Charleston Gazette-Mail – Earlier this month, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled in a case in which local tax departments and gas companies battled over the way property taxes should be calculated. But the companies and counties are still trying to figure out how they’ll be affected by the court’s decision. Read article.
Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, urged an “adequate” tax on the industry, noting the link between tax revenue and resources, like local schools.
“State policymakers should be raising severance taxes on natural gas production to invest in our people and communities to diversify the state’s economy and to set aside money in a permanent fund that will exist long after the natural gas boom is over,” he said. “Otherwise, we will just repeat history and communities will suffer from the consequences of scarred landscape and a lack of economic development.”
