As expected, a spokesman for West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced today that the Governor will veto the 2016-17 budget passed by the West Virginia Legislature late yesterday.
The Governor believes it is fiscally irresponsible to pass a budget based on a huge $200 million raid of the State's rainy day fund. The budget passed yesterday also uses about $35.5 million in one time account sweeps and a small $30.5 million in budget cuts. By raiding the rainy day fund to such a large extent, the State's credit and bond ratings will plummet.
It was noted that it took the then Democratically controlled legislature 20 years to build up the rainy day fund to $1 billion, which represented a savings account ratio of 25 percent considering the annual State budget of about $4 billion. Now, in less than two years under a Republican controlled legislature, the rainy day fund would be reduced to $600 million, a 40 percent reduction.
While Republicans announced yesterday that they would override any veto, the likelihood of an override is basically non-existent as it requires a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and House to override a budget veto. This is because in the West Virginia Senate there are 18 Republicans and 16 Democrats and the expected vote along party lines will fall far short of the two-thirds needed to override the veto.
The veto is expected to occur Friday or Saturday, leaving legislators only about 25 days to come up with a new budget to avoid a state government shutdown on July 1. With all the political bickering by both parties, and in light of their failure to come up with a reasonable budget that does not rely so heavily on raiding rainy day funds, a state government shutdown appears to be nearing reality.
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