×

Administrator: Senior citizen programs facing cuts

PARKERSBURG — West Virginia’s growing 60-plus population requires a way to finance senior programs, a senior citizens administrator said on Monday.

About 2,000 people each month reach 60 in the state, among the highest rates of growth in the United States, said E. Mark Knabenshue, executive director of the Wood County Senior Citizens Association.

“We really need to come up with ways to raise funds for senior programs,” Knabenshue said.

But senior programs could be on the chopping block in Charleston, particularly the Title XIX waiver programs that enable older West Virginians to remain at home rather than be placed in a long-term care facility. Gov. Jim Justice and the Republican-controlled Legislature differ on how to fill a half-billion-dollar budget hole in 2018, the governor proposing the largest tax increases in state history and Republican lawmakers generally opposed to them.

Justice has dispatched his cabinet secretaries to travel around the state to encourage support for his Save Our State budget proposal before the Legislature. At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Secretary Bill Crouch of the Department of Health and Human Resources will be at the Wood County Senior Citizens, 914 Market St.

Crouch will be joined by Knabenshue and Helen Eaton, a waiver recipient from Wood County, and other clients served by the AD Waiver Program. The meeting is open to the public, Knabenshue said.

Keeping people at home is cheaper than going into a facility, which costs about four times more, he said.

Justice and Revenue Secretary Dave Hardy on Monday afternoon held a press conference at the governor’s office at the Capitol where he outlined a new alternative plan “with less pain” from the Save Our State budget proposal to the Legislature.

Among suggestions were a 1 percent tax on soft drinks with sugar to raise $85 million, 50 cents more tax on a pack of cigarettes to raise $47.8 million, asking wealthy wage earners of $200,000 to more than $300,000 a year to pay from $500 to $1,000 a year into the Save Our State Fund, reducing how much goes into the Teachers Retirement Fund for the first year then “smooth” subsequent payments, raising the state sales 1/4 rather than 1/2 percent and cutting the proposed business tax to .00075 cents on a dollar.

“That’s about next to nothing,” Justice said.

The result will be a $63 million surplus, he said.

On the other side of the equation are the immediate creation of 48,000 jobs that is critical to the plan, financed by increasing state motor vehicle fees by $20, but requiring vehicle inspections every three years, raising the turnpike fee from $2 to $4 with $2 of that staying with the Turnpike and the other $2 going into bonding for road building and an increase on the tax on gasoline of 4.5 cents a gallon instead of the 10 cents a gallon he earlier proposed.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today