(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Some people continue to be upset that Gov. Jim Justice is waiting until Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey’s inauguration on Monday, Jan. 13, to resign and take his place in the U.S. Senate to avoid having a total of four governors (two of those being senate presidents acting as governor) in a 10-day span.

However, there is at least two good reasons for the delay. First of all, it allowed former state treasurer Riley Moore to take his U.S. House of Representatives seat Friday when Congress returned from recess.

While both the House and U.S. Senate have narrow GOP majorities for the new year, the House had an additional problem: it needed to elect a Speaker of the House. U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., is the current House Speaker. I’m writing this on Friday, so it is possible — with some House GOP members saying they wouldn’t support Johnson as Speaker — that as you read this Monday there might not be a decision on who is House Speaker.

Johnson has the support of incoming President Donald Trump. And Moore, who said last week he would support whoever Trump supports for House Speaker, means Moore is a reliable Johnson vote. That means being on Capitol Hill on day one was important for Moore. Similar issues don’t exist in the U.S. Senate with no major votes planned there. Justice might lose whatever little seniority he would have by waiting to join his Senate colleagues, but as I said last week, that doesn’t really matter as much as you might think.

The other reason that Justice needed to wait was to be able to appoint Moore’s replacement as state treasurer. On Friday, Justice swore in his advisor and acting Department of Revenue Secretary Larry Pack, who was unopposed in both the May primary and general election for state treasurer. This allows Pack to take office 11 days early.

The problem with Moore leaving as state treasurer is his name comes off of everything. That would affect payments to vendors, payroll for state employees, and other major financial decisions that require a state treasurer in place. Any delay in appointing a state treasurer successor could have major implications for state business. Having Justice gone and the possibility of two acting governors between now and Jan. 13 could create unneeded uncertainty.

***

I have to give Governor-Elect Morrisey points for being up front, blunt and honest about the state’s future general revenue budget issues. He could have avoided saying anything until closer to February when he would be submitted his proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 to lawmakers. But he got out ahead of things, warning that due to the 4% and 2% personal income tax cuts not being contemplated in the future budget that the state would need to budget in order to pay for those tax cuts.

As I explained several times between Justice first proposing a 5% personal income tax cut last July and the October special session where Justice and lawmakers agreed to a 2% cut and to delay any future personal income tax triggers, lawmakers expressed real concerns about passing an additional tax cut already triggered by a formula created with the passage of the 21.25% personal income tax cut in 2023.

With new expenses and burdens landing on the general revenue budget in out-years, several Republican lawmakers were concerned that state tax revenue simply would not keep up with the loss of revenue by cutting personal income taxes too quickly. But since the Governor’s Office refuses to provide six-year budget forecasts to lawmakers and the public, lawmakers were in the dark about the future effects of cutting taxes quicker than the natural growth in tax revenue.

It should be noted that Gov. Justice told me at the beginning of December that he saw no budget hole to fill for fiscal year 2026 when Morrisey takes office similar to the $500 million budget hole predicted for fiscal year 2018 when Justice took office in 2017.

“For all I know, we do not have a hole for (fiscal year) 2026 at all,” Justice said. “The next budget will surely depend on decisions that are made by the next folks that come in and the Legislature and on and on and on.”

Morrisey has put together a good team to begin tackling future budget and tax revenue issues. Former State Budget Office Director Mike McKown is back, which means that the six-year budget forecasts are likely back. Longtime Morrisey confident Doug Buffington, a former Department of Revenue official and current deputy attorney general, will provide guidance.

And Morrisey’s cabinet includes two former chairmen of the House Finance Committee: state Sen. Eric Nelson as Department of Revenue secretary, and outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Householder as Department of Administration secretary. Both know their way around the general revenue budget.

***

How state funding gets to county public school systems is a major problem right now. But both of our two major public policy advocacy organizations are too busy smacking each other around on social media and not focusing on the problem at hand.

It’s wrong for the WVCBP to place all the blame on school consolidations and county budget issues on public charter schools and the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program. Fact of the matter is our decline in student population in county public schools — our decline in population overall — predates both programs.

But it is also wrong for the Cardinal Institute and other pro-school choice groups to deny that — particularly in counties with large populations and major cities — that public charter schools, the two statewide virtual charter schools, and the Hope Scholarship — school choice programs are causing issues when it comes to county public school funding. It may not be the only factor, but it IS a factor.

What we should all be able to agree on is the need to make significant reforms to how our county public school systems receive state funding. The school aid formula is broken and needs fixing. It sounds like Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Grady, R-Mason, might be working on a reform package for this coming session.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com