Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
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March 2
The Charleston Gazette-Mail on a House bill that would require a certain life-saving device be on hand at all high school football events:
Is saving a life worth somewhere around $700 to have a device at every high school sporting event in West Virginia? Most legislators appear to think so, and hopefully a bill to do just that will soon become law.
House Bill 4497, which passed the House of Delegates and is now in the Senate, would require automated external defibrillators (AEDs) - devices that can shock a heart back into rhythm following cardiac arrest - on the premises for every high school football practice and game in the state, along with most other athletic events.
The bill was born out of tragedy, inspired by the death of Roane County High School student Alex Miller, 17, who collapsed during a football game at Clay County in September and died shortly thereafter at a local hospital.
It’s questionable whether having an AED near the field would have saved Miller’s life. There was an ambulance at the game equipped with the device. But the incident did expose inadequacies in student safety and state law. That ambulance at the game and the AED it carried weren’t required to be there. Clay County schools had EMS on scene on its own initiative. Other school districts have purchased AEDs as a precaution.
It’s unfortunate, but it often takes such an event to make communities and lawmakers realize better medical resources are needed. Neighboring Kentucky enacted a similar law more than 10 years ago, after several football-related cardiac deaths led to a groundswell of support for the legislation.
There are some hurdles for the proposal here. Like most solutions to problems in West Virginia, it’s going to take money, and the bill that passed the House of Delegates does not provide a funding source for the devices - estimated to cost $725 each. There’s also the question of how many devices each school might need, as practices and even some games for different sports can overlap.
This was debated on the House floor before the bill was passed, with more than one legislator saying saving young lives was worth figuring out how to handle the financial burden.
It’s a good point. We urge the Senate to pass the bill and send it to the governor to be signed into law.
Online: https://www.wvgazettemail.com
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March 2
The Bluefield Daily Telegraph on the cost of regional jails:
Paying the regional jail bill is a burdensome monthly budgetary drain on the coalfield counties.
Area officials point to the fact that the cost of housing local inmates in the regional system is one of the greatest monthly expenses incurred by the local governing bodies. Take Mercer County as an example. The county had 90 inmates at Southern Regional Jail in January 2020, according to the regional jail authority’s monthly service statement to the Mercer County Commission. Some of the inmates had been incarcerated at the regional jail for only a few days, while others had been at the facility for a couple of weeks.
For January, the county was billed for 2,590 inmate days at a per diem rate of $48.25 a day. The amount charged to Mercer County for that time period was a whopping $124,967.50. That’s simply far too much for a single county to be paying the regional jail system.
Given the already exorbitant expense associated with housing local inmates in the regional jail system, the commissioners were justifiably concerned last month when information from the County Commissioners’ Association of West Virginia suggested that the per diem rate of housing inmates at the regional jail would be increasing from $48.25 to $53.20 when the new fiscal year begins July 1.
Mercer County Commission President Gene Buckner is among those officials who are concerned about a possible increase.
“This is what made me think they were going to raise it. In 2019, the per diem cap was $5,425,413. Now in 2020, the projected per diem cap is $5,737,237,” Buckner told the Daily Telegraph. “Now that’s a difference of a little bit more than $300,000.”
And McDowell County Commission President Cecil Patterson says any further increase in the regional jail bill would cause great harm to the already struggling county.
“That would devastate us, devastate us. That’s the only word for it,” Patterson said. “Our jail bill is $50,000 to $80,000 a month; and keep in mind, we have a holding facility.”
McDowell County operates a holding facility near the county courthouse in Welch because the county is low on nighttime staff, Patterson said. Deputies and state troopers cannot always take time to transport inmates to the regional jail in Logan County.
Despite the concerns of the commissioners, state officials say no increase in the per diem rate is planned at this time.
“It is incorrect that the $48.25 charged per inmate day (the ‘per diem’) is increasing or otherwise changing next fiscal year,” Lawrence Messina, a communications director for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, told the Daily Telegraph. “In fact, the 2018 legislation that consolidated West Virginia’s correctional operations, creating DCR, also locked the longstanding per diem for several years.”
Let’s hope that is the case.
This continued high cost of housing inmates in the regional jail is eating away at limited local budgets. The individual counties can simply no longer continue to shoulder such an enormous financial burden.
Online: http://www.bdtonline.com
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March 1
The Intelligencer on the state’s budget for the coming year:
Give Gov. Jim Justice credit for bowing to reality and proposing a state budget more than $100 million smaller than that for the current year. But give state Senate Finance Committee members even more plaudits for cutting even deeper.
Revenue below what had been expected already has forced the governor to reduce the current-year spending plan by $17 million, down to $4.693 billion. Apparently expecting things will get worse, Justice’s proposal for fiscal 2021 is $4.585 billion.
Finance Committee members took that down to $4.558 billion - and sparked a confrontation with the governor.
Justice had proposed adding $20 million to the Medicaid Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities waiver program. It gives eligible Medicaid clients the choice of receiving services in their homes and communities instead of in institutions.
So popular is the waiver program that it has a waiting list of about 1,060 West Virginians, including about 600 children. Justice’s proposal is aimed at eliminating the wait list.
But the Senate Finance plan includes only $10 million for that purpose, half of what the governor seeks. Last week, he said he will not accept a budget without the full amount.
Finance panel members have good reasons for caution. One is that they fear eliminating the current wait list will result only in another one building up. They note the IDD waiver program already expends about $100 million a year.
Talk about a tempest in a teapot. There is no need for a budget duel between Justice and legislators.
Lawmakers should sharpen their pencils and find $10 million to cut elsewhere in the budget, giving the governor the full $20 million he seeks for IDD waivers.
No, that will not be easy. Again, both the governor and Senate Finance have included reasonably deep spending cuts. They are right to do so. Rather than drag out the budget process - perhaps opening the door to other demands for more spending - lawmakers and the governor should avoid an IDD waiver battle.
Online: http://www.theintelligencer.net
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