CHARLESTON — In their first meeting since Tuesday’s primary elections, lawmakers will gather at the State Capitol Building Sunday afternoon for a special session to beef up the skinny budget passed in March and pass other bills.

Gov. Jim Justice issued a proclamation Friday afternoon calling lawmakers into the first special session of 2024, with lawmakers gaveling in Sunday at 5 p.m.

“I’ve said time and time again that I would call a special session as soon as I heard that lawmakers were ready,” Justice said in a statement Friday. “I know additional matters need to be taken up, but for now, these are the issues they are ready to address, so I’m calling them in for a special session.”

In a phone interview earlier Friday morning, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Vernon Criss provided details about the 15 bills on the special session agenda, with most bills being supplemental appropriations to restore several cuts made to Justice’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget that takes effect Monday, July 1.

“The items that will be on the call are items that there is a critical need for between now and the end of the fiscal year, that needs to be addressed,” said Criss, R-Wood. “These items are addressing those, so that for the beginning of the new fiscal year, these items will be in place.”

The House of Delegates and state Senate passed Senate Bill 200, the budget bill, on the last day of the 2024 regular legislative session on March 9. Justice presented his budget bill to lawmakers during his final State of the State address. Justice’s introduced budget was $5.265 billion.

That budget that was passed, also called the skinny budget, made several cuts to the governor’s proposed budget and held back appropriations of projected surplus monies until the state received approval of a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education for not meeting required levels of education spending needed to remain eligible to spend federal COVID-19 funds distributed to all 55 county school systems.

SB 200 set the general revenue budget for the next fiscal year at $4.996 billion, 5% less than the governor’s version. The skinny budget left more than $300 million unappropriated and gutted the section of the budget dedicated to appropriating available surplus dollars in the general revenue budget available at the end of the current fiscal year on Sunday, June 30. 

Lawmakers made several other cuts, including approximately $147 million from Medicaid and the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) waiver program. Justice said those cuts would be restored if lawmakers agree with one of his proposed bills.

“The special session I’m calling today isn’t just really important; it’s critical to the health and well-being of some of our state’s most vulnerable people,” Justice said. “In my book, restoring budgets for our Departments of Health and Human Services is the most pressing item on the call. We have hundreds of thousands of people in West Virginia who are relying on us right now, including foster kids and those with disabilities. If we don’t restore these funds immediately, it would be a real tragedy with real consequences.”

Another restored cut includes $50 million for a new agriculture lab on the campus of West Virginia State University in Institute. Since the budget bill is already law, Criss said lawmakers will pass supplemental appropriations to restore these cuts to the Governor’s recommended funding levels.

“The only way we have to do it is by supplemental appropriation,” Criss said. “The budget bill has already been passed, so it takes effect July 1. So, the only way we can adjust it is through supplemental appropriations.”

Other supplemental appropriations include $10 million for the Posey Perry Emergency Food Fund, $150 million for additional paving projects, and $27.3 million for the Hope Scholarship program, $2 million for contract nursing for West Virginia Veterans Home and veterans nursing facilities, and $2.8 million for the historical mural project in the upper rotunda of the State Capitol Building.

“We’ve seen unbelievable surpluses in West Virginia over the last few years and need to use them to take care of our roads while improving access to education,” Justice said. “When people and businesses are looking to move to West Virginia, they first ask about the roads and schools. We must continue providing additional funds for highway maintenance and school choice through the successful Hope

Scholarship.”

As much as $83 million could also be appropriated to the state Higher Education Policy Commission for the state of emergency over the federal issues with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The $83 million will come from the state’s PEIA Rainy Day Fund.

The funding will be used to ensure that in-state students have access to higher education funding for the PROMISE Scholarship and the need-based higher education grant.