By Charles Young, WV News
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The effort to find a permanent funding source for the state’s volunteer fire departments remains ongoing, Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday.
Justice, who signed three bills into law in August providing $12 million in one-time funds to volunteer fire departments, said finding money to adequately finance the operations of the state’s more than 400 VFDs is an imperative priority in the upcoming regular session of the West Virginia Legislature.
“We’ve got to pull this off, don’t we?” the governor said during his press briefing. “There’s a lot of different alternatives, and we’ve had a lot of discussions in regard to this. But at the end of the day, we want a permanent source — that’s all there is to it.”
Funds could potentially come from the state’s current budget surpluses, Justice said.
“That’s what we build our surpluses for, absolutely,” he said. “With all in us, we’re going to find this and we’re going to get it done.”
