CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice’s administration presented to reporters Wednesday and has been presenting to members of the House and Senate finance committees today an “alternative budget.”
The document, said to have been a possible budgetary route considered by Justice, presents a potential $450 million in cuts.
Its path is to cut the budgets of West Virginia and Marshall universities by 45.6 percent ($59 million and $48 million) and then zero out 46 additional colleges or programs.
The Justice administration is using it as an illustration for possibilities Justice has chosen not to embrace. Instead, his budget relies heavily on new or increased taxes to bring in an estimated $450 in additional revenue.
The Republican majorities in both houses of the Legislature have said they would prefer to see a budget that relies more heavily on cuts.
The alternative budget presented by Justice does not represent a possibility that legislative leaders say they are willing to consider — changing laws to trim areas like education and health and human resources that previously had been considered untouchable.
For your consideration, here is how Justice’s version of the alternative budget looks:
