This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

March 17, 2011

House, Senate conferees wrap up state budget work

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- House and Senate budget conferees completed work on the 2011-12 state budget bill (HB2012) Thursday evening -- a bill that designates how state agencies are to spend a total of more than $11 billion for the budget year that begins July 1.

The bill does not include additional funding to hire additional inspectors for new Marcellus Shale drilling sites.

On Wednesday, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, acting as governor, had requested an additional $2 million for the Department of Environmental Protection budget, in light of the Legislature's failure to pass a bill to regulate Marcellus drilling.

However, House Finance Chairman Harry Keith White, D-Mingo, said conferees will recommend that Tomblin submit a supplemental appropriation bill that would direct about $1.05 million of state funds that will be left over when the current budget year ends on June 30 to the DEP.

Legislators are expected to vote to approve the 2011-12 spending plan -- and act to correct and re-pass any bills vetoed by Tomblin for technical errors -- Friday.

That would mark the first time in recent years that the budget session, which this year started Sunday immediately following the end of the regular session, has not extended into the weekend.

White said it helped that the House and Senate versions of the budget bill were relatively similar, and that the Legislature did not pass a lot of bills with new spending initiatives.

"When we sat down and looked at the bills, we were really pretty close," he said.

Senate Finance Chairman Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, did have to build in about $67 million for pay raises for state and public school employees, judges and the adjutant general.

New initiatives in the budget also include about $6 million of additional funding for the Public Employees Insurance Agency and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), to expand coverage to include treatment for children with autism spectrum disorders, and $6 million of Lottery revenue for a fund to allow Eastern Panhandle counties to upgrade wastewater treatment facilities under a federal mandate to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

White noted that, unlike many states, West Virginia's economy has been relatively stable. He said the budget bill does not impose any significant funding cuts, even though the current budget was balanced using about $200 million of one-time federal stimulus funds.

"The Senate president and ourselves feel pretty comfortable with the future finances of the state," he said.

However, he noted that the state budget is heavily reliant on extractive industries, including production of coal and natural gas, and on gambling.

The 2011-12 general revenue budget -- the portion of the budget funded through state tax collections -- will top $4 billion for the first time in state history, an increase of about $250 million.

Overall, though, the total $11 billion spending plan will decrease by about 2 percent from the current budget, primarily because of reductions in federal funds. 

"We've tried to keep it as tight as we can," Prezioso said of the budget plan.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.