We at the WVCBP are closely monitoring the evolving federal budget process and its potential impact on critical programs like Medicaid and SNAP. House leadership recently delayed key committee markups on the budget package, including in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. These markups are now expected next week, the week of May 12. That is when House Republicans are likely to reveal the specific Medicaid cuts they plan to propose in order to meet their target of $880 billion in reductions.
We anticipate the actual policy proposals to be released just hours before the markup begins, which leaves little time for public scrutiny. Meanwhile, the House Agriculture Committee, responsible for SNAP, is also scheduled to meet next week, setting the stage for simultaneous threats to food assistance.
Speaker Johnson continues to aim for a full House vote on a reconciliation bill by Memorial Day. At this time, there is no parallel process in the Senate, but reports indicate that Congressional Republicans are negotiating behind closed doors to build consensus around a final package. Some Republicans have voiced concern about deep cuts, and it’s clear that continued pressure is making a difference.
That is why it is critical we stay active. Alongside state and national partners, there are several upcoming opportunities for West Virginians to take action. This week, and in the weeks to come, we’ll be ramping up our advocacy to defend Medicaid and SNAP from harmful cuts that would hurt families across our state.
Take action today! Use our form to contact West Virginia’s federal lawmakers and urge them to protect federal programs that help people meet their basic needs. Our elected officials must prioritize the well-being of West Virginians, not corporate interests and tax breaks for billionaires.
You can also contact your lawmakers by phone at the following numbers:
Check out our recent videos to learn more about how cuts to SNAP and Medicaid would negatively impact West Virginians.
Read Kelly’s recent blog postto learn more about the different ways Congress is considering approaching cuts to Medicaid.
Read Alex’s recent blog post to learn more about how West Virginia communities have mobilized to push back against harmful federal budget proposals.
Read Kelly’s recent blog post to learn more about Jim Justice’s prior support for protecting Medicaid while serving as West Virginia Governor and his current opportunity to support the vital program as a sitting US Senator.
The final FY 2026 budget passed by the legislature during the 2025 legislative session closely resembled the budget introduced by Governor Morrisey back in February- largely flat from previous years with the impact of tax cuts and the ballooning cost of the Hope Scholarship crowding out many new investments. While the final budget was balanced as constitutionally required, there are significant budget gaps projected in the coming years as highlighted in the Morrisey Administration’ssix year financial plan, and lawmakers are increasingly relying on one-time excess or surplus funds to cover ongoing budget costs, which could spell trouble when there are fewer or no surpluses. Meanwhile, longstanding needs like ensuring Medicaid solvency, filling public sector vacancies, funding school support positions, bringing down higher education costs, and increasing access to child care remain unaddressed.
The Final FY 2026 Budget
The legislature passed a $5.73 billion base budget for FY 2026, which includes General Revenue and Lottery appropriations, with public education and Medicaid and Social Services the largest areas of the budget. Overall, spending is still significantly below pre-pandemic levels, adjusting for inflation. General Revenue spending is down $500 million, or nearly 10 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, compared with FY 2019, which was $5.8 billion in 2024 dollars, compared to $5.3 billion for FY 2026.
Public Defender Services Reduced in Final Budget, Relies on One-time Funding
Most areas of the final budget were unchanged from the Governor’s proposal. One notable change was for Public Defender Services. Public Defender Corporations were cut in the final budget by $1.4 million, from $26.7 million to $25.3 million, while Appointed Counsel Fees were cut by $15 million, from $32.7 million to $17.7 million. These funds are still expected to be needed, but lawmakers decided to fund the ongoing, annual services through a one-time supplemental.
In contrast, Tourism received a $7.25 million boost, increasing from $14.0 million to $21.25 million, while $3.0 million in new appropriations was added to the Division of Health for pregnancy centers. In higher education, a new appropriation of $1.5 million was added for the new Washington Center at West Virginia University.
The school aid formula also saw a small change, as a recalculation of the local share decreased the state’s share by $12.2 million.
Millions Set Aside for Tax Cuts
The Department of Revenue saw an increased appropriation of $33.8 million above the governor’s proposed budget. This funding is to be directed to the Personal Income Tax Reserve Fund, essentially set aside for additional tax cuts, making it unavailable for any investment elsewhere in the budget, like in child care assistance, which has seen its state budget allocation cut in half since FY 2014.
