By Steven Allen Adams
steven@westvirginiawatchdog.org
Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, acting as governor, signing into law Wednesday night the $11.3 billion budget for fiscal year 2012, but not before exercising his line item veto powers and cutting over $18 million in proposed spending by the West Virginia Legislature.
Members of the Tomblin administration briefed reporters Thursday morning on the spending cuts. Tomblin vetoed 34 items, in most cases reducing the line items back to the acting Governor’s original recommended levels, cutting $18.4 million from the general revenue budget. The state’s general revenue budget is over $4 billion, and still exceeds last fiscal year’s budget by over 2.5 percent.
“He wants to make sure, working with the Legislature, that we move forward and a fiscally-responsible manner and that we prioritize our goals,” said Rob Alsop, chief of staff to Senate President Tomblin.
Tomblin left intact the pay raises for teachers and public employees passed by the Legislature. The administration originally proposed one-time salary enhancements for teachers and public workers with a one-time cost of $47 million. The legislature turned the one-time enhancement into a permanent base-building pay raise for teachers, public workers, and the judicial system, costing $65 million a year.
“We worked with our agencies and asked if they could get by on a little bit less,” Alsop said. “If we’re going to afford teachers pay raises then you need to make sure we’re not turned upside down from a budget perspective a couple of years from now.”
The two largest decreases in the budget came from line items for the Division of Homeland Security and the School Aid Formula. Tomblin reduced the Homeland Security line item by $5 million, which would have been used for a new headquarters for the agency. Tomblin reduced the School Aid Formula line item by $5.8 million, stating that the line item was overfunded.
