For reasons not entirely explicable, for the past few years legislative leaders have prided themselves on passing the Budget Bill by the 60th day of the regular session, avoiding the traditional post-session budget conference, when the session would be extended for a few days to work out a final version of the state spending plan.
However, itÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s looking increasingly unlikely that final approval of the 2025-26 state budget will come early this year, and not just because legislators have to close a $400 million shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year.
The chaos that Donald Trump has unleashed on the country by irrationally slashing government programs, services and employees, and imposing economic policies that seem to serve no logical purpose except to plunge America into recession, will impact West Virginia severely ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” and that will affect state revenues and expenses in myriad ways.
Given the haphazard nature and lack of transparency of the slash-and-burn policies and on-again, off-again tariffs and other punitive economic policies, it is essentially impossible for legislators to access the overall impact on the state economy.
Which will make adopting a fiscal year 2025-26 state spending plan exceeding difficult, especially if the Legislature tries to do so by April 12, the last day of the regular session.
IÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™ll touch on just a few areas where Trumponomics will hurt the state.
As reported by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, West Virginia is one of the most dependent states on federal funding in the union, with $9.63 billion a year of federal funds accounting for more than half the state governmentÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s $19.2 billion total operating budget.
The biggest single piece of that funding is $4.1 billion for Medicaid, accounting for more than 80% of total state spending for the health coverage for more than 300,000 poor, disabled and elderly residents.
Trump and Congressional Republicans are committed to cutting Medicaid funding by $88 billion a year, or about 23%, which would result in massive cuts to Medicaid funding to the state.
Given that itÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s highly unlikely the state would make up the difference, lost funding would require cuts in coverage and eligibility. Indeed, the House already is advancing a bill to eliminate Medicaid expansion coverage, which would leave 166,000 West Virginians without health care, if and when federal Medicaid funding is cut.
Not only would severe cuts to Medicaid cause charity care to explode ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” and costs of that care will be passed on to paying customers in the form of higher charges ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” but it could result in the loss of thousands of health care jobs statewide, with the likelihood that rural hospitals, nursing homes and health care facilities would shut down.
Meanwhile, despite news of the DOGE chainsaw firings of federal employees coming out in dribs and drabs, the cuts are likely to hit West Virginia harder than most states.
West Virginia has the sixth highest percentage of federal employees in the U.S., the result of a combination of D.C. commuters living in the eastern panhandle, and the late Sen. Robert C. ByrdÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s uncanny ability to move significant parts of multiple federal agencies to the Mountain State.
Those cuts will affect the state in a variety of ways, initially with a surge in unemployment benefits, and ultimately, given the paucity of comparable private-sector jobs in the state, through a decline in numbers of tax-paying residents.
Meanwhile, between tariffs and counter-tariffs and plans to charge exorbitantly high docking fees (up to $1.5 million per port) for ships built in China, Trump seems hell-bent on crippling state coal exports.
In a statement to the U.S. International Trade Commission, West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton said Trump policies would have an ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œimmediate and adverse impact on coal production and employment in the state.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
IÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™m advised that some coal companies have already begun production cuts and layoffs in anticipation of declining exports.
This as Friends of Coal continues to run an ad touting the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œideal leadershipÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ from Trump, the stateÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s congressional delegation and legislative leaders that purportedly will allow coal to thrive.
Moving along, tourism is one of the brightest spots of the state economy, but Trumponomics stands to crater the industry.
TrumpÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s determination to take a wrecking ball to the economy, and his complete failure to deal with inflation, has dropped consumer confidence to a 12-year low. When people are wary about the economy, vacation travel is one of first things they cut.
West VirginiaÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s upturn in tourism correlates precisely with the New River GorgeÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s designation as a national park in 2020. Like all national parks, it is suffering through DOGE chain-sawing that will result in long lines, delays and shuttering or reduced hours for programs, services and visitors centers ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” all of which will make it and other national parks less attractive to visitors.
