By The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  If Gov. Joe Manchin cuts $3.2 million or so in health spending out of the state budget, a pair of lawmakers say, it won't only be a problem for residents across the state but will also pass up a huge revenue source few even know about.

Manchin, though, says building the base budget with an uncertain revenue stream could swiftly become "cruel and unusual punishment" if that stream dries up in a few years, requiring the programs to be cut back.

The chairmen of the Legislature's two health committees say the governor's staff has asked them to justify the spending added to Manchin's budget by the House-Senate conference committee that produced the document approved by lawmakers last weekend.

The money ranges from $2,500 for the state Women's Commission to $1.5 million for teaching hospitals, and includes bumps in funding for domestic violence legal services, free clinics and other programs.

"We looked at items we certainly thought were high priorities," said Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion. "We didn't just go through and arbitrarily increase everything."

Prezioso and his House counterpart, Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, have been meeting with staffers in Manchin's office over the spending.

Last year, when the Legislature proposed increases that went above Manchin's recommendations, the lawmakers didn't have a way to pay for them. But Prezioso and Perdue thought they had solved that problem this year by drawing on a little-known surplus in state Medicaid dollars, which this year is projected to reach roughly $237 million.

"We'll see a lot of money left over in Medicaid this year and next year," Perdue said. "We felt the state would be wise to use a little of that money now."

Adding expenses to the base budget requires ever-greater expenses in coming years, though, and Manchin said Thursday it's unwise to rely on short-term revenue sources like the Medicaid surplus.

"All of us want to help victims of domestic violence, but what's the best way you do that?" he asked. "Do you build the base this year and then tell them in two years the program has to be cut because the money's gone? That's cruel and unusual punishment."

Manchin said his staffers are trying to see if some of the additional spending can be done with supplemental appropriations rather than the surplus.

The surplus came as a surprise even to Perdue and Prezioso, who were both members of the joint committee that produced the budget approved by lawmakers. Perdue said they learned about it two days before the committee met, when the administration sent them Medicaid budget projections that revealed the excess funds.

The administration estimates that Medicaid costs will rise from $2.4 billion this year to more than $3 billion by 2014, a 24 percent increase. But to draw down the necessary federal funds, the state's share must grow by more than 62 percent, from $545 million to nearly $887 million during that time, its figures project.

The $237 million surplus reflects available Health and Human Resources funds in excess of the state's 2009 share. While that surplus is charted to grow to $374 million by 2011, the mushrooming costs are expected to deplete it by 2014 and leave the state $134 million short of the amount it needs to draw down sufficient federal matching funds.

The estimates reflect the increased rate at which the Obama administration is providing the federal Medicaid share as part of its stimulus legislation.