raise and establish other new taxes while lowering the personal income tax over time.
The Democrats are concerned that the tax increases would swamp any breaks on the personal income tax for the middle and lower brackets.
Democrats also note that the revenue bill has changed repeatedly during behind-the-scenes negotiations without clear estimates of the fiscal impacts.
The bills have been designed to balance the budget for the coming fiscal year by raising the sales tax six months prior to lowering the income tax. But after that, the income tax continues to lower, triggered by the state’s economic performance.
The worry is holes being blown in the state budget in future years, but no one, including Democrats, has seen a recent estimate because of the frequent changes to the bill.
Finally, the Democrats felt left out of discussions during the 10 days the Legislature took a hiatus on the special session. Discussions continued among Republican majority leaders and the governor during that time, but Democrats only returned to the table late last Friday.
After Justice’s remarks Wednesday evening, Prezioso expressed his own disappointment.
“I heard the speech,” he said. “It was very disheartening to hear that. The only thing we’ve tried to do is create an atmosphere of cooperation and working together. Obviously we were elected by our constituents to bring their concerns to Charleston.”
“Our Democratic caucus was the most solidified I’ve ever seen in the last five years. We want to make sure that if there’s any relief as far as taxes are concerned that the lower- to middle-income people get the tax relief. They’re the ones who if they get the money who’ll put it back into the economy.”
Prezioso said Democrats did not have a problem with the governor but did have serious reservations about the legislation.
“We’ve gone along with the governor throughout the entire session, going along mostly with what he wanted to do,” he said. “Our problem is with the income tax reduction. We’re just concerned about getting tax breaks for the rich at the expense of passing along the burden to middle and lower income people.”
Justice had been a registered Republican but switched his party affiliation to Democrat when he decided to run for governor last year, a decision he referenced Wednesday.
During his talk, he said he felt alone and then said the Democrats in the Senate abandoned vulnerable people who would have benefited from his budget package.
“Yesterday was unbelievable. Unbelievable,” the governor said. “When you’ve given everything you’ve got in the world and your friends desert you, it bothers you.
“They walked away from the common everyday person. They basically said doop on y’all. All they cared about was some political nothing. The bizarre thing of all is the least they would have done is someone tell me what they were going to do. Not a word.
Justice addressed Democrats directly, saying he hopes he can count on their vote.
“So to you House Dems that are here, I want you to know that as this thing progresses, it’s not perfect. It’s never perfect. Yesterday was a black eye in many ways. Unbelievable. And I’m talking to the House Dems. Open your eyes and don’t follow the leader just to be following the leader.”
Minority Leader Tim Miley, D-Harrison, was not in the session Wednesday. He had earlier said he had a trip out of town that could not be rescheduled. Another top Democrat in the House, Mike Caputo, also has not been at the special session so far this week.
Longtime Democratic Delegate Brent Boggs said the caucus has not yet made up its mind about what it will do.
“We haven’t caucused in the last couple of days simply because we don’t know what the Republican response is going to be from the bill that came over from the Senate,” said Boggs, D-Braxton.
“But right now we’re waiting to see what’s going to come out of the Finance Committee with what came up from the Senate.”
Boggs did say the Democrats in the House have concerns about the longer-term effects of the “Tax Reform Act of 2017.”
“We do, and I think the House Republicans do as well, and I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve been talking about the bills up in committee the last couple of days. The more information we get out, the easier it is to make an informed decision than a rash decision.”
The House of Delegates is to reconvene at 11 a.m. Thursday with the Finance Committee meeting at 9. House leaders have indicated they’ll rework the proposal that was passed over by the Senate, but haven’t been clear about whether that will take place in committee or as a floor amendment.
Meanwhile, the Senate agreed to send almost everyone home, designating two senators to convene at 6 p.m. each day until the House takes some action.
During the first two days of the special session, the House majority twice voted down versions of the bill negotiated between the governor and the Senate majority. House leaders said their concern is the taxes that would have to be raised to offset the income tax reductions.
Justice on Wednesday afternoon directly addressed Republican delegates and asked them to please vote. His pitch included promises to save the state’s role in greyhound racing handles and funding of the state Women’s Commission, two things the House voted to kill in the regular session.
“And as I’m talking to the House Republicans, I would say this, we’ve tried,” he said. “We’ve tried to compromise. We’ve tried in many ways to do a lot of the things I’ve tried to write down.
“We’ve broadened the base, we’ve listened to everybody. We’ve listened to the House, we’ve listened to the Senate, we’ve listened to everybody. We’ve broadened the base because your speaker wants to broaden the base.
“We got rid of the CAT tax, we got rid of the wealthy West Virginians tax, we helped the coal companies with the severance. We even took care of the the dogs. We tried to take care of the Women’s Commission. We tried to take care of the teachers. We tried to take care of this while taking care of the DHHR or higher ed.”
Justice concluded his speech with a plea that included a compliment to Speaker Tim Armstead, a metaphor that compared the state’s financial situation to a crocodile and a quick reference to a male appendage. He said delegates should trust him and believe in the plan.
“Maybe it works, and if it works we go straight to the roof. We do wonderful. If it doesn’t work and we’ve got our foot in the crocodile’s mouth in 2021 or 2022. But right now we’ve got our whole leg in the crocodile’s mouth. And if you’re men and he gets ready to bite, it’s going to hurt more than your leg. If you hear what I said.
“I really respect your Speaker. We throw mud back and forth. I really respect your leadership and all of you. I want nothing but goodness here.”
But most of all, he said, he did not want a repeat of the prior day’s vote in the Senate.
“This is just a plan. If you tweak, we’ll listen. I want you not to do the crazy ploys of what happened yesterday with the Democrats because it hurt us all. It hurt me and it hurt us all, and I thought it was despicable,” the governor said. “So I want you to vote and I want you to do goodness and I want us to go home and quit sitting here on the taxpayer dollars.”
@WVgovernor speaks to House of Delegates https://t.co/ImC35s9qfz
— Brad McElhinny (@BradMcElhinny) May 17, 2017