I have read several reports regarding the Governor signing the budget, but not before he used his line-item veto powers on 29 separate items. Both Lori and Brent have insightful comments about the matter in their columns that appear on this page.
The Governor reiterated his belief that finacial troubles are on the horizon and sited his $400 million shortfall. “When I took office, I inherited a $400 million structural budget gap in the upcoming fiscal year, which would grow to nearly $600 million in the years ahead if it was not immediately addressed,” Morrisey said in a statement released by his office. “The fiscally conservative budget I signed tonight makes progress tackling structural gaps and begins to place us on a pathway toward financial stability in the future. Much work remains in the next fiscal year to address budget shortfalls, but I applaud the Legislature for sending me a budget that closely resembles my original proposal and begins to address long term issues while funding West Virginia priorities.”
Particularly the House apparently still doesn’t agree with the Governor’s forecast. Several of their ranking members were critical of his vetoes.
Even if you buy into the Governor’s reasoning, I don’t understand his approach to cutting areas like public and higher education, the State Police and Parks and Tourism. Of course, he didn’t bother his “golden child” the Hope Scholarship which I have discussed in this space previously. That program is gutting public education and now he is taking more money from the majority of children in our state. I simply don’t get it. I don’t understand his objection to additional funding for the State Police. Nor do I come up with any rational reason to take money from our public parks and tourism which is a huge revenue stream for our state.
The bright spot this week was the beautiful weather and Easter.
I find my age frustrating, when the weather is nice and my chore list is long, I want to get things done. Unfortunately, the ole body just doesn’t hold up. But at least I can still make forward strides as little as they are.
Easter was a great time at the Given household. We managed to get almost all of our family together. The only absences were Madison and Sam who we missed probably as much as they missed being with us.
