Justice said he did not sense a call for WVU funding help from House or Senate leadership.
With a $1.8 billion state surplus, some legislators in north central West Virginia are asking the state to help West Virginia University out of its $45 million dollar deficit and resulting academic transformation.
Asked in a Wednesday media briefing about providing emergency financial help for its flagship university, Gov. Jim Justice said he questioned the school’s overall academic offerings.
“There is absolutely no question that what has happened is some level of bloating in programs and things that maybe we ought not be teaching at WVU,” Justice said.
Justice also said he did not sense an urgent call for WVU funding help from the state House or Senate.
“I do not think there is an appetite from the standpoint of the leadership in the legislature at this point in time to basically bail out WVU,” he said.
Justice said giving WVU “one-time-money” would offer limited help and the state needs to be in a backfill situation. He said he has faith in WVU leadership.
“I have all the confidence in the world and President Gee and the Board of Governors that WVU will get their house in order,” Justice said.
A majority of the WVU Board of Governors are appointed by the governor. They will meet Friday to make a final determination on an academic transformation plan.
West Virginia University identified 25 programs that will be subject to the program review process with the possibility of discontinuation.
During a Campus Conversation over Zoom Monday morning, West Virginia University identified 25 programs that will be subject to the program review process with the possibility of discontinuation.
Earlier this year WVU announced an estimated budget deficit of $45 million. The school’s recently approved financial plan for 2024 requires reduced expenses totaling nearly $10 million, $7 million of which comes from a reduction in the number of employees.
The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences had the most programs flagged for review at eight, including the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, Chemistry and English.
The School of Public Health, the School of Pharmacy, and the College of Law will all be reviewed. The complete list of programs under review can be found here.
WVU Provost Maryanne Reed said the reviews are part of an academic transformation due to budget shortfalls at the university.
“Our goals for this work are as follows: To develop a more focused set of academic programs that align with student demand, career opportunities and market trends, while also supporting our land grant and research missions, and to ensure that the programs in our portfolio are being delivered in the most effective and efficient way possible” she said.
Reed also identified RPK Group, a national higher education consulting firm, that has helped the university validate the data and analysis used to select programs as well as helped develop a framework for decision making.
WVU President Gordon Gee said the review process was not an administrative effort, but a community effort that the entire university was engaged in together.
“This is a difficult damn process,” he said. “It involves the notion that we are engaged in making some very difficult decisions and people will be affected by those.”
Mark Gavin is the associate provost for academic, budget, facilities and strategic initiatives. He clarified that just because a program is under review does not automatically mean it will be discontinued.
“Being on the list simply means that we need to take a closer look at the unit’s operations and programs to determine if, and I do emphasize if, some changes need to be made,” Gavin said. “There might be opportunities to achieve greater efficiency through personnel reductions.”
Gavin identified several reasons why programs and units such as departments were selected for review.
“The unit and its programs can be identified for formal review for one or more of several reasons, including concerning enrollment metrics for one or more of its programs, and/or for concerning unit-level metrics around (student credit hour) production, faculty resources, instructional efficiency or financial performance,” he said.
Deans and chairs of the identified programs will now seek input from faculty and staff to create a Program Review Self-Study Form to be submitted to the provost’s office.
Recommendations for Program Reduction or Discontinuation will be made the week of August 11.
The West Virginia University Board of Governors has approved a reduced budget for 2024.
The West Virginia University Board of Governors has approved a reduced budget for 2024.
In April, West Virginia University announced it was estimating a budget deficit of $45 million for the coming year.
Friday morning the university’s Board of Governors approved an estimated $1.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2024.
The fiscal plan contains an estimated $33 million in increased revenues, including one-time-use resources from the WVU Foundation, and tuition and fees increases of about 3 percent.
The plan also requires reduced expenses totaling nearly $10 million, $7 million of which comes from a reduction in the number of employees.
Marty Becker, chairman of the board, said further cuts will be necessary moving forward.
“(The) university anticipates that it will need to reduce expenses by another $24 million, approximately, in additional, permanent reductions for fiscal year 25. So a two-step process over that period,” he said.
