CHARLESTON — West Virginia lawmakers breezed through Gov. Joe Manchin’s laundry list in this special session Wednesday, with only a few feathers ruffled over his proposed freeze on the escalator in the gasoline tax.
Manchin proposed a moratorium on the add-on tax, one that is computed on the average wholesale price of gasoline from July through October each year.
Almost overlooked was the main reason Manchin had called the session — an outlay of $25 million to help move teachers in the defined contribution system back into the old retirement plan.
Without fanfare, that bill cleared easily, as did a number of appropriations bills, including $5 million to upgrade the state’s ancient computer system, although Manchin had wanted $30 million.
“Every penny helps,” Manchin said earlier in the week, explaining motorists would benefit by a freeze to keep the escalator from pumping up the fuel tax another 6 cents in January.
Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, reluctantly voted for the bill, but stood by his earlier comments to The Register-Herald that he had serious reservations about diverting money from the general revenue fund into the Division of Highways, albeit this tack was used two years ago.
Questioned by Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, he called the approach “shortsighted” and warned motorists might suffer with less-than-normal road upkeep.
“We can’t maintain the same level of services,” Helmick said.
“Politically, it’s popular. At the end of the day, we’re going to take money away from our roads.”
Majority Whip Billy Wayne Bailey, D-Wyoming, joined Sens. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, and Joseph Minard, D-Harrison, in voting against the measure.
Bailey suggested road maintenance ultimately would suffer and motorists given a token tax break would reap an expensive harvest when vehicles are damaged as highways deteriorate for lack of funds.
“Sixty dollars a year in a tax savings?” he asked after the session. “And it’s going to cost me $120 to have the front end of my car realigned — once.
“We sit around and put the burden of lowering the price of gasoline on this pittance the state and federal government get off taxes that we build roads and take the snow off with. Nobody argues with the Arabs who are causing the price to be $140 a barrel of oil.”
Manchin two years ago used an executive order to impose a moratorium, but only because the market had been thrown out of kilter in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Lawmakers also agreed to send $45 million in federal money to the State Police to combat drugs, put $1 million into the Meals-on-Wheels program for seniors, $5 million to shore up county school budgets constrained by rising diesel costs to keep their fleets of buses running and $24 million to pay off long-term debts.
To offset the loss in tax money for the Division of Highways for road building and upkeep with the gas tax freeze, the Legislature dipped into the general revenue and lottery surpluses for $40 million.
For one critic, however, every dollar counts.
Before the vote, McCabe also said he felt it unwise to deprive the DOH a portion of its normal source of money and make up the difference with budget and lottery surpluses.
“The gas tax is a good tax,” McCabe told reporters just before the Senate agreed to move $40 million over to the DOH. “Those that use the highways contribute significantly to the upkeep and expansion and maintenance of it.”
McCabe interpreted it to mean the $40 million transfer would be repeated again next year, meaning twice that amount is actually going to be pilfered from the general revenue account.
A better way to use that money is for the state to acquire two or three 1,000-acre sites and prepare them with vital infrastructure so they are ready for use if and when an out-of-state investor comes shopping for land. “Those kinds of strategic positions that we set ourselves into compete in the future,” the Senate economic development chairman said.
McCabe said money used to cover the freeze on the gas tax could have been used in the Bucks-for-Brains program that enhances academia with an eye toward economic development.
What’s more, he said, money could have been spent on venture capital and in shoring up workforce training at the community college level.
“I’m not critical of the actions or the reasons that make sense,” he said.
“I suspect the public is for it. From my perspective as a state senator trying to look at policy over a multi-year period, I’m trying to use our dollars strategically, trying to help the state economy grow, not compete with it. I’m clearly uncomfortable with this.”
McCabe said he wasn’t trying to throw a monkey wrench into the popular measure.
“I’m taking a big-picture view, now a micro view,” he added.
