Eric Tarr Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Natural Disaster Emergency Funding Becomes Political Squabble

Gov. Jim Justice said the opinions of some legislative leaders that he can use some of the $85 million Civil Contingency Fund for emergency relief are wrong. Those leaders say otherwise.

Gov. Jim Justice said the opinions of some legislative leaders that he can use some of the $85 million Civil Contingency Fund for emergency relief are wrong. In a press release, Justice said the fund allows no appropriations for emergencies.

“These funds are to be utilized for purposes outlined by the legislature during the appropriation process,” Justice said in the release. “Such as economic development, water and infrastructure projects, higher education capital improvements, and, most recently, to maintain our jails and prisons.”

Justice said in his weekly media briefing Wednesday that he will place on the call for the upcoming special session the proposed and rejected $50 million allocation to the West Virginia Flood Resiliency Trust Fund. That proposal was removed from the budget bill in the last days of the session.

“Instead of pulling together and hoarding back money, for some pet project somewhere, we need to take care of our people,” Justice said. “It’s the people’s money. It’s not the legislators’ money. It is frivolous for us to not create a bucket to where we can help folks,”

Senate Finance Committee Chair Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said the bucket is already there. He said Justice may be ignorant of the fact that $7 million of the Civil Contingency Fund can be used at his discretion for natural disaster relief

“There’s discretionary spending there,” Tarr said. “And as everybody has witnessed across the state, he uses discretionary authority for spending on a lot of things that had nothing to do with emergency status.”

Tarr said even if the legislature had approved the $50 million trust fund allocation, as a surplus item, that money could not be used until the end of fiscal 2025.

“The flood fund that he’s referencing is a prevention effort,” Tarr said. ”So it’s not as if it was constructed by the legislature as a state form of FEMA”.

Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said there may be a misunderstanding here. He says there’s money available in Fiscal Year 2024 accounts to deal with natural disasters.

“The law as we understand it, provides the governor during a state of emergency the ability to move some money between accounts and utilize money to respond to natural disasters,” Hanshaw said. I just want to make clear that the budget process that we follow is the normal course of business. Nothing that we did or were asked to do during the regular session, or the last couple of months, had anything to do with the current natural disaster that we faced.”

Hanshaw said the executive branch can use its inherent expertise to take action.

“We don’t and shouldn’t be in the business of managing the day-to-day affairs of how the executive branch agencies respond to natural disasters,” Hanshaw said “They actually do that very well. They have a good track record here of how we get emergency responders out quickly to those people that need help. And it’s never been a problem in the past. I don’t think it should be a problem now.”

Justice said with the many challenges of obtaining federal FEMA help, the legislature needs to help create that natural disaster relief funding bucket.

“The problem with FEMA is they want a great number of people that are affected, or a great amount of property damage and everything that’s affected,” Justice said. “We ought to create the bucket and then we’re going to have to continue to replenish the bucket as we go forward. There’s too many instances where really, really good people across this state that we can’t get them qualified for FEMA, but we could still have an emergency fund to be able to help them.”

Federal Government Asks For $465 Million Back As Legislators Look For Fix

A surprise notification from the federal government that the state must return nearly half a billion dollars in COVID-19 funds has several major funding issues on hold.

These last days of the regular session are typically when state budget issues are debated and resolved.

A surprise notification from the federal government that the state must return nearly half a billion dollars in COVID-19 funds has several major funding issues on hold.

These last days of the regular session are typically when state budget issues are debated and resolved.

But when federal dollars were funneled into West Virginia local school districts in the early days of the pandemic, rules on how to spend that money did not come until later.

Facing crucial budget bill deliberations, the House Finance Committee Chairman, Del. Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said it was a shock when learning this week the federal government was looking at a $465 million clawback of the state’s CARES Act education spending.

“It was just amazing that the feds can do something like this to you,” Criss said. “We’re not the only state they’re doing it today. There are other states that are in the same position. I don’t know to what degree, but this is a sizable amount of money to the state of West Virginia.”

It’s not just education funding that’s in jeopardy. The budget bill passed by the Senate this week did not include Social Security tax cuts and has no mention of state employee pay raises. The House Finance Committee Minority Chairman, Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, is concerned about the effect on a number of what he calls programming possibilities.

“West Virginia State is in for a $50 million agriculture lab that they need,” Rowe said. “And this, you know, will put that kind of a project in jeopardy in a new project. So and if it moves off several years, that would be a real problem.”

Rowe says he’s concerned this could also affect senior services projects.