The board also endorsed the recently announced merger of the Reed College of Media with the College of Creative Arts. The merger comes as WVU Provost Maryanne Reed announced that several academic programs at the university are being reviewed.
“We are working with our consultant, the RPK group, to help us identify the programs of concern that have either small enrollments, declines in enrollments, declines in net revenue or in some cases challenges in all three areas,” she said.
The full list of programs tagged for further review is set to be released the week of July 10, along with data, analysis and details on the decision-making process.
WVU Tech in Beckley and Potomac State College in Keyser will follow a separate timeline and process, according to Reed.
After nine long days of a teacher and service personnel work stoppage, it looks like it’s come to an end. Lawmakers have agreed to a five percent pay raise for teachers as well as a five percent pay increase for all public workers.
Thousands of teachers and other public employees erupted in cheers and tears as senators opened their chamber doors to announce approval of a bill that increases pay to teachers, school personnel, and state troopers by five percent.
A five percent pay raise for all state employees was also agreed to in a conference committee and will be managed in the upcoming state budgeting process.
Fifth-grade teacher Lori Jarrett from Boone County said she cried when the vote came. When asked how she was feeling, Jarrett said she was, “tired, exhausted, so happy, so happy that we won, and this is finally over, and we can get back to our kids where we need to be.”
Cheers at state capitol Tuesday afternoon.
Lawmakers have said there will be areas and services that will be cut, however, in order to give the promised pay raises.
Emily Tanzey, an eighth grade English teacher from Monongalia County, said that’s something that concerns her. “I am nervous about the funding source, because in the Senate Finance Committee, they mentioned cuts to things like Medicaid, which makes me really anxious, but overall, I think it’s a win for West Virginia.”
Governor Jim Justice signed HB 4145, giving a five percent pay raise to teachers, school service personnel and state troopers shortly after the vote was announced. It will go into effect on July 1, 2018.
Members in the House of Delegates have approved their budget bill for fiscal year 2018 – bringing $140 million additional dollars in revenue and making $75 million in cuts to government agencies. The House’s budget is largely based on revenue brought in under a Senate bill that was drastically changed by the chamber’s finance committee.
That bill, Senate Bill 484, originally would have just captured some $12 million a year that goes into the state Road Fund, but while it still contains the provision, it’s been transformed into what House leadership is calling a tax reform measure. The House’s version looks to broaden the base of taxable goods and services in two phases, July and then October of this year. Under the plan, things like cell phones or personal services would become subject to the sales tax, bringing in some $140 million in additional revenue in the 2018 budget.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Daryl Cowles, R-Morgan, House Majority Leader.
The bill would also require that by July 2018, the state’s current 6 percent sales tax would be reduced to 5.5 percent, then to 5.25 percent in July 2019. Over time, if the fiscal climate is favorable in the state, the tax rate could go down to as low as 4.75 percent. That reduction of the overall rate will also lead to deficits in the state budget, that is if spending doesn’t increase in the state.
Majority Leader Daryl Cowles of Morgan County adamantly supports the measure, saying West Virginia’s border counties will see a boom in revenue.
“It’s tax relief for the people of West Virginia,” Cowles said, “It does capture revenue in the short-term, it is very quickly, within two short years, revenue neutral as the rate is lowered for everyone on every purchase, point of sale that’s taxed. And then, for another two years, the rate drops all the way down to 4.75. Imagine that. Imagine the growth our border counties could see if we have a competitive advantage at a tax rate of 4.75 considerably lower than all of our surrounding neighbors.”
But Minority Finance Chair Delegate Brent Boggs, of Braxton County, says he’s concerned this revenue idea lacks fairness.
“It seems like with this, when we’re talking about broadening the base, we’re really not broadening much, because it’s all the things that we’re not picking up, and we seem to be disproportionately hitting the people that are at the low income and middle income level, and possibly that takes in a lot of our seniors,” Boggs said.
After nearly two hours of debate, Senate Bill 484 passed 52 to 48.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, House Minority Finance Chair.
House Budget
In an evening floor session Wednesday, delegates also took up the chamber’s budget bill, House Bill 2018, which relies on $75 million in cuts to state agencies to balance the budget. The House’s budget no longer includes the 2 percent pay raise to classroom teachers first proposed by Gov. Jim Justice. It reduces funding for West Virginia four-year higher education institutions by 6 percent and the state’s community and technical colleges by 5 percent.
