photo by: W.Va. Legislative Photography

A budget analyst for the state Senate Finance Committee explains the committee substitute for Senate Bill 300, the budget bill, during Thursday’s meeting.

CHARLESTON — Members of a Senate committee received their first look at their version of the budget bill Thursday afternoon, while the House of Delegates’ version of the budget is up for passage Friday, setting up next week for the governor and both parties to craft a compromise before the session ends.

The Senate Finance Committee recommended Senate Bill 300 Thursday afternoon to the full Senate, its version of Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s bill setting the general revenue budget for fiscal year 2026 beginning on July 1.

SB 300 sets the fiscal year 2026 general budget at $5.321 billion, which was just $930,000 less than Morrisey’s $5.322 billion general revenue budget proposal (based on an updated revenue estimate) but 4% more than the $5.113 billion set in the House version of the budget, House Bill 2026, which is on third reading Friday with amendments pending. The Senate budget was also 1.1% more than the $5.265 billion budget for the current fiscal year ending June 30.

“I listened to the members of this committee, I listened to our caucus in the Senate and prioritized what they felt was important to them, to their districts, and to the people of West Virginia,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley. “I think this budget fully represents the Senate’s position and where the members’ priorities are.”

Unlike Morrisey’s budget which foregoes using one-time monies, both the House and Senate versions of the budget bill include a section in the back of the budget for surplus appropriations if excess tax revenues are available at the end of the current fiscal year. The House version of the budget included $128.8 million in surplus items, leaving a projected $81.1 million in unappropriated monies.

However, the Senate’s surplus selection includes only two $50 million items which would be paid out in order based on available surplus after June 30: a directed transfer for the yet-to-be-renamed Division of Economic Development and a directed transfer for the Department of Transportation. Instead of putting multiple items in the back of the budget to be paid out one time, the Senate put those items within the base of the budget.

“This seems like the smallest amount of surplus section we’ve had,” said state Sen. Ben Queen, R-Harrison. “We’ve prioritized much more spending in the front of the budget than we have in the past.”

Each chamber takes turns running the budget bill first every year, with the House’s turn this year. Lawmakers are expected to run through several amendments to HB 2026 Friday before passing it and sending the bill to the Senate at the beginning of next week. The Senate will put its version of the budget into HB 2026 as a strike-and-insert amendment, setting up negotiations between the House, Senate, and Governor’s Office.

Speaking Thursday afternoon following a press conference at the State Capitol Building, Morrisey said he is having conversations with both the House and Senate and expects all sides to come to a reasonable compromise budget bill before midnight on Saturday, April 12, when the 60-day legislative session comes to a close.

“We’ve been meeting regularly with the House and Senate leadership, because it’s important to have dialogue and to go back and forth,” Morrisey said. “I think what you have here is a process. The House has an important opinion. The Senate has an important opinion. The executive has an important opinion. You have these three groups that come together and then you try to reach a budget that everyone agrees on. I think that’s what’s going on right now.”

Democratic members of the House and Senate held their own press conference Thursday afternoon, accusing Morrisey and the Republican supermajority of maintaining a flat budget at the expense of properly funding major needs in the state, such as Medicaid, economic development, infrastructure, and child care.

“We have run a flat budget for the past 10 years, which…with inflation as a factor, means that we are not funding programs the way that we used to be,” said Del. John Williams, D-Monongalia. “What is essentially happening is West Virginians are getting far less services than they did in 2014.”