I praised Gov. Patrick Morrisey in a recent column for his candidness regarding future issues with the general revenue budget. I once again have to praise Morrisey for laying more of his cards out on the table.

Morrisey held a press conference Thursday providing an update on the general revenue budget for fiscal year 2026 beginning in July. That’s the budget Morrisey will present to lawmakers on Feb. 12.

According to Morrisey’s new revenue team, they are projecting a $400 million hole in the FY26 budget as of Morrisey’s first day in office last Monday – around $100 million less than the $500 million budget hole former governor Jim Justice had to fill for fiscal year 2018 when he took office in 2017.

Keep in mind, that’s not for the current fiscal year – fiscal year 2025 – of which there are less than six months left. While the month-to-month tax collections have been tight for FY25 since July of last year, they have been above projections, with the current fiscal year likely ending with approximately $80 million in tax revenue surplus.

This $400 million hole is also before Morrisey and his administration implement changes to the FY26 budget or make changes to the structure of state government. Future changes could help reduce that $400 million amount.

Morrisey signed executive orders last week calling for a retroactive review of all state spending of dollar amounts more than $100,000 and instructing all state departments and agencies to identify areas of wasteful spending, inefficiencies and redundancies. Morrisey has also proposed mergers of a few cabinet-level departments with more announcements expected.

Another way Morrisey and lawmakers can fill that $400 million hole is using the nearly $500 million set aside in the personal income tax reserve fund specifically for this scenario. The state has cut personal income taxes by 21.25%, and now 4% and 2% effective on Jan. 1. Morrisey said twice now that while he supports those cuts, the state has not accounted for those tax cuts in future budgets. The income tax reserve fund could be a bridge to give the state’s natural growth in tax revenue time to catch up.

A few weeks ago, Justice told me the FY26 budget his revenue people were handing off to the Morrisey administration showed no budget holes. It’s not that Justice was lying to me I don’t think; it’s just that there is obviously a difference between how the Justice administration puts together budgets and how the Morrisey administration is putting together their budget.

Mike McKown, Morrisey’s director of budget, has been involved with crafting the general revenue budget for at least four previous governors, including the first year or so of Justice’s first term. He has spent the last several years in the State Auditor’s Office working to make the state budget and spending more transparent for the general public. McKown is a detailed guy. He is known for being accurate and not known for budget gimmicks and tricks.

For now, I’m not panicked by a projected $400 million budget hole. But one has to appreciate Morrisey for trying to limit expectations for his first submitted budget bill.

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The one thing you can say about Gov. Patrick Morrisey a week into his first time helming the ship of state is he hits the ground running, and he keeps his campaign promises.

Morrisey could have taken a breather following his inauguration last Monday, but on Tuesday he issued eight executive orders, putting his new departments and agencies to work implementing the things he campaign on.

One can probably argue that Morrisey didn’t need to issue executive orders to do these things. As the chief executive, Morrisey is the boss. But an executive order does add more umph and the force of law in case some entrenched bureaucracies in state government would try to fight these orders to protect their kingdoms. But naturally, some of Morrisey’s executive orders aimed at social conservative issues have raised eyebrows.

Regarding Morrisey’s executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in state government, while I expect that there are not that many state agencies with these programs, there may be some. As I write this, I’m looking at a page on the state Department of Transportation’s website dealing with DEI.

The problem with DEI, much as it was a few years ago with critical race theory, is that both the political left and the political right have overused the phrase and have made it a grab bag for whatever one may want it to be. On its face, diversity, equity and inclusion are not bad. But there is a lot of bad done in the name of DEI, and those are the stories people see on their social media or on their cable TV.

I’m not going to say there is no DEI in West Virginia, but I will say what DEI programs you might see are probably nothing like the extreme examples one might find in a blue state or someplace like Columbia University or Harvard. However, this is a conservative state, and DEI is an issue that moved many to the polls.

As for the executive order allowing for religious and conscientious objections to the state’s school-age immunization mandates, I’m under the impression by Morrisey that this order is a stop-gap to get to the 2025 legislative session on Feb. 12 and have the Legislature remove those requirements from State Code. Because one need only look at the new legislative makeup to see that school-age immunization requirements are likely being repealed.

State Code requires certain immunizations for school-age children and only provides for a medical exemption. But Morrisey argues that a law passed by the Legislature in 2023 – the Equal Protection for Religious Act – allows for a religious or conscientious exemption to school-age immunization requirements.

I will leave you with a famous H.L Mencken quote: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” Only the next elections in 2026 and 2028 will determine whether these actions are what West Virginia voters want or not.

(Adams is the state government reporter for Ogden Newspapers. He can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)