Legislators essentially were treading water Wednesday, as leaders spent day eight of the special session scrambling to find any viable source of new tax revenue that could have any chance of passing both houses, after a tobacco tax hike was soundly defeated in the House of Delegates on Tuesday.
"We're not getting encouragement that there is," Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, said of finding consensus of support in the House and Senate for any new taxes to close a $270 million shortfall in the 2016-17 budget.
Possible options that have been raised included temporarily raising the consumer sales tax, or revisiting the tobacco tax.
If there's no chance of raising revenue, Carmichael said the Senate will advance a budget bill that will make a "heavy dip into the Rainy Day fund" to close the deficit - testing Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's pledge to veto any budget bill that takes anything more than a "few million dollars" from the state's emergency reserve funds.
"It's the only option we have left if no revenue can be generated with tax increases," Carmichael said of increasing Rainy Day funding in the Senate's budget bill (SB 1001) to as much as $200 million.
Senate Finance Chairman Mike Hall, R-Putnam, said the hope would be that Tomblin would treat a budget bill heavily reliant on Rainy Day funds as the equivalent of a continuing resolution, allowing state government operations to continue after July 1, until a special session to raise tax revenue could be held after the November elections.
"The one thing we can't do is let the government shut down," Hall said. "I don't think the governor will let the government shut down."
Wednesday morning, Tomblin met with Senate Democrats over breakfast to discuss options moving forward.
Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, who requested the meeting, said Tomblin is open to any suggestions to raise revenue or make reasoned spending cuts.
"The governor did have a discussion this morning with Senate Democrats talking about what might be the most appropriate path forward on the budget," Tomblin spokesman Chris Stadelman said Wednesday.
"The governor continues to be willing to look at other options, and a $1 tobacco tax is one of those options. The sales tax is one of the options," Stadelman said. "He's open to suggestions from either party or either house."
However, he said Tomblin is adamant that new revenue is needed for the 2016-17 budget to keep future budget deficits from growing to $300 million to $350 million or more each year in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 state budgets.
"Revenue has to be increased," Stadelman said.
"It's a process, and the bottom line is, it doesn't matter what comes out of the Senate and goes to the House without the House being part of the discussion," Unger said. "For me, the key is working with the House."
Stadelman said the governor believes that with nearly $400 million of base budget cuts made over the past three years, the budget has been cut to the point where further no cuts can be made without employee layoffs and loss of services.
"If House Republicans truly believe the budget is bloated, they need to come back to us with base cuts, and they need to be specific about what is to be cut," he said.
Otherwise, the 74th day of the state budget impasse was marked with little overt activity in either house, as leadership tried to regroup from the 44-55 defeat of the tobacco tax bill (SB 1005) in the House, a bill that would have closed between $76 million and $78 million of the budget shortfall.
The Senate laid over the budget bill Wednesday afternoon, in hopes that a long shot agreement could be reached to find new tax revenue.
One hoped-for possibility, that the House would reconsider its vote on the tobacco tax, and amend the bill to include a $1 a pack cigarette tax favored by many House Democrats, did not materialize on the House floor Wednesday evening.
The House postponed action on all four bills on the House calendar Wednesday.
Likewise, no House or Senate committees met Wednesday.
Meanwhile, during an earlier House floor session, delegates from both sides of the aisle urged the House to come up with a budget plan, including Delegate Frank Deem, R-Wood, who first served in the House beginning in 1955.
"We're not getting the job done, and we look bad on the public's side because of that," he said.
Delegate Jim Morgan, D-Cabell, who is leaving the House after a tenure dating back to 1989, called for cooperation.
He said the tobacco tax vote showed that there are 20 House Republicans who will vote against tax increases of any kind, but said, "That leaves 80 of us."
Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, also retiring after a long House career, said legislators need to borrow a technique from the past when conferees would go into a room and not leave until they had worked out an agreement.
Delegate Steven Shaffer, D-Preston, had a similar message, saying, "I'm sure there's a group of people in this body from both sides that can get together and solve this problem."
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1220, or follow
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