MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Morgantown Area Partnership is holding a Legislative Wrap-Up session at the Mon Health Medical Center at 12000 J. D. Anderson Drive in Morgantown Tuesday from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
One of the lawmakers to address the group will be Senator Mike Oliverio (R-Monongalia, 13), who came to WAJR’s Talk of the Town to provide some highlights, starting with the tax cut plan. The plan also included a rebate program for personal property taxes that will put money back into the pockets of businesses and families.
“People are already seeing a few more dollars in their paycheck as employers start to transition,” Oliverio said. “It’s a little over a 20 percent reduction of your state personal income tax.”
Finding ways to recruit and keep more teachers continues to be a major reoccurring problem that must be addressed as part of drawing more people to the state as economic opportunities grow. But using an emergency declaration and the West Virginia National Guard in state correctional facilities is not sustainable.
“The flashing light is corrections; we have jails and prisons in West Virginia that are terribly understaffed,” Oliverio said. “Far more than 1,000 vacancies exist.”
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 625 in 2018, creating the WV Volunteer Fire and Rescue Act, but money was never allocated or designated, and no revenue source was ever established. Some EMS professionals in the state want fees attached to violations and licenses that provide steady streams of revenue, similar to the practice in surrounding states.
“These EMS organizations and volunteer fire departments need more dollars, and they need programs to incentivize people to join,” Oliverio said. “We came really close to passing some legislation on that, but it failed at 11:45 p.m. on the last night of the session.”
Oliverio said world tensions, energy policies, and the pandemic have created, in some cases, one-time revenue or inflated revenue streams that cannot be accurately projected. He said making long-term budget obligations requires a solid financial foundation.
“While the surpluses are there, we can’t predict that they’ll be there forever,” Oliverio said. “We have had some unique sources of funding come as a result of COVID, and that’s the challenge.”
Oliverio acknowledged money would likely solve staffing and funding issues, but said adding expenses to the base budget without a clear view of the fiscal future is an issue lawmakers are trying to tackle. Once the financial commitments are made for these state workers, they cannot be cut or reduced.
“Balancing what we can do right now, but then what can we sustain in being careful not to over commit to growing our base budget beyond what our base revenues will be in the future,” Oliverio said.