The House of Delegates voted 72-19 Tuesday to approve a bill to give Boone County Schools the extra money that county officials said they need to give employees their final paychecks on time this month.
The state Senate approved the bill (SB 1010) Monday, and it heads to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's desk for a signature. At the start of this month, Tomblin expanded the special session call to allow lawmakers to consider the bill.
The bill would provide the Boone public school system about $2.2 million more for this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Tomblin's statement said the money would allow the school system to "continue to meet payroll responsibilities while working toward a solution to address significant shortfalls caused by an unprecedented drop in local property tax collections."
"It will allow us to meet all of our payroll obligations for fiscal year '16," Boone Schools Superintendent John Hudson said of the bill, which he thanked lawmakers and the governor for supporting.
The bill passed the House Tuesday afternoon with Delegates Azinger, Cadle, Faircloth, Folk, Foster, Frich, Gearheart, Hanshaw, Howell, Ihle, Kurcaba, McGeehan, Overington, Rohrbach, Shott, Sobonya, Summers, Walters and Waxman voting against it. Delegates Deem, Ellington, Ferro, Flanigan, Ireland, Manchin, Trecost, Upson and Brad White didn't vote.
The bill passed the Senate 32-0, with only Sens. Karnes and Mullins absent. All legislators who represent Boone County supported the bill.
In a letter to employees earlier this month, Hudson wrote that if the steps the school system had already taken to save money - including asking for more state money - didn't help the school system meet payroll, the last June paychecks would be given in early July, when the new fiscal year starts.
Jeff Huffman - a Boone assistant superintendent who will become superintendent now that Hudson is taking the helm of Putnam County Schools - said the county assessor's office estimated that tax collections would drop about $2.4 million from last fiscal year to this one.
But he said the drop has actually been about $9.3 million to date, and that unexpected $6.9 million loss represents 17 percent of the county's operating budget.
Hudson's letter said the "unanticipated" bankruptcies of Alpha Natural Resources and Patriot Coal were largely to blame. Delegates said that if Boone gets any money from the coal companies in bankruptcy proceedings, the school system must turn that money over to the state to help reimburse it.
Boone's school board made headlines this school year for voting to close three elementary schools and cut 80 positions, but those savings won't take effect until next fiscal year.
Despite Hudson's arguments that the school system's leaders were not to blame for the possibility of delayed paychecks, a lawyer for West Virginia's branch of the American Federation of Teachers union sent a letter to Hudson and Boone school board members, accusing the board of threatening to unlawfully withhold wages owed to teachers and service personnel."
The lawyer, Jeffrey G. Blaydes of the Charleston-based firm Carbone & Blaydes, wrote that the union had directed him "to explore all legal rights and remedies available to their members."
"This bill is going to help a lot of people," Delegate Jeff Eldridge, D-Lincoln, said Tuesday. "It's not just 700 employees. I'm sure most of these people have kids, this is gonna affect them. They chose to get their payment broken up in 12 months, never thinking that something like this could happen."
Charles Chapman, Boone schools' treasurer/financial services director, said that while most school employees work about 10 months per school year, most opt to spread their paychecks over 12 months.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.