A famous rap song released after the death of The Notorious B.I.G. in the late 1990s had a lyric that stated “It’s like the more money we come across, the more problems we see.” West Virginia sure does have a lot of money right now, but it also has problems because of that money.

The big news of the week last week was the state collected more than $1 billion surplus tax collections as of the end of May, with one month left to go in the fiscal year.

For the first 11 months of fiscal year 2022, the state collected $5.2 billion, which was 26.9% more than the $4.1 billion revenue estimate. It truly was another record-shattering event, and one that left Gov. Jim Justice dancing a metaphorical jig. If they allowed press back into the briefings, Justice likely would have broken out Hawaiian leis like he did several years ago.

Considering there were several times in the last decade when the state had to do mid-year budget cuts, and fights over the budget would sometimes lead to last-minute deals on the eve of a new fiscal year, having constant surpluses is something that I’m sure takes pressure off of the governor and lawmakers.

However, I’ve been crunching some budget numbers. I have to imagine if my middle and high school math teachers could see into the future and see how much I do with math considering how bad of a math student I was as a teen, they would be slack jawed. But let’s go through the numbers, shall we?

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 250 at the end of the 2022 legislative session in March, the budget bill. The approved budget for fiscal year 2023 beginning Friday, July 1, was $4.635 billion, $10 million less that the budget presented by Justice at the beginning of the session and the two budget proposals from the state Senate and House of Delegates.

Justice and lawmakers consider this a relatively flat budget with no cuts but no new expenses either … but that’s not entirely true. If you follow my reporting on the budget, you know there is a section of the budget where lawmakers place items to be funded by available surplus tax dollars at the beginning of a new fiscal year. Items are funded in the order they appear in this section until surplus dollars are no longer available.

No need to worry about that on July 1, because with more than $1 billion in surplus 11 months in with one month left to go, because there will be more than enough funding to go around. There are $793.4 million worth of items in the surplus section of the fiscal year 2023 general revenue budget, with $600 million of that going to the new Department of Economic Development for business recruitment.

Yet, when you add the $793.4 million to the $4.635 billion general revenue budget, you get $5.428 billion. That’s the true fiscal year 2023 budget – 17.1 percent more than the approved FY23 general revenue budget and 19.2 percent more than the $4.4.495 approved general revenue budget last year combined with the $58.7 million in the surplus section of the budget.

Ask any long-haul semi-truck driver, a 17 percent or 19 percent grade on a road is not flat. You’re shifting into a low gear just to get up that hill.

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I’m honestly not trying to rain on the parade or rocketship ride or whatever. But with inflation more than 8 percent as of April, with the cost of food and other goods increasing, with gasoline prices at record highs, I am seeing people start to get upset at seeing the state flush with money when they are struggling.

Once you subtract the $793.4 million already spoke for in the surplus section of the budget, the state is sitting on $313.6 million in surplus. That is likely to break $400 million by the end of June. The Legislature passed a bill earlier this year capping the Rainy Day Fund, so no longer does the state have to put half of any end-of-fiscal-year surplus in Rainy Day.

That $400 million can just go directly into the general revenue fund (unless Justice and lawmakers decide to raid the surplus in a special session before the end of June as has been rumored). Considering the state is already flush with federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and with more coming from the bipartisan infrastructure bill, surely some of the surplus can be spared to provide some sort of relief.

I’m not necessarily trying to advocate as much as I’m trying to express some of the sentiments I’m seeing out there. Perhaps it’s time to finally change how we craft budgets and revenue estimates considering officials were so far off the mark? Perhaps next year lawmakers will consider some form of tax relief and put more money into people’s pockets (or not take as much of it in the first place).

I just have a feeling that people are going get sick of seeing the state flush with money while barely making ends meet themselves.