The House Finance Committee rolled out a budget proposal that does not build in Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s tax cut priority.
The House budget reflects average 3% pay raises for public employees. It also restores some cuts that had been proposed for education and higher education. It reflects some changes to the Hope Scholarship for people opting out of public schools, particularly a quarterly funding system.
And while the governor’s proposal had millions of dollars in Medicaid funding from potential surplus, the House budget funds the state’s share of the healthcare program through general revenue.
The budget process kicked off this week in the legislature a couple of weeks earlier than normal. In large part, that seems meant to allow time for aligning different approaches from the House, Senate and governor.
“You do pay raises and you do the increases in Medicaid funding and he wants these tax cuts. When you put ’em all together they don’t work. His numbers don’t work,” House Finance Chairman Vernon Criss said Tuesday, referring to a long term approach to state finances.
“In the long term we are interested in making sure we are here for the long haul. He’s not,”
Governor Morrisey’s budget reflected a personal income tax cut of 5%, which would be about $125 million in state revenue. But the governor has repeatedly called on the legislature to collaborate to get to a 10% budget cut, which would represent $250 million in state revenue.
This week, Criss telegraphed that delegates would not share that priority. The Legislature already worked on tax cuts of about 27% over the past few years, and a trigger system is in place for potential future tax cuts if economic conditions are met.
“We have a tax plan in place. We have a formula in place that works. When your economy grows, you take the tax cut. He wants to accelerate the tax cut without the economy growing. Well, bring me the economy. We have the economy to bring in all kinds of manufacturing, and yet he doesn’t want to participate.” Criss said.
The House Finance Committee advanced its version of the budget to the floor for all delegates to consider, potentially next week. The Senate could pass its version of the budget as soon as Friday.
“The two surviving budget opinions, which is the Senate’s and the House, once we get it on the floor and get it passed, will be the two vessels that we will come together on, and we’ll hack it out,” Criss said following today’s budget hearing.
Delegate Marty Gearheart, a veteran of the finance committee, acknowledged on MetroNews Talkline that delegates are not currently considering the tax cut proposal because of other priorities.
“I think it leaves it out to play. I think the 5 percent tax cut, at least as far as the House version is concerned, is still on the table. I don’t think that we have accommodated for a 10 percent tax cut,” said Gearheart, R-Mercer.
Delegate John Williams, the lead Democrat on the House Finance Committee, said much remains to be worked out.
“I still think we’re a long way away. There obviously are some similarities between what the Senate gave us — and in a lot of ways more similarities with what the governor originally gave us,” Williams, D-Monongalia, said after the budget hearing.
“I think the tax cut is still going to be a big, looming factor of disagreement between all three parties and so we’ll have to see how that plays out.”