One-time Funding Used for Ongoing Costs
Once again, the FY 2026 budget relies on one-time surplus dollars to fund a number of ongoing costs. In addition to Public Defender Services as highlighted above, the most notable example is for the Hope Scholarship. Only $24.6 million of the estimated $110 million FY 2026 cost of the program is funded through the Department of Education’s General Revenue appropriation. The remaining cost is funded through one-time supplementals, including $28.4 million from a General Revenue supplemental appropriation and a $33.8 million Lottery surplus appropriation. In FY 2027, when the program’s cost is expected to triple to $300 million, even more pressure will be placed on the budget due to relying on one-time funding to fund the program in FY 2026.
Fully funding ongoing Medicaid costs also relied on one-time supplementals, including $45.0 million from Excess Lottery surplus, $39.4 million from a General Revenue supplemental, and an additional $9.5 million from Excess Lottery surplus.
By using one-time dollars to cover these ongoing, base budget costs, state lawmakers are obscuring the true cost of state operations and programs. In total, one-time dollars used for ongoing, base budget costs in FY 2026 total at least $172 million across Public Defender Services, Medicaid, and the Hope Scholarship.
Governor Exercises Veto Power
Governor Morrisey used his line item veto power to object to a number of budget line items, essentially making additional cuts to the budget. Notable reductions include reducing the new line item for Computer Science education from $2.0 million to $600,000, reducing funding for the Ronald McDonald House of Morgantown from $5.0 million to $2.0 million, and reducing the line item for Court Appointed Special Advocates from $1.1 million to $300,000.
The largest vetoes were in the surplus section of the budget. Both the Economic Development Project Fund ($75 million) and the Water Development Authority ($10 million) saw their line items reduced to $0. The Division of Highways saw two reductions of the $25 million, one from the Road Fund (from $700 million to $675 million), and one from the surplus section of the budget (from $125 million to $100 million).
Declining Revenue from Tax Cuts Continue to Undermine State Needs
With multiple rounds of tax cuts eating away at personal income tax revenue and the growing expense of the Hope Scholarship, many of the state’s needs that the governor’s proposed budget did not address remained unaddressed. A permanent solution to PEIA; restoring funding for child care; addressing public school safety, staffing needs, and rural school closures; and public employee pay raises were left out of the budget, while money was set aside for further tax cuts and the Hope Scholarship continues to grow. With deep budget gaps on the horizon, further neglect of necessary priorities that would truly improve the state remains likely.
Read Sean’s full blog post.
Children in West Virginia are constitutionally guaranteed a thorough and efficient system of free schools provided by the legislature. In recent years, our public education system has faced mounting challenges including declining enrollment, declining state revenues due to tax cuts, increased disinvestment through the Hope Scholarship, and threats to federal funding and support for public education. These challenges have placed the constitutional guarantee of public education at risk for the nearly 90 percent of school-aged children in our state who attend public schools. Many of these challenges could have been addressed during the 2025 legislative session, however very few beneficial bills received the attention that they deserved, while more harmful bills were allowed to advance.
No More Money for Public Education
Although several bills aimed at increasing investment in public schools through improving the funding formula and enhancing pay for school employees were introduced this session, none ultimately passed. One bill in particular, SB 471, aimed to modify the funding formula to provide additional funding according to the type of students served by school districts (e.g., students from low-income families, students with disabilities, students in rural schools). This approach would have more equitably funded students with greater needs, which would be especially beneficial to the wide range of students that attend WV public schools. More than half of students in West Virginia public schools are from low-income families and one in five have a disability or receive special education services. Similarly, bills to increase pay for educators and service personnel failed to gain the traction needed to pass, despite pay ranking far below all neighboring states. While no significant progress was made in these areas, Governor Morrisey has expressed plans to revisit the school funding formula and PEIA during special sessions later this year.
Students Are Still Waiting for Support
Behavioral and socioemotional challenges among students have been a growing concern for schools in recent years. This has led to a trend of stricter and more exclusionary discipline policies despite evidence that these policies do not adequately address student behavioral issues, and contribute to negative outcomes among students and disparities across student groups. This trend continued into the 2025 session with several bills considered that aimed to expand current use of exclusionary discipline to elementary aged students, promote punitive action for classroom disruptions, and, in the case of HB 2545, to allow for the use of corporal punishment.
