BRACE YOURSELF, PAINFUL CHOICES: WV FACING HUGE $500 MILLION DEFICIT

(01/31/2017)

Gov. Jim Justice says state government is looking at a projected budget deficit of $500 million in the next fiscal year. The current across the board cuts have already eliminated state jobs, including some in education, police, fire and ambulance service. Former Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin made several budget cuts during his last year in office. Justice says the funding gap will increase again the following year, up to $700 million. WV is already about 25 years behind in repaving roads. The state's money coffers for nearly a century relied on coal and other extractables, with most current politicians having run on restoring coal production in the Mountain State. Coal production has been declining for over 30 years, due to mechanization, coal quality, declining coal seams and environmental rules. Tomblin had proposed raising the state's consumer sales tax 1 percent and imposed a 2 percent half-year spending cut under this year's $4.1 billion budget. Many Republicans ran on "no new taxes." Justice presents his proposals to the Legislature during his State of the State Address on Feb. 8 when the 2017 Regular Legislative Session resumes. Officials say there's no good choices on these cuts at this stage of the game, except to say, "They're going to be painful and they're going impact people."

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