Senate Finance Committee Story Archives - Page 2 of 2 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Senate Finance Investigates Governor’s Donation To Marshall For New Baseball Stadium

The Senate Finance Committee wants to know how $10 million in CARES money ended up being donated by Gov. Jim Justice’s administration to Marshall University for its new baseball stadium.

The money was donated to the university from the governor’s Gifts, Grants and Donations Fund, and was transferred into that account days before the federal deadline to spend CARES funds.

Senate Finance Chair Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, questioned why a total of $28 million of CARES money was transferred to the gifts account in the first place, given the qualifying expense for the money was listed as the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“I understand that we still have National Guard in our corrections facilities and we have 1,000 FTEs [full-time employees] unfilled in our corrections facilities and we have a request for a $200 million deferred maintenance to go to corrections,” Tarr said.

“We’re under that state of emergency right now, and when you transfer the last $28 million, which doesn’t come close to covering any of those corrections expenses, the governor decides to put it into a discretionary account and then start putting AstroTurf on baseball fields. I want to ask you what part of that is appropriate,” Tarr said to Berkeley Bentley, general counsel to Justice.

Bentley told the committee that as special federal revenue, the money could only be transferred into a special revenue account.

“When the state reimburses itself, there is no direction under federal law or state law that directs where that money goes. It could not go into the governor’s civil contingent fund, rather it had to go to a special revenue account, and the most likely candidate was the gifts and grants fund,” Bentley replied.

“And ultimately a baseball field,” Tarr said.

Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee heard directly from the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation about their $200 million deferred maintenance costs, including at least $27 million worth of locks that need to be replaced across the system.

Bentley told the committee that the transfer was made to officially spend the CARES money by the Sept. 30 deadline, and avoid returning the money to the federal government. Once the qualifying expense was paid, he said the state can use those funds for any legal purpose.

“We spent $1.25 billion. We did that, and we transferred it out. It’s no longer CARES, but the money is still available for any lawful purpose,” Bentley said. “The money was transferred over to pay the invoices we hadn’t received yet, not timely, what have you, but it’s also available for any other purpose that is legal under state law, no longer subject to the CARES Act requirements.”

Tarr also called on State Auditor JB McCuskey to discuss the process around the fund transfer. Under questioning from Tarr, McCuskey categorized the requested transfer of funds as “unusual.”

“We were working with cities and counties a lot to try to make sure that they were able to obligate their funds legally to ensure that the money that was given to us was spent on things that were legal,” McCuskey said. “Our office processes thousands of transfer requests a week probably … but this was a large number. And I was unfamiliar with the fund, but prior to that request, and you know, pretty obviously the name of it, it pops out pretty quickly.”

When asked why his office approved such a large and unusual transfer request, McCuskey said the governor’s office provided detailed opinions on the legitimacy of the transfer from global accounting firm BDO and the law firm Bailey Glasser.

“We can’t supplant our legal opinion of what their appropriations are if there’s a rational basis for them, and it was close,” McCuskey said. “We decided at the end of the day, it was better to make sure that effectuated what the governor’s office wanted, but to keep a record and an accounting of what happened and why.”

The meeting ended with the Senate Finance Committee agreeing to request more information on the COVID-19 money transfer from the Office of the Inspector General, as well as the Department of the Treasury.

Senate Finance Committee Quantifies Department Of Corrections Issues

Senators spent the first hour of what became a three hour Finance Committee meeting Tuesday night focusing on the budget of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which oversees the state’s prisons and jails.

The Senate Finance Committee met Tuesday night to hear budget presentations from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education.

Senators spent the first hour of what became a three hour meeting focusing on the budget of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which oversees the state’s prisons and jails.

Corrections have struggled since the pandemic to maintain employees, with more than 1,000 vacancies for correctional officers in the system and a state of emergency requiring National Guard intervention. During the presentation, it was reported that the National Guard’s role filling administrative positions to free up correctional officers is costing $500,000 per week, and will lead to a $6 million budgetary shortfall for the division this year.

In response to questioning, William Marshall, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told Sen. Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, it would take a pay raise of at least $10,000 for all correctional officers to make the position more attractive to future candidates.

“Easy math 4,000 [officers], $10,000 across the board. That’s a $40 million annual base builder,” Nelson said. “Pension benefits can be anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent of compensation. If we were to potentially look at this correctly, would you agree that this is a $40 to $60 million base builder that we need to consider going forward?”

“You’re talking about not only base salary, but retirement?” Marshall replied. “Yes, I think a retirement plan would be very, very attractive. It’s hard. A lot of our officers we talked to, it’s hard to do that job forever.”

Marshall discussed the difficulty in retaining correctional officers not only because of the inherent risk of the job, but also because of competition from other correctional systems.

“We not only lose corrections officers to the federal system, but we also lose corrections officers to our bordering states as well,” Marshall said. “We lose a number of them to Maryland in the Eastern Panhandle quite often. They had a promotion about a year and a half ago, two years ago, with a $5,000 signing bonus and a $50,000 to $55,000 start pay.”

