In a burst of efficiency Saturday, the state Senate quickly passed a new compromise 2016-17 state budget plan, along with nearly $100 million of tobacco tax increases to help fund it, then hunkered down to wait to see if either proposal survives in the House of Delegates.
Later Saturday afternoon, House Finance Committee members acted quickly to advance the governor's proposed tobacco tax increase without amendment Saturday evening - a major step toward passage.
"It's not the perfect solution to many of the woes in our state, but it is an opportunity to plug some holes in a sinking ship," Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, said earlier Saturday, endorsing the budget bill.
He noted that, if approved in the House, the compromise budget will avoid a "catastrophic shutdown of government services" on July 1.
"Here we are less than three weeks from July 1, and we don't have a budget. If this passes, we will," Kessler said.
In a display of efficiency that sharply contrasted with the first 13 days of the special session, the Senate Saturday passed three bills in the span of one hour and 10 minutes.
The Senate activity marked the 91st day of the state budget impasse, and came three days after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed what he called an irresponsible budget bill that was balanced largely by raiding nearly $182 million from the state's Rainy Day emergency reserve funds. The compromise budget takes about $70 million from Rainy Day funds.
The new $4.187 billion budget bill (SB 1013) includes about $112 million in spending cuts - about $3 million less than the budget Tomblin vetoed - and provides $43 million to fully fund the employers' share of PEIA health insurance premium increases, while fully funding Promise scholarships and higher education grant programs.
It passed the Senate on a 27-4 vote, with Sens. Doug Facemire, D-Braxton; Robert Karnes, R-Upshur; Mike Romano, D-Harrison; and Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, voting no. Sens. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants; Greg Boso, R-Nicholas; and John Unger, D-Berkeley, were absent Saturday.
The new budget relies on the passage of a bill to raise tobacco taxes by $98.5 million a year, including a 65-cent-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes (SB 1012).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, said the 65-cent figure was a compromise by the Tomblin administration, which had proposed a 45-cent increase in the regular session and earlier in the special session, and the $1 a pack tax increase passed in the Senate in the regular session and supported by many House Democrats.
Carmichael said the 65-cent increase would raise a sizable amount of new revenue, but wouldn't be high enough to hurt retailers in counties bordering Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
"It's a tax you chose to pay," Carmichael said of focusing on a tobacco tax hike for new revenue. "If you chose to use tobacco, it's a luxury item."
The bill does not dedicate a portion of the new tobacco taxes to fund PEIA premiums, a proposal sought by House Democrats. Carmichael said the governor's office believed that provision would be impossible to administer, since PEIA funding shows up as separate budget line-items for hundreds of agency accounts.
"It's the governor's opinion that's essentially a lawsuit waiting to happen," Carmichael said of dedicating a portion of tobacco tax revenues to PEIA.
The Senate passed the tax increase on 24-7 vote, with Sens. Facemire; Karnes; Romano; Ryan Ferns, R-Ohio; Kent Leonhardt, R-Monongalia; Mark Maynard, R-Wayne; and Dave Sypolt, R-Preston, voting against it.
With the House Finance Committee advancing the bill without amendment, the 65-cent increase goes to the House floor, where a previous tobacco tax increase proposal was defeated by a 55-44 vote earlier in the special session.
Romano made note of the bill's uncertain future in the House, saying, "Who are we compromising with? Ourselves? Down the hall, we've gotten no indication anything's going to get passed that helps the state."
Somewhat ominously, the House Finance Committee Saturday evening also advanced a bill to give the governor authority to continue to pay principle and interest on the state's outstanding bond debts after July 1, to keep the state from defaulting on bonds, which would devastate its bond ratings.
Asked about the need for the fail-safe measure, House Finance Chairman Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, commented, "I've tried three times already to get budgets through this body and run into interference each time."
A third bill passed in the Senate Saturday shifts $10 million of state Lottery profits from the state Infrastructure Council Fund to help close the budget shortfall (SB 1011).
Carmichael said shifting the funding could postpone future water and sewer projects, but would not delay funding for any projects currently underway. It passed 28-3 with Sens. Maynard, Romano and Ed Gaunch, R-Kanawha, voting no.
Also Saturday, the House rejected a motion to override the governor's veto on the budget bill passed June 2. The 55-29 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority of all delegates needed to override an appropriations bill veto.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.