CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice is proposing about $400 million in additional spending in his new budget that lawmakers will begin tackling Thursday.
MetroNews spoke with a number of lawmakers following Justice’s State of the State Address Wednesday night for their reaction on the proposed spending and other items mentioned in the governor’s address.
The budget
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr called Justice’s proposal “completely a fallacy and a show for a Senate run.”
“What the governor is proposing is probably about a 15% increase in the budget,” Tarr, R-Putnam, said. “Normal growth is about 3 percent.”
Tarr said the proposed spending was “pretty insane.”
“It’s a wish list and a dream list. It’s not a reality list.”
Justice said much of his proposal including an additional $150 million in funding for the state School Building Authority, $50 million for flood resiliency and $30 million for crisis pregnancy centers would come out of the surplus section of the budget.
House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said the state Constitution requires the governor to propose the budget and the legislature to finalize it. He said the real work begins Thursday.
“It was a great speech. He’s always spoke well. We’ll start our job tomorrow (Thursday) and 58 days after that,” Criss said.
Justice is proposing another average 5% pay raise for state workers. It would be the fifth year in a row for such a raise if approved. Tarr said there’s no room for it but House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and Senate President Craig Blair have had some positive comments about the possibility.
West Virginia American Federation of Teachers President Fred Albert said he was glad to hear the governor once again propose a raise.
“It’s very much needed especially with our PEIA premiums increasing, this past year 24-point-2 percent and next year 10-and-a-half percent,” Albert said.
West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee said said a raise would mean more this year if last year’s hadn’t been cancelled out by the PEIA premium increase.
“He has been a governor that has put employees in public education in the forefront but because we left year out that we didn’t do that, we dropped to 50th in the nation in pay,” Lee said.
Child care credit
Justice said he supports a tax credit for child care. That caught the ear of Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, who plans to introduce a bill on a related issue.
“I need to see the details (of the governor’s plan) and I hope there’s money in the budget for that so we can really start to elevate and get that workforce up. I was very pleased to see that,” Woelfel said.
Transfer rule
He offered no plans of his own, but Justice told lawmakers Wednesday night something must be done to change the state’s new high school athlete transfer law. Justice said he fears the current situation will hurt high school sports communities.
Del. Dana Ferrell, R-Kanawha, said he has a bill ready to go.
“The first step to getting it right is to getting back to where it was,” Ferrell said. “This bill gets it back there. Are we open to looking at trying to do things better from where it was? Absolutely. At the end of the day, we want to do what’s best for student athletes in the state of West Virginia.”