The budget also grants the Higher Education Policy Commission the authority to decide how the state’s higher education dollars will be divided between institutions.
It was this part of the budget that had some delegates in the House concerned. Several Democrats argued the provision is unconstitutional, including Delegate Rodney Miller, a Democrat from Boone County, who says the House had even considered getting rid of the organization at one point.
“It’s interesting that we are giving them the pot of money to let them be the arbitrator, the disseminator of this funding; letting them be the ultimate choice when at the same time,” Miller said, “during this legislative session, we had, if I’m not mistaken, we had some legislation proposed to actually either get rid of or completely alter, significantly change the CTCs and HEPCs in our state. Now we’re going to give them all this power and authority and money. It’s very confusing with the consistency of what we have going on in this body.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Mike Caputo, D-Marion.
Democrat Mike Caputo, of Marion County, says allowing the HEPC to control higher education spending will result in a lack of accountability.
“These folks, they’re appointed for a certain term. They don’t have to account to the people; they don’t put their name on the ballot. We put our name on the ballot. And that bothers me,” Caputo explained. “I don’t know who come up with this crazy idea to throw all the money in one pot and just let some people toss it out how they feel without any accountability. Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, that to me is just absolutely irresponsible.”
Republican Delegate Mark Zatezalo, of Hancock County, spoke in support of the budget bill, and suggested the HEPC work more closely with the state’s colleges and universities than the Legislature does.
“We are allocating resources to two groups who have the most interface with higher education, and I’m wondering if they might have more insight into how things are spent at the higher education level than we do,” Zatezalo noted. “I certainly, you know, I can see money go in and out of here, and I can see money allocated for schools; frankly I’m not in the weeds enough for each school to understand exactly what they need and exactly who needs the money.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Mark Zatezalo, R-Hancock.
House Finance Chair Eric Nelson argued this was a tough budget year all around, but when it came to giving the HEPC the authority, it makes the most sense.
“I mentioned we had a bunch of agencies come before us to give budget presentations. The presentation for Higher Ed and CTC was made by HEPC and the CTC chancellors,” Nelson said. “It was not the individual colleges. You know what, we had very tough choices, and we’ve been in some unchartered territory. It’s been a balancing act. This balance is structurally sound; difficult decisions had to be made. Without a doubt, this has been an all-inclusive and a very transparent process.”
The House’s budget bill passed on a vote of 58 to 42.
Democratic members of the House of Delegates met Tuesday to discuss their priorities for the 2016 legislative session.
House Minority Leader, Tim Miley of Harrison County shared a handful of the issues he says his party will propose during the 2016 session, but also made clear which Republican backed bills Democrats will oppose.
Those included a repeal of the state’s prevailing wage, the passage of a right-to-work law, and forced pooling; a measure that allows the natural gas industry to force the sale of certain minerals.
But Miley says his top priority is to fix the funding issue for PEIA.
PEIA – the Public Employees Insurance Agency – is one of the most prominent insurance providers in the state, and it’s received some major cuts in the past year.
Delegate Mick Bates from Raleigh County wants to make up for the funding cuts by raising the tobacco tax.
“What we’re proposing is an increase in the region for a dollar per pack,” Bates explained, “also expanding that to include all tobacco products including e-cigarettes, so that would be the initial increase. Also moving forward, we would propose adding additional ten cents per year over the course of five years.”
Bates says the initial 120 million dollars would go to PEIA in the first year, preventing many benefit cuts, with an additional $60 million in funding each year after. Bates says it would be a quote, “fix and fund now as well as a fix and fund for the future” solution.
House Minority Leader, Tim Miley says being in the minority could make it difficult to get some of their legislation passed, but he hopes by bringing ideas to the table, their voices will be heard.
“This has to be an educational campaign when it comes to the health of our citizens in this state; that’s really what has to be considered, but when the public is educated on what we think would be a benefit for the overall health to our state, they will in turn communicate that same understanding and appreciation to their legislators and we hope we can have change occur down here,” Miley said.
The 2016 legislative session begins Wednesday, January 13.
