Governor Jim Justice has secured the support of the Republican led Legislature to give all state employees including public school teachers and service personnel a 5% pay raise for the third time since 2018.
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Additionally, Governor Justice announced that all state employees will also receive a one time 2.5% bonus to combat the rising costs of inflation. The Governor said the bonus will be known as the Inflatocine short for Inflation Vaccine.
“As we’ve gone through this horrible pandemic, we’ve continued to kick out surplus after surplus,†Governor Justice said. “Our state is doing really good. I commend everybody that’s made all the right moves on the chessboard. We want to reward our people for a lot of great work that they’ve done and we also want to continue to help our teachers and make education our centerpiece in West Virginia.
“In addition to this, we have a situation going on in this country with this runaway inflation,†Governor Justice continued. “So we’re going to do a one time supplement to try to help our teachers and state employees who are contemplating how they’re going to fill their cars up with gasoline and buy groceries with the inflated prices.â€
The pay raise and Inflatocine bonus will be submitted to the West Virginia Legislature in the form of a bill, which legislative leaders announced they intend to support during the 2022 Legislative Session.
After inheriting a $500 million budget deficit, Governor Justice has led the state to a string of consistent budget surpluses by using his lifelong experience as a businessman to make West Virginia a more business friendly state and by standing behind the energy industry.
Last month, West Virginia recorded a $88 million revenue surplus, bringing the total fiscal year surplus to $269 million in just five months.
West Virginia has broken the all time record for lowest unemployment rate in state history in back to back months. During the month of October, West Virginia also cracked the top 10 states in the nation for quarterly GDP growth.
Additionally, the Governor’s Roads to Prosperity program is the state’s largest ever investment in road maintenance and improvement; after 50 years of neglecting its roads, the state has committed more than $2 billion dollars to fixing them.
The state’s Rainy Day Fund now exceeds $1 billion another record and its public pension funds are better funded than they have been in decades. ■