Tax and Budget

West Virginia MetroNews - The West Virginia Business & Industry Council is raising concerns that Gov. Jim Justice’s big plan would zoom to the top of the wrong ranking. Read the full article. “West Virginia will have the highest state consumer sales tax in the nation at 7.9 percent,” the broad-based business organization wrote in a…

Multistate - Whenever West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) discusses his plan to eliminate his state’s personal income tax, he reiterates two key points: (1) the tax will be a net positive for West Virginia taxpayers and (2) it will lead to significant population growth for the state. To back up his claim, the governor’s…

West Virginia MetroNews - Gov. Jim Justice’s big tax proposal has been introduced in the House of Delegates, and the governor is telling West Virginians to close their eyes and just imagine the results. Read the full article. “My plan will seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform West Virginia’s tax structure; raising wages, raising home…

Over the weekend, the U.S. Senate passed the American Rescue Plan (ARP), a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Now the bill must go back to the U.S. House before President Joe Biden signs it into law. The package includes many features that were part of the CARES Act, including direct cash payments to taxpayers and…

West Virginia MetroNews - Gov. Jim Justice isn’t happy about about some restrictions for how states can use federal relief built into the plan passed by the U.S. Senate. Read the full article. “It’s all about just petty nothing,” Justice said today. “That’s the only reason that got written in there.” The $1.9 trillion federal relief package…

Governor Justice has finally unveiled his proposal to make sweeping changes to the state's tax system, including a substantial cut to the state's personal income tax, while raising a variety of sales and other taxes. The tax reform would create a dramatic change in who pays state taxes in West Virginia, shifting the responsibility onto…

WOWK, News Break - On Inside West Virginia Politics, Sean O'Leary, with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, says the governor's proposed plan to eliminate the state's income tax "is not going to be a winner for West Virginia" as it is now. Watch the full segment. He says raising sales taxes will…

West Virginia Public Broadcasting - More than three weeks after he championed the reduction of the personal income tax in his state of the state address, Gov. Jim Justice has unveiled details of the plan. Read the full article. Justice announced Thursday he has submitted a bill to the Legislature to consider. While the bill…

Charleston Gazette-Mail, Huntington Herald-Dispatch - Gov. Jim Justice on Thursday unveiled the long-awaited details of his proposal to cut the state personal income tax — a plan that would use more than $900 million a year in tax hikes to partially offset a $1.07 billion reduction in income tax revenue. Read the full article. Justice,…

It’s now been almost four months since Governor Justice announced that his top priority for the 2021 West Virginia legislative session would be eliminating the personal income tax. But despite the time elapsed, we’ve yet to see a plan put to paper. That’s likely because it’s really difficult to eliminate the state’s largest source of…