Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill this week that, according to state School Building Authority officials, will cut by $4 million the SBA's grants to counties for school construction and renovation projects.
Tomblin supported the bill (SB 400), which passed the Senate 30-4 and the House of Delegates 63-33, with four delegates not voting.
Counties across the state submit project proposals to the SBA, which distributes general revenue, bond proceeds and lottery money. The SBA's board votes on which projects to fund. Because the amount of funding school systems request in each annual grant cycle usually far exceeds the SBA's available dollars, counties compete to convince the SBA staff and board which projects are the most needed.
SBA Executive Director David Sneed said SB 400 will cut $1 million from the agency's "major improvement program" grant fund next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
The agency can approve awards of up to $1 million from the fund, which typically has about $5 million to distribute each year.
Sneed said the bill will cut $3 million from the SBA's "needs" fund, which bankrolls larger projects and typically has about, in Sneed's "conservative" estimate, $50 million a year.
"It's probably another major renovation project that we won't be able to do with that amount of money," Sneed said. "The entire state budget - we're in some trouble right now and we've never had cuts before, but we understand that these things have to happen, and we're trying our best to find ways to save money and reduce costs."
Last session, Tomblin signed a bill that also reduced SBA funding for the current fiscal year. That cut took $2 million out of the major improvement program fund and $6 million out of the needs fund, and the decreases aren't cumulative from this fiscal year to the next, so next fiscal year's cut is actually lower.
Sneed said major improvement program funds were previously distributed each year in December, but the SBA board is delaying its vote until June this fiscal year to combine the undistributed, $3 million in funding from this fiscal year with next fiscal year's $4 million in order to give out $7 million all at once. He said companies bidding on school construction and renovations projects tend to bid lower in the winter, so that has contributed to the SBA board moving its separate needs grant distribution vote to December instead.
Sneed said a total of 17 counties have requested $12.4 million total for June's major improvement program disbursement. Among them is Fayette County, which is asking for $1 million to add classrooms to Midland Trail High School.
Terry George, the Fayette schools superintendent that state Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano appointed to lead that school system, which is under state control, said that would allow the beleaguered Ansted Middle building to be shut down.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1254, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.