Mayor's preview of the 2017 budget and state of the city address

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams presented, Tuesday, a preview of the city budget for the fiscal year 2017 and his state of the city address to the 414 journalism class. Students were able to question the mayor before he officially releases his budget proposal Wednesday.

Currently Huntington is facing a $5 million deficit. The mayor hopes to shrink that debt to a projected $122,000 after his proposal.

He began his speech with a reference to the America’s Best Communities contest Huntington has placed in.  

“If you’re going to be America’s Best Community, you have to be resilient,” said Williams. “It doesn’t mean that you don’t go through hard times.”

The deficit will be reduced by the recent termination of 24 fire and police employees, transferring of money between departments, freezing all nonessential money and hiring, eliminating the spring paving program and by using the “rainy day fund” held by the city, according to Williams.

Seventeen cuts were made to the police department and seven to the fire department in January. A majority of the dismissed employees were probationary officers hired between November and December 2016.

“If you’re going to be an effective leader, lay-offs are unavoidable,” said Williams. He called the process gut-wrenching and as the students continued to bring up the subject of the reduced forces, he stated that the number of force out on patrol is at a historical high. According to Williams, 72% of the deficit is employee-related and a large portion of money is spent in paying police and firemen overtime and pension.

“We can only have a government that we can afford,” said Williams.

The mayor noted that more than a million dollars will need to be moved around departments to compensate for a city-wide budget tightening. He plans on eliminating the spring paving program, but will keep the fall paving.

“It hasn’t hit us yet, but a snowfall will hit,” said Williams. “We need to be able to clean the streets and then fix the pot holes.”

The mayor also plans to use the city’s rainy day fund of approximately $2 million.

“If it’s a rainy day fund, we’re in the middle of a monsoon,” said Williams.

Williams said he plans on setting the stage at the address tomorrow for the livelihood of the city.

“Do we partner or do we take up arms and battle?” asked Williams. “If we battle, there will be causalities, including the standard of living in Huntington.”

He concluded his speech with a brief review of the four major aspects of the city’s revitalization plan in association with the ABC contest.

“We want to set a standard that others will seek to emulate,” said Williams.

By Caitlin Fowlkes

Fowlkes assignment 3

January 17, 2017

Newly elected West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice did not live up to Marshall University students’ expectations Monday during his inauguration speech. Higher education and rising tuition were not discussed. Although he did briefly mention education, he referenced issues of public school and underpaid teachers, but nothing related to the collegiate level.  

Justice’s silence on the subject of higher education can be concluded to mean one thing – it is not a priority. His attention is focused on coal and financial stability, leaving higher education to the backburner. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, WV News Metro and multiple other news agencies have made it clear that Justice is very close to the youth basketball teams he coaches. Players from the teams sat in the VIP section during his speech, and Justice even mentioned his close relationship with the children. For a man who understands the importance of youth for the future of the state, he’s not concerned with the future of the state’s higher educational facilities. Unfortunately for Marshall, students shouldn’t hope for support in paying tuition like other states this year.

The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has proposed free tuition at two and four-year public colleges to be voted on this year by New York legislature. He hopes to enact the program for the 2016-2017 academic year. According to a CNN article “New York governor proposes free tuition at state colleges,” the “Excelsior Scholarship” would begin this year, making families earning up to $100,000 eligible in the fall. The plan will increase to $110,000 in 2018 and finally up to $125,000 in 2019. The scholarship would only cover tuition, leaving students responsible to cover other costs such as fees, books and dorms.

The Excelsior Scholarship is very similar to the plan Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed during his presidential campaign. Under the “College for All Act,” the federal government would cover 67 percent of the estimated $70 billion cost for four-year colleges for American students, according to a summary of the proposal on the official Sanders website. The remaining 33 percent of costs would be the states’ responsibility. For states to qualify for federal funding, they would need to meet very strict requirements, all based around keeping educational costs low. The same legislation would decrease student loan interest rates by half. The funding would come in part by taxing Wall Street stock trades, bonds and derivatives. Bernie even attended Cuomo’s proposal and backed the similar policy.

West Virginia may not be moving towards tuition-free universities any time soon, but other parts of the country are considering it. It is a concept that is no longer so taboo. Hopefully, more advanced cities like New York will influence the mountain state when it comes to higher education policy and free tuition sooner rather than later.