Officials from Gov. Jim Justice’s office say the federal expectation was the state would match the federal pandemic grants going to education.

Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, the Senate Finance chairman, says that’s easier said than done.

“West Virginia is very unique, and how we fund K-12 education relative to a lot of other states,” Tarr said. “Because we’re formulary based, so you can’t just suddenly increase the formula with some of the rules they had around the CARES dollars the way that they would need to spend.”

Now, Criss says the governor’s office is working with the feds on a waiver, showing that they are providing more state money toward education.

“Things like the school building authority that we appropriated, then we authorized the spending a couple days ago, we authorized the monies to go into the account yesterday,” Criss said. “So now is as that bill progresses, then we’ll have part of that $465 million taken care of.”

Criss said the governor’s office is also trying to communicate to the federal government how the state used that money in accordance with the state’s statutes and formulas.

“We’ve done the pay raises with the benefit package, we’ve also confirmed that we’re continuing to put in the monies into the Teachers Retirement Program in the 40-year plan as well as the current amount needed,” Criss said.

Criss, Tarr and the governor’s office all seem confident, with hopes for a quick resolution and no loss of funds. But with a week left in the regular session and no budget yet passed, Criss says the timing couldn’t be worse.

“It’s just poor timing on the Fed announcement to the governor’s office,” Criss said. “And we are here today, knowing that we have one week left, we need to get the budget process concluded on both sides so we could start putting the bills together and come up with a compromise for the first week. So everybody will have an opportunity to see what we’ve got.”

The deadline for putting the budget in isn’t until June 30. Criss said that while the deadline for the budget isn’t technically until June 30, he would have to break a promise and nearly decade tradition of having the budget done by the 60th day of session.

“We’re going to fix it. It’s a one-time thing,” Criss said. “We’ve got the funds available. And it’s just a matter of trying to figure out where they all have to go before the first of July.”

Criss said he thinks that everyone currently included in the budget will stay covered, but that it’s an evolving situation.

“You know, stay tuned,” Criss said.

Bill That Greatly Reduces Unemployment Benefits Advances

Senate Bill 840 would reduce the maximum amount to $550 dollars a week.

Senate Bill 841 reduces the duration of benefits. It works on a tiered system based on statewide unemployment numbers. If the statewide unemployment number is under 5 percent — which it currently is — then the maximum benefit duration would be 12 weeks, cutting it down by more than half.

The Senate advanced two bills Monday that would lower unemployment benefits for out of work West Virginians.

Currently people can receive 26 weeks of benefits, and a maximum weekly benefit of $624 if they lose their job through no fault of their own; meaning they were separated from their jobs due to a lack of available work.

Senate Bill 840 would reduce the maximum amount to $550 dollars a week.

The maximum benefit under the bill is 20 weeks if there is a severe recession with an unemployment rate of 9 percent.

Sponsor of Senate Bill 840, Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said this bill is to help secure the longevity of the unemployment fund.

“This preserves our unemployment fund for the future,” Tarr said. “If we do not do something now, to go in and fix this unemployment fund, what’s going to happen is unemployment services will become unavailable in the future. That’s just a matter of math.”

However Kelly Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy says that the fund is healthier than ever.

“Our unemployment fund is at one of the highest balances ever on record,” Allen said.

On Saturday, in the Senate Finance Committee, Jeff Green from WorkForce West Virginia testified that currently the fund could sustain a 10 percent unemployment rate in the state for 91 weeks before all the funds were exhausted.

Allen says that the state has not seen a recession like that in more than 30 years.

“The last time West Virginia had an unemployment rate over 10 percent in a sustained period was more than 30 years ago in 1992,” Allen said.

This all comes shortly after Allegheny Wood Products announced it was closing and laying off hundreds of workers, and the Cleveland-Cliffs tin mill laid off 900 workers last month.

Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, objected to the bills being advanced.

“This is a bill that reduces unemployment benefits across the state with the recent happenings,” Marion. “And the news that we’ve heard in Weirton, and in the wood products plant. I think it’s a horrible time to do this. Mr. President.”

Allen said that West Virginia is an economically diverse state, and while the statewide unemployment rate is currently 3.8 percent that doesn’t account for differences between localities like the southern coalfields and the eastern panhandle.

“You know, the picture in the southern coalfields as compared with Monongalia is very different,” Allen said. “So essentially, these population centers that are doing well, in terms of the number of jobs available would dictate how many weeks of unemployment everybody in the state would be eligible for, even though folks in more rural parts of the state with fewer job opportunities, are seeing a very different economic landscape job opportunity landscape.”

