The state’s Secretary of Revenue
says lawmakers cannot ignore the declining number of people in West Virginia
“It’s something that policymakers
here in Charleston
He was commenting on a Marketwatch
report this week that noted the number of West Virginia adults with jobs — ages
16 and up — had fallen below 50 percent, to 49.8 percent in December compared
with 62.7 percent nationally.
One of the contributing factors,
noted in the report, was the Mountain
State
The news originally came on what
was Day One of the 2015 Regular Legislative Session in Charleston
To be balanced, that $4.77 billion
budget draws on roughly $70 million in targeted cuts along with $69 million
from the Rainy Day Fund. The proposed targeted cuts follow two years of 7.5
percent across the board cuts.
New Republican leaders in the state
Senate and state House of Delegates are currently conducting agency reviews to
identify possible areas of waste in government spending.
Kiss said he does not think the
amount of money needed to balance the budget without tapping into the Rainy Day
Fund can be found by trying to root out waste, fraud and abuse.
“Certainly, I’d be willing to be
shown otherwise,” he said. “But I’ve been here working with the budget since
1989 and if somebody was asking me — ‘Can I find tens of millions of dollars in
fraud and abuse that could be redirected tomorrow?’ The answer’s no or even —
‘Can I find it?’ No.”
Kiss detailed how West Virginia
The 2015 Regular Legislative
Session continues through March 14.
