One of the biggest questions
surrounding the opening of the 2015 Regular Legislative Session on Wednesday
will be the direction the new Republican leadership will take the state. Governor
Earl Ray Tomblin will become the first Democrat governor in 80 years who will
have to get his agenda through a Republican controlled state House and Senate.
“We’ve been working very diligently
to get ready. We’ve had several meetings with the leadership, especially the
new President and Speaker,” he said. “I think we want to go into this session
working together to continue the momentum we’ve got going to be fiscally sound
with our finances. I would certainly hope we would continue to work together.”
There may be a conflict in how to
get it done. Tomblin plans to propose in Wednesday’s State of the State Address
a budget which is balanced with 80-Million dollars from the state’s Rainy Day
Fund. Republican leaders in the House and Senate may be more inclined to carve
away at some state programs and services to reach a balance.
“I guess politics is the art of
compromise,” laughed Tomblin. “If you look back over the last two years, we
have cut general revenue spending by 15 percent. We’ve made selective cuts, not
across the board cuts, in the budget I’ll be presenting.”
However, Tomblin defends the dip
into the Rainy Day fund for a second straight year. The administration told the
bond rating service of the plan and the governor said they are okay with it.
“Their response has been, ‘That’s
the reason you created a Rainy Day fund.” Tomblin said. “Obviously it did not
affect our bond rating. Our rating was reaffirmed which is very positive and we
have the fourth best Rainy Day Fund in the country.”
Tomblin said the hope and the projection will be for the
pendulum of hard times to start swinging back the other way in the coming year.
Tomblin said projections call for increased revenue growth and an improved
economy going forward.
