Senators introduced their vision for a state budget plan, and now the back-and-forth really gets going.
The Senate Finance Committee discussed and advanced a budget bill that comes in roughly at the same level as the governor’s proposal for $5.323 billion general revenue spending for the coming fiscal year, although there are some differences in the specific priorities.
“I listened to members of this committee. I listened to our caucus in the Senate and prioritized what was important to them, to their districts and to the people of West Virginia,” Senate Finance Chairman Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, said after the budget presentation.
“And I think this budget fully represents the Senate’s position and where the members’ priorities are.”
He said some of those priorities are represented by a $36 million allocation to a personal income tax reduction reserve fund, $50 million in spending if the year ends with a surplus on an economic development loan program and $50 million in potential surplus for roads.
The House Finance Committee across the Capitol introduced its own version this week, proposing base spending of $5.127 billion along with the possibility of an additional $128.75 million in surplus spending if the money is there at the conclusion of the current fiscal year.
House Finance Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, expects to present that chamber’s budget bill to all 100 members during a Friday floor session. Over the next couple of weeks, budget bills will bounce back and forth until, presumably, there is agreement.
The House and Senate budget proposals were each constructed somewhat differently. Criss said the House version was built off budgets passed by the Legislature in recent years, following previously established financial trends.
The Senate budget was built off what the governor’s administration submitted, making some adjustments.
“The Senate worked off of the governor’s budget. We took his introduced budget bill and certainly the committee members looked to make some changes to that, as everyone I think would expect,” Barrett said.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey, taking questions from reporters during a Thursday press conference, said his administration has been talking about the budget with House and Senate leaders.
“We’ve been meeting regularly with the House and Senate leadership because it’s important to have dialogue and go back and forth,” Morrisey said today in response to a question by reporter Steven Allen Adams of the Ogden Newspapers.
“I think what you have here is a process. The House has an important opinion, the Senate has an important opinion, the executive has an important opinion and so you have these three groups that come together and then you try to reach a budget that everyone agrees on.”
During the Senate budget presentation, some questions came up — including how the proposal deals with a $400 million gap that the Morrisey administration identified weeks ago. The administration dealt with that gap through some cuts, the use of excess lottery revenue and with some remaining surplus dollars.
“When I walked in the building a couple months ago, I heard we had a $400 million gap. Is this budget a structurally balanced budget?” asked Senator Ben Queen, R-Harrison.
Yes, it is structurally balanced, responded staff for the Senate Finance Committee.
Queen later commented, “I think this budget didn’t just survive a $400 million shortfall; I think it solved it.”
He concluded, “I hope that we’re all proud of the Senate position and may we fight fair over the next eight or so days.”
Barrett expressed confidence that the Senate, the House and the Governor’s Office could agree on a final product by the end of the regular legislative session, April 12.
“Certainly there are differences,” Barrett said, “but I think that we have a path forward in our negotiations over the next several days to come to a product that all of us can agree on and the governor can sign.”