At a press conference recently, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey addressed members of the media about issues with the state budget. Morrisey took to a whiteboard to lay out specific figures and line items that are contributing to the projected over $400 million deficit in fiscal year 2026.

The items discussed include:

• Medicaid: $153 million came from one-time funding sources in FY2025 (budget gimmick).
• Corrections: Requires an additional $47 million to get through FY2025 (prison guards, medical expenses, security).
• PEIA: Additional $62 million of General Revenue Funding required in FY2026 – doesn’t factor in 14.47% premium increase.
• Education: Base increases of over $100 million due to School Aid formula, Higher Education formula, and HOPE Scholarship costs.
• Tourism: Underfunded base budget by $13 million of one-time funding in FY2025.

“I conveyed to you and said: we’re going to be able to get through these budget challenges to the other side,” Morrisey said. “But we’ve been learning a lot more over the last few weeks, and I’d like to provide even greater detail to you about what we’re finding. I think, as you’ll see on February 12, when we provide the formal budget, everything we say is gonna get backed up so third grade math will understand what we’re doing. I want to be really clear. This is important, that we are providing facts to people and to the public – these are not going to be disputable pieces of information.”

“We’re going to have to change how we do things. We can’t rob Peter to pay Paul and push all the bills to future generations. We can’t do that anymore. And that’s a lot of what we’ve seen. We’re going to be able to address things very, very differently.”