A compromise budget between the West Virginia House and Senate is on the governor’s desk with seven days left in the session. It does not provide enough funding for some critical needs facing the state.
While highlights include a 5% cut to the income tax and a 3% pay raise for state employees, the budget offers little help for four existential issues facing West Virginians.
1. ‘Digging through the couch cushions’ to fund Medicaid
With one in three West Virginians relying on Medicaid for their healthcare, the program is funded with regular tax dollars.
In Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s proposed budget, a major portion of Medicaid funding was contained in the surplus section of the budget, meaning the governor proposed paying for this vital ongoing expense with one-time money.
The compromise bill doesn’t do that. But as Kelly Allen, the director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy notes, the budget itself shorts the program by around $83 million.
When questioned about it on the floor of the House of Delegates by Del. John Williams, D-Monongalia, Finance Chair Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said the money difference would be made up by passing a piece of legislation during the last week of session and transferring an unspent $31 million into the next budget year.
Allen said using a patchwork of funding for Medicaid is commonplace in the Legislature.
“We’re digging through the couch cushions to fund Medicaid,” she said.
While more than $400 million in state taxes fund Medicaid, a larger portion is funded through a special tax on medical providers. That tax will be reduced over the next few years, due to provisions passed over the summer in President Donald Trump’s federal spending bill.
Allen said that would mean more onus will be shifted onto taxpayers.
“Lawmakers are going to have to decide whether to move those Medicaid costs back onto the budget as they’re lost to the provider tax, or make really big, deep cuts to Medicaid starting next year,” Allen said.
2. Downgrading the flood fund
In late February, Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, successfully amended the House version of the budget to include $25 million in surplus money for the Flood Resiliency Office; it would have been the first time lawmakers had funded the office since its creation.
But this week’s compromise bill reduced that amount by $20 million, for a grand total of $5 million.
Another $10 million could be put into the office for an early flood warning system pilot program proposed by the governor. So far, funding bills for that program have not moved forward.
Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said while the amount was trimmed, even a small amount is progress.
“We want to recognize that this is an important step in order to make sure that flooding occurs less frequently,” Hansen said.
Brendan Muckian-Bates, a policy advocate for the Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition, said changes at the federal level regarding disaster response, as well as increasing incidences of extreme weather events, mean more responsibility will fall on the state.
“It should be a top priority of the Legislature to provide sufficient funding to the Trust Fund to meet this demand,” Muckian-Bates wrote in an email statement. “Unfortunately, while this appropriation is a good start, it is not sufficient to meet community risks.”
3. ‘Crumbs from the table’ for clean water
Going into the session, activists in the southern coalfields pushed lawmakers to take $250 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund for clean water projects in the region.
The Republican supermajority thwarted that effort. House Finance Chair Del. Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said the Legislature wouldn’t agree to taking money from the Rainy Day Fund, but he did say lawmakers would be more agreeable to spending money from the surplus section of the budget.
A last-ditch effort by Del. Adam Vance, R-Wyoming, to have his bill considered failed.
Lawmakers set aside $30 million in surplus money for the Jobs and Infrastructure Council, which provides funding to public utilities for water and sewer projects.
But The Rev. Caitlin Ware, a United Methodist pastor and activist for southern coalfield water issues, said while those dollars could help the area, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will.
She noted that small, rural public service districts — which are often understaffed — would have to compete with other districts that might have the staffing to more efficiently secure funds.
The Rev. Brad Davis, who works with Ware on water issues and ministers in McDowell County, called the money “crumbs from the table.”
“They want the people of southern West Virginia to be satisfied with that and go away quietly,” Davis wrote in a statement. “They should know it won’t work this time. They need to understand that we’re fighting for the survival of our communities, and we won’t stop until they do right by us.”
4. More money for vouchers, but not public schools
At the beginning of the Legislative session, news broke that Hancock County Schools’ finances teetered on collapse, with concerns the district would not be able to make payroll.
As the session wore on, Kanawha County Schools announced layoffs, and Cabell County Schools reported it was contemplating the same.
However, the compromise budget does not include any substantial increase to the state’s school-aid funding formula, which is dependent on a dwindling student population.
Instead, it was $8 million less than the current budget.
Tamaya Browder, an education policy fellow for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said more funds are needed for public education.
“We really need them to maintain operation, because they are working very hard to meet the needs of kids across our state,” Browder said. “But they are in need of more support and more investment.”
However, the Hope Scholarship Program — the state’s expansive school voucher program — saw an increase to nearly $300 million.
Sen. Jason Barrett, the Senate Finance Chair, said the funding will cover a proposed quarterly payment plan, which is contingent on the Senate passing a bill that changes scholarship awards from the current biannual plan.
“It was a priority of ours to do that,” Barret said.
But Browder said all that money flowing to the voucher program means less goes to schools.
“Any dollar that goes to the Hope Scholarship is $1 that’s not going to public schools,” Browder said. “We really need lawmakers to prioritize our public schools rather than a school voucher program that is subsidizing private education.”
Tre Spencer contributed reporting to this story.