CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Governor Jim Justice is firing back at state Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr for calling his budget proposal “completely a fallacy and a show for a Senate run.”
Justice slammed Tarr on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline,” the day after his final State of the State address where he touted the state’s financial success over the last seven years and proposed about $400 million in additional spending in his new budget.
“I’d say shame on him. He’s got to grow up,” Justice said of Tarr. “He’s just a kid in a man’s world. The men really need to run the show, and the women.”
MetroNews spoke with a number of lawmakers, including Tarr, following the governor’s address at the state Capitol. Tarr called the proposed spending “pretty insane” and a “wish list” that the state won’t be able to afford.
Much of the proposal includes an additional $150 million in funding for the state School Building Authority, $50 million for flood resiliency and $30 million for crisis pregnancy centers that would come out of the surplus section of the budget.
“At the end of the day, we’ve grown these incredible surpluses, and we want to put them to work,” Justice said on “Talkline.”
Justice also proposed another 5 percent pay raise for teachers and state workers, but Tarr said there’s no room in the budget for that. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and Senate President Craig Blair have expressed support for the raise.
The governor said he’s just trying to do his job to move the state forward.
“The last thing on the planet that I was doing last night was doing anything reflective of a Senate run,” Justice said.
Justice filed to run for the Republican primary for U.S. Senate at the Secretary of State’s office Wednesday afternoon.