While legislators had the opportunity to prioritize support over punishment and provide increased mental, social, and emotional support for students with HB 3209, after significant amendments, the bill that passed may be ineffective or even harmful. This bill aimed to provide critical funding to school districts to ensure that they would be appropriately staffed with school counselors for their student population and that every school in the state would have at least one school counselor. Ultimately, rather than increasing funding for professional support personnel, which includes school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists, HB 3209 simply requires that school districts allocate two of their existing five professional support personnel slots to school counselors. In its final form, this legislation provides school districts with no new resources to hire school counselors–it just constrains them within an existing funding stream and could even create unintended consequences of reducing nurses, social workers, or school psychologists to comply with the new requirement while many districts are already understaffed for student support.
Less State Oversight and More State Funds for Non-Public Schools
Non-public education settings including private schools, homeschools, and microschools already have limited regulations and accountability measures when compared to public schools in our state. A few bills that were introduced this session aimed to further weaken regulations and accountability measures for non-public education. SB 914, which passed the legislature but has not been signed by the governor at the time of publication, will remove the requirement for private, parochial, and religious schools to maintain student performance on testing above a certain level and to implement remediation when performance is below that level. Testing is essentially the only accountability measure for Hope Scholarship students at non-public schools aside from attendance, and research shows mixed or negative results on academic performance for students that use voucher programs to attend non-public schools.
Last year, non-public schools received more than $16 million in public funds through the Hope Scholarship and this is will only grow with the expected cost of the program for next school year surpassing $100 million. Although some legislators expressed concerns over the growing cost of the program, there haven’t been any significant efforts to curtail it.
Looking Ahead
Following the 2025 regular legislative session, challenges persist for public education in West Virginia. Legislators are still accountable for the guarantee of public education outlined in our state constitution and they need to reaffirm their commitment to the children of this state. As we progress toward interims and special sessions, legislators should consider the following recommendations.
Read Tamaya’s full blog post.
Following this year’s regular legislative session, the need for sufficient funding and support for public schools remains. Although several bills were introduced this session to modernize the school funding formula, prevent school closures, and provide increased pay and benefits for school employees, none of these bills passed. Meanwhile, the legislature approved continued funding for the Hope Scholarship, which has provided over $48 million to families so far this school year and is expected to cost $110 million next school year. As it stands, many of the challenges that public schools across the state face including declining enrollment, inadequate funding, staff and course reductions, and school closures and consolidations continue to go unaddressed. While it is likely that legislators will reconvene to discuss some of these issues later this year, in the meantime, local school districts will have to make difficult decisions in order to continue to serve the children in their communities. Further, it is unlikely current budget factors–including a ballooning Hope Scholarship program and continued efforts to reduce state revenues through additional tax cuts–will allow for adequate funding to be left to make needed investments in the public school system.
Enrollment decline has been a growing challenge for public schools in Raleigh County (as it has throughout much of West Virginia), with a five percent decline in the student population over the past five years. While this reduction isn’t as drastic as in other counties across the state, it still has considerable financial implications for this county’s school district. From the 2022-2023 school year to the 2023-2024 school year, the district lost more than 300 students, which equates to $1.9 million annually in lost state funding through the school funding formula. This funding covers essential costs to operate schools and maintain staffing. When this funding is at risk, school districts often resort to cutting instructional programs and support services, reducing staff, or closing schools because they can’t easily reduce costs in other areas with fixed costs such as transportation and building maintenance.
Last month, the Raleigh County Board of Education approved a wave of employee reductions, transfers, and terminations that could affect more than 150 employees. School administrators in Raleigh County pointed to enrollment decline, funding losses, and the Hope Scholarship as the reasons driving this decision, which will impact educators across all grade levels and subjects.
Career and technical education is one area that will be significantly impacted by this decision, with cuts slated for department heads and teachers that provide training for commercial driving, nursing, cosmetology, plumbing, HVAC, welding, and phlebotomy. It is essential for public schools to maintain opportunities for career, technical, and vocational training for students, considering this is the next step after high school for many students. About two-thirds of West Virginia young adults (aged 16 to 24) are employed and only half of West Virginia public school graduates enroll in college within a year of graduation.
Student support is another area significantly impacted by these cuts. Five counselors across elementary, middle, and high schools in the district will be terminated and 25 more will be placed on a reduced work schedule or transferred to other schools. Members of the local school board cited the school funding formula as the reason for the personnel cuts. Earlier this year, legislators had the opportunity to address this challenge and ensure that schools were appropriately staffed with school counselors through HB 3209, which would have provided funding and mandated ratios for school counselors. Although this bill did pass, it went through significant changes that stripped provisions that would have included funding to hire new school counselors or to support existing counselors.
