Trending
Don't get too excited about a proposal from Gov. Jim Justice that all state employees get a 5% pay raise in addition to a one-time bonus of 2.5% to offset inflation. The key word there is "proposal," and lawmakers may have more to say about the matter this month.
According to Justice, West Virginia really can sing "We're In The Money" now, and we are ready to use approximately $120 million for a pay raise that would take effect for fiscal year 2023 (next July). Adding the one-time bonus to the total brings it to between $160 million and $170 million.
Justice even got state Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay to join him in saying they were committed to passing the pay raise.
"It's time to recognize when we have resources available to us to meet needs that have gone unmet perhaps for too long," Hanshaw said.
Let's talk about those available resources.
West Virginia had an $88 million revenue surplus in November, bringing the surplus since the July start of the fiscal year to $269 million. Much of those surpluses were because of record monthly tax collections this year. There's no guarantee that kind of revenue flow will continue.
It is also unclear if the one-time bonus would be paid through federal C.A.R.E.S. money.
That means lawmakers will have their work cut out for them in determining whether the state can afford more than a one-time pay raise that may result in the need for departmental cuts in the not-too-distant future. Certainly, most state employees do deserve a pay raise, and if that means lawmakers are forced to finally tackle all that fraud, waste, abuse and bloat that allows only for King Bureaucracy to keep serving itself, all the better. But unless lawmakers are willing to make those tough decisions, the Justice, Hanshaw and Blair effort may come to a screeching halt.