Senate Moves To Narrow Voter Registration Laws

How long you can stay active as a voter without using that right may be changing if a bill passed Thursday by the Senate becomes a law.

How long you can stay active as a voter without using that right may be changing if a bill passed Thursday by the Senate becomes law.

Senate Bill 622, changes the time period of voting inactivity for removal from voter registration. Currently, a voter can go four years without voting or updating voter information before being considered inactive. This bill moves it to two years.

For example, if a voter didn’t vote in one presidential election, they could be ineligible to vote in the next presidential election.

The bill is a use it or lose it voting law. If voters don’t vote for more than two years, they get flagged.

However, if voters confirm their address or register for a change of address, they will stay registered to vote, and their inactive status will be dropped. Voters can vote in any local, state or federal election or ballot to stay an active voter.

Lead sponsor of the bill Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said the bill is to make sure voters are not registered to vote in two different precincts and to verify voter eligibility.

“We’ve been working on purging our voter rolls quite a bit,” Tarr said. “I think the first purge we did of 400,000 people who were not eligible to vote in West Virginia who had voter registration. So this bill is about making sure that people who show up to vote are people who are eligible to vote.”

The bill is similar to a law passed in Ohio that led to a Supreme Court case and nearly 150,000 Ohio voters being purged from the state roll.

Clearing Up Respiratory Health Confusion And Improving Early Childhood Literacy This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, health experts work to clear up confusion as we enter the respiratory illness season, and a new law is now in effect across West Virginia to implement more effective reading education.

On this West Virginia Morning, Emily Rice reports on health experts working to clear up confusion around vaccine scheduling and access as we enter the respiratory illness season.

And studies show that if children aren’t up to speed by the third grade it can indicate future difficulties in and out of the classroom. As Chris Schulz reports, a new law is now in effect across West Virginia to implement more effective reading education.

Also, Randy Yohe reports that West Virginia’s Senate Finance Committee Chair expects to bring more indictments like the one last week involving a DHHR manager and COVID-19 testing, a look at the latest State of West Virginia University address, a new solar energy project and a reminder to look out for a check in the mail.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Caroline MacGregor produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Investigations Into State Agency Spending Expected To Continue

Senate Finance Committee Chair Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said to expect more indictments like the one last week involving a DHHR manager and COVID-19 testing.

Department of Health and Human Resources Supervisor Tim Priddy faces federal charges of lying to the FBI and false statements before a grand jury regarding the accounting of $34 million in COVID-19 tests and supplies.

An investigation uncovered multiple invoices submitted by one out-of-state vendor not named in the indictment (Company A) totaling approximately $44.7 million for more than 500,000 COVID-19 test kits. But only 50,000 of those test results were reported between October 2020 and March 2022.

Tarr said the Priddy indictment stems from his committee’s investigation into state COVID-19 testing and funding. He said decisions around taxpayer money within state agencies lack accountability and responsibility to the people.

“We have about 800,000 income taxpayers in West Virginia,” Tarr said. “That equals out to $40 per person. Send their money back. It’s just disgusting to see this happen again and again.”

During a media briefing last week, Gov. Jim Justice was asked about Priddy’s indictment. He said the pandemic had created confusion throughout the country and West Virginia state agencies.

“To say it was not a challenging time, I mean for crying out loud, it was tough stuff,” Justice said. “And Tim Priddy is suspended from the DHHR at this time and we will have to let the court decide on his fate, that’s for sure.”

Tarr said the Inspector General in Washington, D.C. is still investigating COVID-19 spending directly related to the governor’s gifts and charities funds.

“Things that happened around the Babydog Sweepstakes and things that happened around the Department of Corrections,” Tarr said. ”Monies that should have gone to the Department of Corrections, relative to their COVID expenses, instead went to the governor’s gifts and charity spots.”

In a March 2023 emailed statement from the governor’s office regarding the governor’s gifts and charities funds, Press Secretary C.J. Harvey said, “This is simply a regurgitation of old news. Unfortunately, Senator Tarr can’t let it go. The Governor’s Office firmly believes that all transactions involving the use of CARES Act funds were legal and appropriate. Decisions on the use of funds were made with the advice of legal counsel and two national CPA firms, including one who completed an independent audit and found no issues.”

Tarr said the Senate Finance Committee is still actively looking into a number of administration and state agency spending issues.

“There are investigations that are still out there,” Tarr said. “As they go forward, you’re going to see more and more of these types of indictments.”