W.VA. GOV. JIM JUSTICE

Gov. Jim Justice said Tuesday that his administration is still working on the budget bill for next fiscal year to see where the money for a 5% state employee pay raise will come from to cover proposed health insurance premium increases.

Speaking during his weekly administration briefing Tuesday afternoon from the Capitol, Justice said officials with the state Department of Revenue are still crafting the budget bill to present to lawmakers in January for fiscal year 2025, Justice’s final state budget in his term.

Justice announced his intentions earlier this month to offer a bill next year to the Legislature for his fifth state employee pay raise in a row to help cover the costs of a proposed premium increase being considered by the Public Employees Insurance Agency.

“There’s still lots of balls in the air as far as the budget and everything. We don’t have it finalized in any way quite yet,” Justice said. “We’ll craft that … it’s just an ironclad 5% at this point in time. But that’s not a bad deal either. We’ll make it happen and send it to (the Legislature) and hopefully they’ll get that done.”

The PEIA Finance Board just wrapped up a series of public comment hearings across the state, ending with a virtual town hall on Nov. 16. The PEIA Finance Board is considering a 10.5% premium increase for state employees with no changes to benefits beginning July 1, 2024.

Other proposed changes include a 13% premium increase for local government participants in PEIA plus including the $147 surcharge for spouses of local government participants, and a 10% premium increase for state employee retirees who are not eligible for Medicare, while state employee retirees who are eligible for Medicare would see no premium increases.

Lawmakers first considered a modest pay raise for state employees, teachers, and state troopers in 2018, but after a multi-day strike by teachers and school service personnel, a 5% raise was offered and passed. Since then, a 5% pay raise was offered every year. Last year, state employees were offered a $2,300 pay raise instead of the 5%.

The change to $2,300 from 5% was in response to Senate Bill 268, which returned PEIA to an 80/20 employer-employee match beginning this past July for in-state medical care and 70/30 for out-of-state medical care for non-contiguous out-of-state counties. Lawmakers and Justice said at the time that the $2,300 raise was designed to backstop the projected PEIA premium increases of 26%.

Justice and the Legislature also said that the financial blow from premium increases would be softened by the passage earlier this year of HB 2526, which cut personal income tax rates by 21.25% retroactive to Jan. 1, combined with rebates on motor vehicle property taxes.