This is arguably the busiest time
of the year for Gov. Earl Tomblin and his staff, as they get ready for the
60-day regular legislative session.
“We are in the mode. We are having
lots of meetings with proposed legislation, agency legislation,” Tomblin said.
“I wish I had it done. It’s a lot of work, but we’ll get it done.”
The governor will deliver his state
of the state address Jan. 14 to open the session. Tomblin has been keeping a
close eye on the state’s tax collection numbers, which have looked better in
the past month.
“They are trending that way, we had
a couple of bad months that kind of put us all on the bad foot for the first
part of the fiscal year, but they are picking up,” the governor acknowledged.
State revenue numbers could be further
enhanced with a strong holiday season. Some of those numbers should be
available next week.
New legislative leaders know
there’s a possible $200 million budget hole to address. Tomblin agreed the
budget would once again be tight.
“We are not getting to set the world on fire (with revenue
numbers) but it is better than it was two months ago,” he said.
