West Virginia Finally has a Budget [feedly]

West Virginia Finally has a Budget
http://www.wvpolicy.org/west-virginia-finally-has-a-budget/

After failing to come to an agreement on a plan to either completely overhaul the state's tax system, or simply raise some revenue to close the upcoming budget gap, the legislature passed a "bare bones" budget over the weekend, ending the extended special session just two weeks before a possible government shutdown.

The FY 2018 budget totals $4.653 billion, including $4.225 billion from General Revenue. That is $280.3 million less than what was proposed by the governor at the beginning of the regular session, and $124.6 million less than the governor's special session proposal.

Cuts were made throughout the budget to bring it into balance. Some of the major cuts, compared to the governor's original proposal, include:

• Eliminating the Save Our State Fund
• $5.3 million cut from the Department of Education, including $1 million cut from 21st Century Assessment and Professional Development and eliminating Innovation in Education and Technology Systems Specialist funding  – $4.5 million.
• Canceling the teacher's pay raise – $19.4 million.
• Smoothing teacher's retirement system unfunded liability payments – $44.7 million.
• $4.5 million cut from the Division of Health, including eliminating funding for the Tobacco Education Program – $3 million.
• $5 million cut from the Consolidated Medical Service Fund.
• $84.2 million reduction from General Revenue funding for Medicaid.
• $3.8 million cut from the Division of Corrections.
• $1.5 million cut from the State Police.
• $2.8 million cut from Community and Technical Colleges.
• $6.2 million cut from Higher Education, which comes on top of the $10 million cut in the original FY 2018 budget proposal.
• Funding for the Educational Broadcasting Authority, which was eliminated in the governor's original proposal, was restored, but cut by $1 million from FY 2017.

The table below lists all of the cuts made to the budget compared to the governor's original proposal.

 -- via my feedly newsfeed