More than sixty days ago, the leadership team of the 82nd Legislature gaveled members of the Senate and the House of Delegates for the 2015 legislative session. Last week, legislators made their final votes and adjourned sine die with the passing of a budget for the 2016 fiscal year.
Throughout my years in public service, as a member of the Legislature and as your governor, I’ve learned how incredibly important it is to be a good steward of the people’s money. For some time, we’ve known this year would bring tough financial choices for our state, and we worked with state agencies to put together a fiscally responsible budget that took into account the tight financial picture.
The budget I submitted to the Legislature this January was – in real dollars – smaller than the previous year for the first time in anyone’s recent memory. Unlike previous years, however, my proposed budget did not include sweeping, across-the-board cuts and instead relied on smaller, targeted reductions and required limited use of the Rainy Day Fund.
During the initial budget process, we anticipated we would need to take more than $60 million from that savings account. As a result of better than anticipated investment returns and increased property values in communities across the state, we were able to reduce that figure to just $14.5 million.
We have one of the strongest Rainy Day Funds in the country. We are credited for being one of the most fiscally responsible states in the nation. Our state’s strong Rainy Day Fund and our shared commitment to maintaining payment schedules for our unfunded liabilities means our bond ratings remain positive – a move that saves West Virginians hundreds of millions of dollars when building schools, roads and making long-term investments to improve our infrastructure because our borrowing costs are lower.
Over the past several years, we’ve taken a long-term approach to setting a budget for the state, and that’s another reason why I have worked hard to keep overall expenditures low. We project budgets six years out, and our current projections show a shortfall of just $32 million in 2017 even with additional expenditures. By 2020, we expect a surplus of more than $150 million that will help us increase investments in education, infrastructure and other important initiatives. Again, we can fund all of these important programs without raising taxes – keeping money in the pockets of hardworking West Virginia families.
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I realize some groups that did not receive additional funding for the coming year were disappointed, and I understand their frustrations. Tough budget years require tough decisions, and there are a number of difficult choices when choosing how to best allocate state dollars to best serve all West Virginians. However, I am proud of the fiscally responsible decisions we’ve made, and I am committed to ensuring those efforts continue.
I will no longer be your governor when our state enjoys the budget surpluses in our future, but I am proud of the work we’ve done to put our state on the best path toward a fiscally responsible future.
