Dominion Post - The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy came to Morgantown Thursday evening to critique the tax cut plans brewing in the Legislature and to offer some ideas that they think are better uses for a budget surplus. Read the full article. Center Executive Director Kelly Allen met with some residents around…
Tax and Budget
The 2023 state legislative session has seen both chambers heavily focused on turning the state’s revenue “surplus” into personal income tax cuts, despite the clear need for new spending after four years of austerity forced by flat budgets. We’ve covered at length the temporary factors driving the surplus, as well as the fallacy of calling…
Over the course of a six-hour period, the West Virginia Senate unveiled their tax cut proposal, rushed it through committee (without a fiscal note, hearing testimony from a single witness, or any members asking any questions), and suspended the rules requiring three days of readings to pass it out of the chamber. While lawmakers repeatedly…
West Virginia MetroNews - Senate President Craig Blair is feeling pretty good about the rollout of a new tax proposal estimated at $600 million. Read the full article. Senators introduced and passed a bill that touches on several sections of the tax code. On Thursday morning, Senate leaders met with House leaders and representatives of…
With a relatively short 60-day legislative session, the bills that get considered—and the ones that don’t—tell us a lot about our lawmakers’ priorities. Now that we are exactly halfway through the 2023 session, the WVCBP team lends insight into what we’ve seen prioritized so far and what we would like to see prioritized during the…
Associated Press, West Virginia News, WBOY, Times West Virginian, - West Virginia’s Republican Senate leaders have answered the call to dramatically slash the state personal income tax by voting to shave 15% off the rate, returning about $600 million to residents. The amount is more than half the state’s budget surplus. Read the full article.…
West Virginia MetroNews - As West Virginia’s regular legislative session reaches its halfway point this coming week, it’s clear there’s still a big gap on Gov. Jim Justice’s top priority, a 50 percent personal income tax reduction over three years. Read the full article. The governor has continued to barnstorm the state to promote the…
West Virginia News, Weirton Daily Times - West Virginia is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in excess tax revenue and federal COVID-19 relief dollars that lawmakers must consider what to do with. Members of the public are also weighing in on where that money should go. Read the full article. According to the…
West Virginia MetroNews - Gov. Jim Justice submitted a bill meant to transfer $678 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars to state development funds. Not everybody thinks that’s a great idea. Read the full article. House Bill 2883 calls for $500 million to be transferred to the state Economic Development Authority, a $177 million transfer to the state…
West Virginia MetroNews - Representatives of WVU and Marshall made budget presentations before the state Senate Finance Committee on Thursday afternoon. Both schools described a rapidly changing post-pandemic environment that makes state funding very important to their budgets. Read the full article. The legislature approved $16.6 million for WVU and $9.7 million for MU. The…