Budget Cuts May Impact Health Departments

Local health departments around West Virginia would have to cut services if the state goes forward with a proposed 25 percent reduction to their funding. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017, which begins in July, contains a line-item cut of $4 million for aid to local health departments. The current aid for health departments is $16.6 million, but that would be reduced to $12.6 in the budget that Tomblin submitted to the state Legislature.