By Steven Allen Adams, Ogden Newspapers
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With one day left in the 2023 legislative session, the West Virginia House of Delegates approved a compromise with the state Senate on the budget for next fiscal year and passed more than 50 bills Friday.
The House began the day Friday morning by concurring with a Senate amendment to House Bill 2024, the budget bill, passing it in a 91-6 vote and sending it to the desk of Gov. Jim Justice.HB 2024 is a compromise between the House and Senate on the budget bill, setting the general revenue budget for fiscal year 2024 beginning July 1. The compromise sets the budget at $4.875 billion.
The compromise is $9.2 million more than the budget bill Justice submitted on the first day of the legislative session Jan. 11. It is also 10% more than SB 150, the Senate version of the budget passed nearly two weeks ago, and 5% more than the version of HB 2024 passed by the House last week, which was a $4.642 billion budget.
The budget bill includes a $2,300 pay raise for executive branch public employees who are paid from the general revenue budget, as well as a bill for a $2,300 pay raise for teachers, school service personnel and West Virginia State Police troopers/staff.
Justice had proposed his fourth 5% average pay raise for public employees, but lawmakers changed that to a straight $2,300. …