West Virginia Secretary of Revenue Charles Lorensen has called state agencies to their figurative kitchen tables to start the work of balancing the state budget, which will require some of the deepest cuts in recent memory.
"Since the Bob Wise years, yes," Mike McKown with the state budget office said of the last time big budget cuts were required. "Fiscal Year '14 has always shown a big budget balancing gap."
West Virginia agencies have already been asked to help the state reach an overall reduction in expenses of about 2 percent for the 2014 budget, but McKown said even more reductions are on the way.
"This is a start to the process," he said. "There are other things, to balance the budget, other things will have to happen besides this … cut. This is one step in that process."
McKown said if more cuts don't come, the state will have to look at ways to bring additional money in, and "there's not an appetite to raise taxes."
"When we see how much these cuts produce and what we need, how the economy's going, three to four months from now we can start looking at other options," McKown said.
Certain state agencies have been asked to reduce their budgets by 7.5 percent – something McKown said has already produced some complaints.
"Every year we have a whole budget process that's pretty much year-round," he said. "In late July, early August, the instructions for the next fiscal year go out.
"By West Virginia Code, agencies are required to have those requests back by September 1, so they've got the month of August to work on it."
Increases in Medicaid expenses, needed increases to state retirement systems, slowing severance tax revenues and incoming lottery competition from other states are all driving factors in the budget woes, McKown said, but it hasn't come as a surprise because of six-year budget plans.
McKown said the agencies will submit their plans to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who will weigh the requests and submit his plan to the Legislature. So it's unclear what exactly will be trimmed from state budgets, but a few things have been spared.
School aid formula spending, correctional programs and certain health-related services are not subject to the proposed reductions.
"This is not the first time we've done this, so you pretty much know what you've got to exempt," McKown said. "You go into it with a plan."
Tomblin said in a news release that West Virginia's fiscal health is strong and the state has a budget surplus while still addressing long-term debt.
Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill Maloney took the opportunity to criticize the state's budget in a statement.
"In less than a year, Earl Ray has lost thousands of jobs and squandered the state surplus," Maloney said in a news release. "I have a plan to create jobs and will control government spending."
McKown said these early budget preparations are just a start.
"There are other things that need to be done to get the numbers to match," he said. "It'll be addressed. The budget will be balanced when the governor
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