In addition to declining enrollment and funding reductions, the Hope Scholarship is a major contributor to public education challenges in Raleigh County. The county has some of the highest Hope Scholarship participation in the state; during the 2023-2024 school year, it had the fourth-highest number of participants at 308, which was more than double the number from the previous year. The funds that were diverted from this public school system as a result were nearly matched by the funds that went to private schools in the county via the Hope Scholarship. Private schools in Raleigh County received more than $1.2 million in Hope Scholarship funds last school year. This trend is likely to continue due to the relatively high concentration of private schools in this area– Raleigh County is one of just 10 counties in the state that has more than five private schools.
As legislators consider action throughout interims and special sessions this year, they need to prioritize the children of our state and protect public education. If the approach to school funding isn’t updated, school districts will continue to be forced to cut critical positions and programs to remain open. The Hope Scholarship will continue to exacerbate this issue by diverting hundreds of millions of public dollars to private schools.
Recommendations
Read Tamaya’s full blog post.
Public schools across West Virginia are facing growing challenges of disinvestment of funding/resources and decreased student enrollment, resulting in school consolidations and closures. On Monday, May 12, the WVCBP will be in Parkersburg alongside our partners to help community members better understand the impacts of recent school closures in the county. Arecent article provides additional event details. Excerpt below:
A town hall meeting concerning the impact of school closures on education will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Monday in the banquet room at the Worthington Golf Course.
The meeting, which will include a time for questions and answers, is sponsored by the Parkersburg Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO and AFT-Wood County.
“We’ve had several school closures in Wood County and residents also have concerns about the teachers, staff and programs potentially being cut in our local school system,” said Jeff Fox, recording secretary of the Parkersburg Area Labor Council. “We’ve asked several West Virginia agencies that are focused on how our taxpayer dollars are spent for education, strengthening school-based student mental health programs and making sure that all West Virginia students have safe and welcoming spaces for learning to explain what they see down the road for public education in our state and county.”
In Wood County, the Board of Education closed and merged VanDevender Middle School with Jackson and Hamilton Middle Schools and closed Fairplains Elementary to merge with Martin Elementary. A report about state and federal legislation and orders and how public education in Wood County and the state of West Virginia is affected will be presented by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
Joe White, executive director of the West Virginia Secondary School Personnel Association, will discuss impacts on school staff and representatives from AFT-West Virginia will speak on behalf of the teachers.
The event is free and open to the public. Light snacks will be served.
The golf course is located at 3414 Roseland Ave. in Parkersburg. The banquet room is upstairs in the clubhouse where the entrance is from the upper parking lot.
Read the full article.
Since taking office in January 2025, the Trump Administration, DOGE, and Congress have taken a “chainsaw” to government grants, programs, and services, though by many metrics, DOGE has actually increased spending and the deficit through the costs of botched firings and rehirings, lost productivity, and hundreds of billions in lost tax revenue annually due to the gutting of the Internal Revenue Service.
Regardless, the cuts to grants, programs, and federal jobs that West Virginians rely on are undoubtedly having a concerning impact, with lost federal funds totaling at least $220 million just through the first 100 days of the Trump Administration. These reductions are already affecting public services and programs West Virginians rely on and are eliminating jobs in the state, but the speed and range of the cuts can make it hard to see a full picture of the impacts.
The WVCBP is tracking the ongoing impacts of federal DOGE cuts in West Virginia in real-time, including terminated grants to state agencies, terminated grants to non-profit and non-governmental entities, federal offices closed through lease cancellations, federal workers fired or laid off, and federal program cuts enacted by Congress. You can find updates on our newly added webpage. Please note this resource almost certainly underestimates the impact of federal funding cuts, as things change from day to day. The page is being updated regularly.
Do you know of a federal grant or job impacted by recent cuts that is not listed on our page? Have you been personally impacted by these cuts and are willing to share your story? If so, please contact Kelly.
During the 2025 regular legislative session, lawmakers passed legislation pertaining to microgrids that is expected to have significant consequences for local control and funding. A recent article, including insight from WVCBP executive director Kelly Allen, provides further details. Excerpt below:
The Power Generation and Consumption Act…would establish a certified microgrid development program, including requirements for certification, service, customer eligibility and special contracts. It would establish a high-impact data center program, including provisions for notification, certification and recordkeeping.
