SB 392 ❌
The Legislative Action Team for Children and Families, representing more than 20 West Virginia child-serving organizations, respectfully urges West Virginia Legislators to vote NO on SB 392.
SB 392 would permanently eliminate approximately $250 million in annual state revenue. The Governor's own budget office is already projecting a structural deficit ahead. West Virginia is constitutionally required to balance its budget each year. Permanently cutting revenues while deficits are projected narrows the options available to every future Legislature. When revenues fall short of obligations, the consequences are predictable: services are reduced, infrastructure crumbles, and costs are shifted elsewhere.
Permanent changes to the tax code should be made from a position of fiscal strength. We are not there today.
A state does not have a budget surplus when there are unmet needs facing West Virginia families, especially when those needs harm children.
These concerns are evident when a mother has to drive two hours to deliver her baby because her community's birthing center closed. West Virginia has lost 17 birthing centers since 2006.
There are unmet needs when a child care provider turns off the lights for the last time. More than 200 family child care homes have closed in the past two years alone. When they close, mothers leave the workforce, family incomes decline, and young children lose the foundation they need before they reach kindergarten.
Our state has too many children in foster care, many of whom are in out-of-state placements, hundreds of miles from their home, because West Virginia lacks the in-state capacity to care for them. We have the worst child welfare outcomes in the nation. The Governor proposed funding to bring one-tenth of those children home, but 9 out of 10 who are currently out of state will remain there. Enacting another permanent tax cut hinders our ability to invest in the services children need here in West Virginia instead of paying higher costs for out-of-state treatment.
West Virginia public employees and teachers continue to watch their PEIA costs rise faster than their paychecks.
Thousands of West Virginians with intellectual and developmental disabilities remain on waiver waitlists, waiting for services the state has long promised and not yet delivered.
Schools are closing all across the state.
From Wayne to Weirton, water infrastructure is failing, and boil water advisories are a daily occurrence.
These are not new concerns. This Legislature has heard them before. They remain unresolved.
The Legislature previously adopted revenue triggers to ensure that permanent tax changes occur only when fiscal conditions support them. SB 392 abandons that discipline at precisely the wrong moment.
This vote will shape the flexibility available in future budgets and the state's ability to respond to downturns, emergencies, and costs we cannot yet anticipate. Voting NO will not eliminate future tax cuts. It just affirms that permanent revenue decisions should be made from a position of fiscal strength, not when projected deficits are expected.
The Legislative Action Team for Children and Families respectfully urges lawmakers to vote NO on SB 392.
The Legislative Action Team has designated this a Kids Vote Alert due to its significant long-term impact on children and families. Votes on Kids Vote Alerts are tracked and shared with child advocates and stakeholders statewide.
