Surplus: Lawmakers must invest money wisely
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Both state Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, appear to understand talk that we COULD see as much as $1.8 billion in excess tax revenue by the end of June is only a possibility.
There are too many variables, such as the possibility the surplus looks much bigger because estimates used to craft the current fiscal year's budget were low-balled, the even stronger possibility that natural gas prices will slip back down and the number of bureaucrats and public officials who will have their hands out.
"We don't expect (natural gas prices) to go all the way back down to where we were, but we do expect at least some break here in these really high prices," said John Deskins, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University's College of Business and Economics.
And, while Gov. Jim Justice might hope voters believe he has heralded in a "rocket ship" era of high tax revenues, others see it differently.
"...The state's current surplus isn't a sign that West Virginia's economy is uncharacteristically strong or that tax revenues are greater than is needed for the state budget; rather, it has been driven by a combination of temporarily high energy prices, artificially low revenue estimates, and years of 'flat' budgets that have left state needs unaddressed," according to Budget and Policy Senior Policy Analyst Sean O'Leary and Executive Director Kelly Allen.
Granted, O'Leary and Allen don't tend to see eye-to-eye with Justice when it comes to policy. But their point is worth considering. Certainly, Blair and Hanshaw have taken note.
"When there's a pile of money out there, there's a feeding frenzy," Blair said during last week's West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead. "I can tell you right now, the Senate is not going to allow a feeding frenzy to take place. The money's not going to be spent willy-nilly anywhere."
Hanshaw was similarly cautious. "There are things like making sure that the projected to now be $1.8 billion budget surplus … gets deployed responsibly and gets deployed in a transformative way," Hanshaw said. "We have an obligation as members to be very good stewards of the people's resources."
Good.
But they'll have to do that while compromising with those who also believe Mountain State residents are due for one of the largest tax cuts in state history.
Though it might be fun for others to figure out what to do with all the money we're told will be at lawmakers' disposal, Blair, Hanshaw and the rest of the legislature will have to be skeptical, responsible and transparent investors of OUR money, to do what best lifts ALL West Virginians.