Morrisey believes W.Va. government is long overdue for review in order to best prioritize
Sep. 20—FAIRMONT — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey wants to reconfigure the state government to be leaner and he sees cutting taxes as one way to achieve that goal.
"I think you have to do a close review of all of the spending and repurpose that spending because I think that it's the people's money and we should always start with that presumption," he said Thursday during an interview at the Times West Virginian offices. "We're going to go agency by agency and we're going to come up with rightsizing policies so that it can be paid for."
Prior to attending an event at Apple Annie's in White Hall, Morrisey made himself available to discuss a variety of topics.
Morrisey's driving philosophy is having a backyard brawl with neighboring states, a term he borrowed from football matches between the West Virginia University Mountaineers and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. To win the brawl, Morrisey wants to by very aggressive in setting standards and metrics on where he wants the state to improve.
He views reducing taxes as one measure of improvement. He argued not only should taxes be low, but the tax code should be more in tune with what modern West Virginia looks like. Morrisey said he eventually would like to see the income tax wiped out.
"I'm a big advocate of that, but I've also advocated that you have to pay for it," he said.
Some of the changes that would come with this reconfiguration would be reevaluating whether the government should own various types of health care facilities. He also mentioned removing the government from managing concession stands at state parks. All in all, Morrisey believes there's tremendous savings to be had by reconfiguring the government, enough to pay for any tax cuts.
"You look for different things, that might be more appropriate for non-governmental entities, the private sector, to do," he said. "We're going to be analyzing that. There hasn't been that kind of review in a long time."
In other words, Morrisey wants to see a reprioritization of the state's responsibilities.
The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy released a report in April on the consequences of the 2023 tax cuts on the 2024 budget. It said the reductions will eventually cost the state $818 million in 2025. Once the triggers which kill the personal income tax take effect, it will remove 40% of the state's general revenue budget, over $2 billion. The Center called the revenue decline historic, deeper than even during the Great Recession.
The 2023 tax cuts already imperiled state Medicaid, with lawmakers saying Medicaid faced fiscal uncertainty. They proposed slashing $147 million from the program. Gov. Jim Justice demanded Medicaid funding be restored at a special legislative session. The program is safe for now, but the looming funding cliff in 2025 will be difficult to manage. Nearly 30% of West Virginians are enrolled in Medicaid.
West Virginia hasn't been the only state to experiment with massive tax cuts. In Arizona, lawmakers had to address an unexpected budget shortfall to avoid cuts to public services after a 2022 tax cut and private school voucher program turned out more costly than expected.
Mississippi had its credit rating downgraded, with the credit rating agency explaining the cut, the largest in history, as one of the reasons for the downgrade. That means the state will have to borrow money at higher rates, making it more difficult to pay for improving roads, water quality, schools and other public assets.
However, Morrisey is adamant the tax cuts will free residents and make the state more productive. He said he doesn't think the state wants to be the No. 1 per capita in the country in terms of state spending.
"No one's using that word," Morrisey said, referring to cuts in public services. "We're talking about properly ensuring the functions of government are managed the right way. If you're talking about a function that should be done by the private sector, it should be done by the private sector, and then functions done by the government should be done by the government."
Morrisey wants to retain residents and bring more to the state. He argued being competitive on the tax side is a major driver in moving people to a particular state.
There are other drivers as well, such as what the tax and regulatory structure look like, are the barriers to entry so high people don't want to move to the state, he said. What are the workforce rules, the educational policy? He said it's important to identify what makes the state attractive to people and open that door.
Sean O'Leary, an analyst at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said last year tax cuts miss the real reason people move, which has more to do with personal reasons than economic incentive.
State Del. Mike Pushkin, chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party, is critical of the hit the state's revenue has taken from the tax cuts.
"Let's talk to the 6,000 children in foster care that they can't find placement for," he said. "Let's talk to them about right sizing the government. Let's talk to the families who have loved ones with intellectual or developmental disabilities who're on waiting lists about right sizing."
Pushkin said a lot of basic services aren't being offered by the state anymore because the state only has a flat budget after budget every year.
Morrisey's opponent, Democrat and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, wasn't opposed to cutting taxes but he said any tax cuts had to be very strategically implemented. He cited his own experience as mayor with cutting taxes on businesses.
"We got it in such a way that my city's revenue increased by 32%," he said. "The challenge is, yes, we want to be competitive, but we start worrying about rightsizing when we're not leading the nation in children in foster care, and making sure we're building water systems where there are no water systems."
Williams criticized the term "rightsizing," saying it's often used as code by those who want to strip out everything supporting the most vulnerable residents.
Still, Morrisey believes the government is long overdue for a review.
"It's important to reprioritize government," he said. "Repurpose government to what we want it to be, to what the public wants it to be in 2028, at the end of my first term, ideally."
