CHARLESTON — Lawmakers will meet this morning in special session to consider 24 appropriations bills aimed at using end-of-year surplus tax revenue for economic development, tourism and corrections projects.
The West Virginia Legislature gavels in at 11 a.m. today to consider Gov. Jim Justice’s $250 million in funding requests. In a 14-minute YouTube video recorded for lawmakers, Justice explained why he called the special session and why the bills needed legislative support.
This is the second special session of the year and the second in June.
“There’s so much goodness that we’ve absolutely had over the last years and everything,” Justice said in the private video to lawmakers. “With your leadership, with our leadership, we’ve been able to get there.”
Lawmakers moved $150 million in surplus tax revenue to the Division of Highways for new secondary road projects on June 7. The House and Senate also gave spending authority to the Department of Health and Human Resources ($809 million) and Department of Education ($94 million) for use of COVID aid dollars from the federal American Rescue Plan.
“You were kind enough to appropriate $150 million for our highways and our roads,” Justice said. “Now, with all that being said, now we have an additional $250 million we’re seeking appropriation from you and we’re doing all kinds of stuff all across the park.”
Year-to-date collections for the final 11 months of the fiscal year were $4.492 billion, giving the state a $389.6 million surplus at the end of May, $150 million of that already allocated to DOH. Tax collections in June are expected to continue coming in above projections.
Half of any end-of-year surplus must go to the state’s rainy day fund. Even with the state raiding the tax revenue surplus just days before the beginning of the new fiscal year on Thursday, July 1, Justice said he expects the rainy day fund to receive enough funding to get to $1 billion. According to the State Budget Office, the rainy day fund has $938.6 million.
“We can all be proud and rest easy that with $50 million of these dollars, we’re going to top off our rainy day fund in West Virginia at a billion dollars,” Justice said.
Any remaining surplus is supposed to go to fund items placed in the surplus section of the fiscal year 2022 budget, totaling more than $58 million in items cut from the original budget during the 2021 legislative session. Some of the bills lawmakers will vote on today will fund these surplus items early, such as restored funding to four-year colleges and universities, community and technical colleges, the Milton flood wall project and the MARC train in the Eastern Panhandle.
The state’s two new cabinet offices are seeking additional funds. The Department of Tourism is seeking more than $12 million from surplus funds for economic development to better promote the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, the nation’s 63rd and newest national park. Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby said visitation to the park is already up by 20 percent.
“We’re so excited about this, and we think this is a way to continue our growth here in West Virginia, with the new national park designation,” Ruby said. “We think we have a real opportunity to go out and find private investors who can help us make that area even bigger and better. So, this fund will allow us to do just that. It’ll allow us to compete with other areas around the country and try to bring in somebody to make that place even more special than it already is.”
The Division of Natural Resources is seeking $42 million to make substantial improvements to state parks, including new parking, better shower houses, additional campsites, needed repairs and expansion of the Elk River Trail. Ruby said campground reservations are up by 200 percent thanks to a new online reservation system and new platform tent rentals.
“We’ve seen a complete transformation at our state parks,” Ruby said. “We have a world-class system, one of the very best in the nation. We’re seeing exponential increases because of the investments we’ve made and upgrading all of our facilities, the online reservation system and the new marketing campaign. But because of all that, we need more capacity.”
The new Department of Economic Development is seeking $30 million for a promotion and closing fund used to help close funding gaps in private projects and investment. Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael said the fund will help keep West Virginia competitive with other states with similar funds.
“It’s very important for West Virginia to have the tools in place to compete for new jobs and a new economy that is emerging,” Carmichael said. “There’s never been a better time to use these assets and advantages that we have to attract new jobs and new opportunities for our state. And a closing fund is so vitally important to do that.”
Other funding projects include repairs to state prisons and regional jails, replenishing the Governor’s Civil Contingency Fund used for emergency expenditures, additional funding for the Office of Technology, increasing funding to the School Construction Fund, replenishing the First Responder Death Fund and improvements for the Culture Center in Charleston, Independence Hall in Wheeling and Camp Washington Carver in Fayette County.
An additional bill added to the special session call Tuesday includes extending the expiration date of a freeze of regional jail per diem rates for housing inmates until July 1, 2022. The freeze was set to expire Thursday, July 1.
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June 24, 2021 at 11:08AM
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Justice lays out case for spending | News, Sports, Jobs - The Inter-Mountain
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