Lawmakers have rolled into a special session focusing on the state’s level of funding for human services plus additional surplus spending priorities.
Senators on Sunday evening took up more than a dozen bills and passed about half of them without much disagreement or discussion. The Senate’s Republican majority had gone into private caucus for about an hour prior to the floor session to discuss the bills.
Following the Sunday evening session, the Senate adjourned until about 12:30 p.m. Monday, when the remaining six bills will be considered.
“This was vetted pretty well with the House and Senate and the Governor’s Office as well as the minorities of both, and these are West Virginia issues,” said Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, following the Senate floor session.
The proclamation listed 15 items for the Legislature to consider and act upon, mostly supplemental appropriations and a few pieces of new legislation that have been requested. Takubo ticked off some of the bills that were swiftly considered.
- $150 million for highway maintenance and equipment.
- $50 million for new state agricultural lab facilities at West Virginia State University.
- $10 million for the Posey Perry Emergency Food Bank Fund.
- $27.3 million for Hope Scholarship funding.
- $2 million to the Department of Veterans Assistance for medical expenses.
The special session schedule aligns with legislative interim meetings that were already planned for lawmakers at the state Capitol early in the week.
The House of Delegates on Sunday evening took up each of the bills for initial consideration but has not passed them yet. A few bills — including one dealing with an allocation for human services funding and another dealing with the state’s rainy day fund — were assigned to the House Finance Committee, which is set to meet at 10 a.m. Monday. The full House is set to convene again in a noon Monday floor session.
House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, following the floor session in that chamber, said the bills being examined by that committee need more explanation for delegates. That includes one meant to restore human services funding to an amount proposed by the governor earlier this year.
“It’s to restore those dollars, but it also has some restrictions in it that, I believe, will make sure those dollars if they are needed at a certain time during the next fiscal year, they’ll be available,” said Criss, R-Wood.
The major consideration is West Virginia’s level of funding for human services. Gov. Jim Justice, earlier this spring, referred to “a dog’s mess” — saying a budget that passed during the regular legislative session left human services funding far short of where it needs to be.
In particular, the level of state funding for intellectual and developmental disabilities waivers, commonly called IDD waivers, has been at the focus of attention. A large crowd of families gathered at the Capitol earlier this spring to push lawmakers to revisit a 10% cut to the program that was approved at the end of the legislative session.
The progressive West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy think tank, in a budget analysis, described deep cuts to the state’s Medicaid funding. The budget for the coming fiscal year leaves Medicaid with a shortfall of about $147 million, according to the center’s analysis.
The description on the governor’s special session call indicates additional money for human services will be held in reserve accounts that can be accessed by the Secretary of the Department of Health and the Secretary of the Department of Human Services for when or if the money is needed.
“The most important is the funding of the IDD waiver. We’ve got to make sure that the least protected West Virginians get the attention and the funding that is needed for their families,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell.
“I thought it was embarrassing that we didn’t take care of that previously, but as I understand it now there were some reasons for that. But we put people through a lot of angst, and I didn’t appreciate that.”
Another bill in special session will provide more than $80 million to the state’s colleges and universities to help provide funding for students affected by ongoing problems with the Federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA.
In April, the governor declared a State of Emergency to temporarily suspend the requirement for students to complete the FAFSA in order to qualify for the state’s largest financial aid programs. The Senate on Sunday evening voted to authorize an extension of the state of emergency declaration.
“I’m glad that we’re seeing light shed on that issue,” said Woelfel, who described significant concern by state higher education institutions. “I’m just glad that we’re here and we’re going to allay some of the fears and worries that our people have had about funding the budget appropriately.”
Additional financial matters for lawmakers to resolve during special session are surplus spending priorities. The regular session ended with passage of “a skinny budget” that left many surplus spending possibilities undone because of other uncertainties.
“Most of those items, we’ve all seen before during the regular session and they simply did not get passed, Criss said.