House Bill 2879, currently in the House’s Finance Committee, would provide existing correctional employees with three or more years of employment, a $6000 retention bonus and establish a $3000 sign-on bonus for new employees.

Marshall, with help from Executive Officer for the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Brad Douglas, explained to the senators that the state’s newest correctional facility, Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County, is already 20 years old. The oldest facility, Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County, was built in 1938.

Marshall was appointed commissioner by Gov. Jim Justice two weeks ago.

Jeff Sandy, cabinet secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, fielded questions from Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, about why there’s only $29 million in the governor’s budget to address the $200 million Corrections needs for deferred maintenance. Brian Arthur, assistant director of fiscal operations for administrative services, clarified that the $29 million is made up of $2 million that Corrections regularly receives for deferred maintenance, and a one-time allocation of $27 million to address a specific need.

“Senator, just so you’ll know, that $27 million is the locks which were broken as of late July of last year. So that does not replace every lock in corrections across the state,” Sandy said.

“What did your office request of the governor for deferred maintenance?” Barrett asked, seeking clarification.

“We have itemized what jobs need to be done: roofs, locks, etc. And the governor’s office makes the decision on what they feel the state could afford,” Sandy said.

“But you outlined that there’s $200 million in deferred maintenance?” Barrett continued.

“We have for six years sir,” Sandy said.

Intermediate Courts Bill Passes Senate Finance, Heads To Floor

A bill that would create another layer for West Virginia’s judicial system in civil cases is now headed to the Senate floor for consideration.

Senate Bill 275 cleared the upper chamber’s Finance Committee Tuesday.

The proposal would create an intermediate court of appeals, giving civil litigants an opportunity to appeal circuit court decisions before being able to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Criminal, juvenile, child abuse and neglect decisions would not be taken up by an intermediate court.

Two three-judge panels would be created — with the state being split into a northern and southern district.

The court would begin operations July 1, 2021, with initial appointments made by the governor. Elections for those seats would take place in May 2022.

The measure is opposed by Democrats who say the court is unnecessary and would add costs to the state budget when revenues are tight.

Republicans say an intermediate court system could help the state’s business climate.

West Virginia Senate Report: October Revenues $3.3 Million Below Estimates

Updated Friday, November 1, 2019 at 2:47 p.m.

State budget revenues again came in under estimates for the month of October. The latest numbers continue a downward trend that has state officials preparing for budget cuts.

A preliminary report from the West Virginia Senate’s Finance Committee says state revenue collections were down $3.3 million in October.

The report says personal income, consumer sales and severance taxes were all below estimates.

Now four months into the fiscal year, the state is more than $33 million behind year-to-date estimates.

Revenue Secretary Dave Hardy last week warned of up to $100 million in budget cuts for the current and upcoming fiscal years. He attributed the downturn in revenue to volatility in severance tax collections from natural gas.

Court of Claims Says Pothole Bills Up, Prison Bills Down

Members of the Senate Finance Committee took up a bill Thursday they see every year, a bill to settle some of the state’s small claims law suit debts. This year lawmakers found out they owe substantially less than previous years, though, because of a reform bill passed two years ago.

House Bill 2876 is short titled the Court of Claims bill. The court hears citizen claims of damages against the state and awards compensations in verdicts to pay for anything from pothole damages to wrongful death suits.

The bill proposed for the 2016 budget has a $1.5 million total from the state’s general revenue, special revenue and road funds.

Cheryle Hall, administrator of the West Virginia Court of Claims, told lawmakers the bill is substantially less than in year’s past because of the 2013 Justice Reinvestment Act and the decrease in overcrowding in the state’s prisons.

“Normally we have a multimillion dollar claim by the Regional Jails against the Division of Corrections for inmates that are held up in Regional Jail Facilities,” Hall explained.

The RJA typically files a suit when the Division of Corrections can’t pay the bill from their budget. This year, however, Hall said the funds were available, saving the state some $3 million.

Claims went up, however, in another area the court often deals with, damages to West Virginians’ cars from potholes. Hall said this year the bill contains more than a thousand claims against the Division of Highways, up exponentially from the 300 or so they receive in a normal calendar year.

Senate Finance Chair Mike Hall said those totals are indicative of the lack of funding for road maintenance in the state, something he’d like to see tackled by a road bond to fund all new construction. The State Road Fund, Halls said, could then be dedicated to maintaining West Virginia’s 39,000 miles of highways and county routes.

“Right now, new construction and maintenance compete for money,” he said after the meeting, “and I know that sooner rather than later, and hopefully not until the next legislative session, will get together and focus on the concept of roads.”

Members of the Finance Committee have called on the governor to share with them the recommendations from his year long Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways’ study on funding state roads.

Hall said without the final recommendations, lawmakers still know what they need and that’s more revenue, but that the public should have some input in how those revenues are made.

Under pressure from the legislature, those final Blue Ribbon Commission recommendations are expected possibly next week.

The Court of Claims bill was approved by committee and now goes to the full Senate.