West Virginia grows its economy and creates good jobs by investing in the things that help communities and individuals thrive, like our schools, health care, and public safety. Our state needs tax reform that generates the resources we need to pay for these things and asks everyone to pay what they owe. Eliminating the state…
Blog
Yesterday, the House Health Committee passed out HB 2132 that imposes a statewide three-month time limit for SNAP food assistance for childless adults that are working fewer than 20 hours per week. This bill mirrors a similar provision found in SB 60 and HB 2741 that was discussed previously in this blog. If enacted, these…
The West Virginia Legislature has introduced legislation (SB 60 & HB 2741) that make it harder for low-income West Virginians to receive food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). If enacted, this legislation would create economic hardship for thousands of low-income West Virginians, drain our state of millions in SNAP dollars, and cost…
Last Friday, the Senate Select Committee on Tax Reform explored the idea of amending SB 335 to include a version of a refundable state Earned Income Tax Credit. As noted previously, SB 335 would replace the personal and corporate income tax, along with the sales and use tax, with a general consumption tax of 8…
Governor Justice held a press conference Monday, where he laid out an alternative plan to closing the state's $497 million FY 2018 budget gap. It revises the plan in the Governor's proposed FY 2018 Executive Budget, by reducing the proposed increases in sales and business taxes, while calling for higher taxes on tobacco and sugar-sweetened beverages. On…
One of Governor Jim Justice's proposals in his Fiscal Year 2018 Executive Budget was to tier the state's severance tax on coal and natural gas. Rather than the current flat 5 percent of production value, a tiered severance tax rate would adjust based on the price of coal or natural gas. While the budget document…
Governor Jim Justice has not introduced any tax measures yet, but in his State of the State Address and his executive budget there are plans to enact several tax increases to close the Fiscal Year 2018 budget gap of $500 million and address the state's declining road fund that pays for highway construction, maintenance, and road…
Senate leadership introduced SB 335 which would would abolish the personal income tax and sales and use tax, phase out the corporate income tax, lower the severance tax, and replace these taxes with an 8 percent broad-based general consumption or sales tax. While it is unclear whether this tax shift would be revenue neutral, it would…
This Gazette-Mail piece reports on a new West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy issue brief on what eliminating the state's income tax would mean for West Virginia. The brief shows a reduction or elimination of the state's income tax is not a surefire way to generate economic growth and the change in tax structure…
Register now! Panelists include: Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Hall Nick Casey, Chief of Staff for Governor Jim Justice Delegate Matt Rohrbach Sponsorships available and all come with tickets to the event.