CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Senate, meeting on Saturday morning, passed its budget — but it’s unlikely to be the last word as additional spending discussions continue.
“We’ll be talking about this budget again,” Senate Finance Chairman Craig Blair said after providing a summary to his colleagues.
With some tax cuts, some additional spending priorities and a few last-minute adjustments, Senate Bill 150 leaves only $666,854 unappropriated, Blair said.
But with a week to go in the regular, 60-day legislative session, there are still some significant unresolved financial matters.
A big one is a foster care bill passed by the House of Delegates that would raise per diem payments for families who take children into their homes. That’s almost $17 million more.
The Senate has not yet acted on that bill — or taken its possible financial effects into account.
And a Senate priority item — an intermediate court of appeals — remains under consideration in the House of Delegates. The Senate anticipated that would have an annual cost of about $6.3 million.
But the House Judiciary Committee on Friday made a couple of changes that would affect that.
Delegates agreed to push out the start date for the court until 2023, following the election of the first judges to the court in 2022.
The House Judiciary Committee also agreed to add criminal appeals to the court’s jurisdiction, adding an additional, estimated million-dollar cost.
Senator Bill Ihlenfeld, D-Ohio, asked several questions about what the Senate might do about those changes. His questions focused on what would happen if the House doesn’t approve the intermediate court in the next week or if it passes it but delays the fiscal effect.
“I just wonder if we could use that money for a different purpose right now,” Ihlenfeld said.
Blair said that money would likely be unencumbered unless legislators decide they have a different priority.
Senators made a few significant changes to the proposed budget on Saturday morning.
Blair proposed adding another $10 million to support the intellectual and developmental disabilities waiver program meant to provide home care instead of institutionalization. The amendment was approved.
That moves the full allocation to about $108 million and would achieve a promise Gov. Jim Justice made earlier this year. The governor aims to eliminate a waitlist of families who want to use the benefit.
“This will essentially free up the wait list so that the applicants who have been on the waitlist the longest will now be able to be cared for,” said Senator Ron Stollings, D-Boone.
“These services keep people in their own home in a less expensive setting. I appreciate the Finance chair’s consideration.”
The amendment also would restore $3 million to the original proposal for the Communities In Schools program favored by Governor Justice.
Also, Stollings and Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, proposed dedicating $2 million to preparedness efforts for the spread of the novel coronavirus. The amendment was approved.
“It is a good thing for our state to get prepared,” Blair said. “If we have something that was catastrophic for us, we need to be able to reach out and use our resources effectively.
“Two million dollars is a small amount of money when you’re looking at the scope of dealing with 1.8 million people.”
Another amendment pushed by senators Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, and Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, put an additional $125,000 toward rape crisis counseling. That amendment was approved too.