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WHEELING -- West Virginia's budget officially reached Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's desk Thursday, just two weeks before the start of the 2017 fiscal year.
After vetoing the first budget lawmakers passed earlier this month, Tomblin is expected to sign this one, according to spokesman Chris Stadelman.
"He hasn't fully reviewed it at this point so I don't know the exact timeline for when that will occur," Stadelman said.
If recent history is any indication, it may be a few more days before Tomblin puts pen to paper concerning the budget. On each of the five previous budgets for which he's been governor, from 2011 through 2015, Tomblin waited exactly five days from the Legislature's passage of a budget to sign the spending plan.
The Legislature approved the latest version of the budget Tuesday, with all local legislators except Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, voting in favor of it. The $4.18 billion spending plan closes a projected $270 million gap between revenue and expenses by raising $98 million from a cigarette tax increase, taking $70 million from the state's Rainy Day Fund and making up the rest through various spending cuts and "account sweeps."
In West Virginia, governors have line-item veto power, meaning Tomblin can approve the overall budget while striking or reducing individual expenditures within it. It takes a three-fifths majority of both houses to override a governor's line-item veto, according to the state constitution.
McGeehan said he likely would have supported the budget if an amendment he and Delegate Michael Folk, R-Berkeley, offered had passed. It would have cut $160 million in spending through what he called "minor" deductions from dozens of line items in various executive agency budgets.
"There wasn't any support. … Unfortunately, too many people just wanted to leave and go home," he said. "The government was never going to shut down. That was just a scare tactic. … The governor wanted a tax, and he used a lot of propaganda to force one on us, and the Republican leadership broke."
Before lawmakers approved the cigarette tax increase, the projected budget gap for fiscal 2018 was $380 million.
"If this year is any indication, the executive branch has been way off with its predictions. … Next year is going to be far worse, and they're likely to propose far more in taxes when it's not an election year," McGeehan said.
Although West Virginia's cigarette tax -- which will now be $1.20 per pack -- remains lower than the $1.60 per pack in border states Ohio and Pennsylvania, McGeehan said the tax will hurt West Virginia because it removes more money from the private economy.
The first budget the Legislature passed on June 2 would have taken almost $183 million from the Rainy Day Fund, prompting Tomblin to veto it.
Several local lawmakers, all Democrats, voted against that budget but supported the one approved this week. They include Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall; Sen. Jack Yost, D-Brooke; and Delegates Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio; Mike Ferro, D-Marshall; and Dave Pethtel, D-Wetzel.
Delegate Mark Zatezalo, R-Hancock, did not vote on the June 2 budget proposal but voted "yes" on the spending plan currently on Tomblin's desk.