In this Washington Examiner article, Cardinal’s executive director, Garrett Ballengee, is quoted on West Virginia’s fiscal year-end surplus:

The West Virginia-based, free-market Cardinal Institute had mixed opinions on the announcement. Although Executive Director Garrett Ballengee saw the balanced budget as a relief, he questioned why the government had that much extra money available to cut.

“A lot of people here were just generally kind of nervous,” Ballengee said, noting that the state suffered from a lot of problems similar to other states, including a plummet in sales tax revenue and an overburdened unemployment fund.

Although federal funds took away some of the state’s burden, Ballengee said Justice likely will scale back funding from education, health and human services, transportation and higher education. If West Virginia can make all these cuts and still function, Ballengee asked why lawmakers never can find potential cuts during the legislative session. He said it’s “disappointing from a taxpayer perspective.”