Add in that Canadians and Europeans who are either refusing to or being advised not to travel to the U.S., and it all bodes ill for the state tourism industry.
Space limitations prevent me from exploring other looming harms, such as potential state Investment Management Board losses negatively affecting pension funds for public employees and teachers if Trumponomics causes a stock market crash.
ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s impossible to fathom TrumpÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s motivations, having inherited one of the strongest economies in U.S. history. But if one intentionally wanted to cripple government programs and services and wreck the U.S. economy, there would be worse templates to follow ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” and it all bodes ill for legislators trying to balance the 2025-26 state budget.
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Meanwhile, apparently having resolved all state problems, major and minor, the Legislature this week turned its attention to taking on ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œwokeness,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ with the Senate passing an anti-DEI bill on a party-line 32-2 vote (Senate Bill 474).
Proponents of the bill declared it is anti-racist, although that requires having a peculiar notion that racism entails asserting that one race oppressed another, or that elements of that oppression exist in modern society.
In a harrowingly Orwellian touch, the legislation has provisions for students and parents to snitch on teachers who dare point out that systemic racism and sexism do indeed exist.
The bill does not include criminal or civil penalties for teaching ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œwokeness,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ but does spell out a process for students and parents to file complaints with school principals. If teachers are not adequately disciplined at that level for their thoughtcrime, there is an appeals process, first to the county superintendent of schools, and ultimately to the state superintendent.
Sen. Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, took the Thought ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ theme a step further, announcing the establishment of a website where individuals can out ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œwokeÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ teachers and professors, declaring, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œWe will put an end to ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥˜wokeÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™ teaching in West Virginia.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Surely our underpaid, overworked, underinsured and aggrieved teachers will appreciate being subject to Big Brother style surveillance in their classrooms.
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Finally, with just two weeks remaining in the 2025 regular session, Patrick MorriseyÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s freshman session as governor is not going well, and heÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s apparently not happy about it.
Of the 88 bills requested by the governor, only three have passed the Legislature ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” and two of those are the annual pro forma bills to make terms in state tax law conform with changes to federal tax code.
HeÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s also suffered major setbacks, with rejection of bills to expand vaccine exemptions and to eliminate Certificate of Need requirements for health care facilities.
Remarkably, the House of Delegates heeded the call of a large majority of West Virginians and voted down legislation to provide a broadly worded religious exemption to the stateÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s mandatory vaccination law. Too bad that Morrisey failed to do the same, cavalierly ignoring the will of the people and declaring that his executive order allowing religious exemptions will remain in effect.
MorriseyÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s only legislative victory to date is a dubious bill that seeks to legally deny the existence of transgender people (SB 456).
On social media this week, Morrisey expressed his frustration with the Legislature, declaring, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThe more work the Legislature gets done now, the less time it will spend in Charleston during the long, hot summer.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Sounds like heÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s threatening to call the Legislature into multiple special sessions if he doesnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t get his way legislatively. Clearly, that approach is no way to win friends and influence people.
Unlike Jim Justice, a part-time governor who, after initially being rebuffed by legislators, took a lackadaisical attitude toward legislating, Morrisey has drawn the ire of legislators for using strong-arm tactics to try to get his agenda moving.
Keep in mind that Morrisey only got 33% of the vote in the 2024 Republican gubernatorial primary, which means he wasnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t the first choice of many members of the legislative supermajority. Despite that disadvantage, heÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s done little to try to ingratiate himself to those legislators, some of who have publicly mocked him by referring to him as ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œthe gentleman from New Jersey.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Ever since then-Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin lost Democratic majorities in the House and Senate going into the 2015 session, the working relationship between governors and legislators been less than ideal, and seems particularly chilly at the moment.
Again, considering that the Legislature is ignoring the most pressing issues facing the state and focusing on repressing certain minorities and pursuing fringe social issues like banning ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œwokeness,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ if the bad feelings between the governor and legislators results in legislative impasse, it wonÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t be the worst possible outcome.
