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Charleston, West Virginia: Last month, the West Virginia Supreme Court submitted a revised budget to the West Virginia Legislature reducing its budget request by $2.2 million. Supreme Court Administrator Steve Canterbury credited the reduced budget to improved pension investment returns and a decrease in unfunded liabilities within the system. The improved returns account for nearly the entire pension surplus and eliminated the necessity of adding additional funds to the system, which the court began to do in 2005 to eliminate the liability. Centerbury told the press, "We shouldn't have been putting an additional $1.7 million. That's like putting more frosting on top of frosting you've already got on a cake. We doubled the frosting. We didn't need to." Additional cost reductions came from court staffs who reduced their overall budget by $540,000 for the next year. House Finance Chairman Harry Keith White commented on the return, stating, "There's a lot of funding needs in this state and we can use these dollars. With the budget as tight as it is, we'll be glad to get it back because there's several areas we could use it." It is unknown how the returned money will be allocated in the state budget.[1]
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