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In West Virginia, bill proponents argue that the state needs to capitalize on development—especially as demand soars for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data storage—by enticing companies to build there. But critics argue that the way the bill is written may hurt West Virginians with, for example, provisions such as prohibiting local jurisdictions from regulating microgrid districts and data centers in their own regions. Some also argue that the legislation will raise costs on communities and may be at odds with the state’s constitution.
Kelly Allen, executive director of the independent nonprofit policy research organization West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, says her group has concerns with preempting local control or removing the voice of the communities that will be directly affected by the development. Also, she adds, counties and municipalities lose out because the bill diverts about 70% of property tax revenue away from them and into the state fund. The local jurisdictions, she says, are the ones that will bear the cost of the new development, which includes costs for infrastructure or services such as fire and police response.
“The cost of all the things that local governments pay for will go way up, but they will not necessarily see that increased investment,” Allen says.
In a statement to ENR, Appalachian Power said the legislation presents significant challenges, especially as it “diminishes the opportunity for Appalachian Power to grow through the increasing demand for data centers and other customers located in the microgrid district. These types of customers provide a key opportunity to spread fixed costs over a greater number of customers, which could mitigate the impacts of future rate requests.”
The utility added that certain provisions of the legislation that are unrelated to microgrids will lead to rate increases in the millions of dollars for customers.
“One of the most concerning outcomes is increased costs associated with the provision related to coal procurement and plant operations,” Appalachian Power said. “Furthermore, the bill proposes changes to the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) filings, which could result in more costly outcomes for our customers.”
Read the full article.
Learn more about the microgrid legislation’s consequences for local control and funding in Sean’s recent blog post.
SB 196 was passed during the 2025 regular legislative session and significantly heightens criminal penalties related to the dealing/transportation of specific types of drugs. Advocates argue that this new law is likely to harm people living with Substance Use Disorders. A recent article, including insight from WVCBP criminal legal policy analyst Sara Whitaker, provides further details. Excerpt below:
The bill introduces mandatory minimum sentences into state code for transporting cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into West Virginia and removes alternative sentencing options — like probation or home confinement — for those who are jailed on those charges.
It also increases sentences against those charged with manufacturing, delivering or possessing with the intent to deliver a Schedule I or II narcotic or meth from one to five years up to three to 15 years.
Anyone who is charged with those crimes who has more than five grams of fentanyl, among other quantities of other drugs, could face 10 to 30 years in jail.
The law uses weight requirements that can make someone delivering a drug containing any fentanyl to be charged with conspiracy. It also includes language for the crime of delivering a drug that results in someone’s death, with increased penalties for failing to render aid to someone who is overdosing.
During the bill signing, Morrisey said he believes the law will be crucial to enhancing enforcement against drug crimes and deterring drug dealers from operating in the state.
But advocates for people who use drugs and people in recovery worry that the law will do more harm than good.
Oftentimes, people who use drugs are also dealing them as a way to pay for their addictions. And it’s not uncommon for individuals to be unaware that the drugs they are using or dealing contain fentanyl, advocates told West Virginia Watch upon the passage of SB 192 in the Legislature.
This bill, the advocates say, could open up low-level dealers to heightened penalties that will make it even more difficult for them to get help for their disease.
There is no data that shows stronger drug penalties anywhere curbing overdose or fatality rates related to the drug epidemic.
Instead of seeing higher criminal penalties that could have unintended consequences for people with substance use disorder, those in recovery and addiction spheres would like to see the state focus more on public health investments that are proven to lessen the impact of addiction on communities.
But SB 196 was only one of a handful of bills that was passed by the Legislature this session concerning drugs or addiction. And none of the bills that did pass related to public health initiatives, treatment for addiction or support for people with substance use disorder.
“The answer [to the opioid epidemic] is in public health investment. The last few years, we’ve seen our state — thanks to COVID federal funding — make additional investments in public health resources, in getting opioid reversal drugs into the hands of people who are using and people who care about them, and we’ve seen the fruits of that,” Sara Whitaker, the senior criminal legal policy analyst at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, told West Virginia Watch earlier this month. “SB 196 has none of that, and it’s not going to change anything for the better.”
Read the full article.
