(Continued from Part 3 - published 12/19/12). Nearly $1.5 billion in property tax revenue was raised in West Virginia during FY 2012, and West Virginia's schools were by far the largest recipients of the revenue. County school districts collected a total of $967 million in property taxes, nearly two-thirds of the total. Overall, property taxes…
Tax and Budget
(Continued from Part 2 - published 12/11/12) In FY 2012, West Virginia's 241 municipalities collected an estimated $30 million in personal property tax revenue. While municipal governments are less reliant on property taxes as a source of revenue than are county governments, property taxes still make up around 10 percent of municipal general revenues. While…
This month's New York Times article on business tax subsidies has attracted plenty of attention in West Virginia, as our state was listed as second in the nation with $857 per resident given out to attract businesses in the state. While state officials defended the state's use of tax incentives, Phil Kabler in Sunday's Gazette-Mail…
The severance tax is not only an important source of revenue for the state’s budget; it also provides a substantial amount of revenue to local governments in West Virginia. In FY 2011, approximately $43.8 million in severance tax revenue was distributed to county and municipal governments throughout the state, including $37.7 million in coal severance…
(continued from Part 1 published 11/28/12) In FY 2012, the personal property tax produced over an estimated $122 million for the 55 county governments in West Virginia, accounting for more than 30 percent of all county property tax revenue. And since property taxes account for 63 percent of county government revenue, that means the personal property…
Today, the New York Times had an in-depth front page article exposing the $80 billion state and local governments bankroll businesses each year in subsides, including low-interest loans, grants, tax credits, and other gifts through the tax code. The report finds that West Virginia spends $1.57 billion per year on business incentives, ranking the state…
It seems every year, proposals are floated to remove West Virginia's property tax on business personal property or personal property in general. My first report with the WVCBP looked at the fiscal impact of eliminating the property tax on business machinery, equipment, inventory, and other business personal property, as recommended by then Governor Manchin back in 2010. In that…
Yesterday, Mark Muchow, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Revenue, presented at November Legislative Interims on the future of state severance taxes. In his presentation (Severance Tax Trends -November 26, 2012), he found that severance taxes are going to decline and stagnant over the next few years because the boom in shale natural gas…
In this month's edition of Jobs Count, I looked at the Congressional Budget Office's report on the employment and GDP effects of the fiscal cliff. The CBO report spells out how many jobs lost and how much GDP would be reduced for each deficit reducing policy that is a part of the fiscal cliff. Overall,…
Last week, the Pew Center on the States released a report that looks at the impact of the "fiscal cliff" on state tax revenues and spending programs. The report also includes a nice fact sheet on the impact to West Virginia. On the revenue side, West Virginia, like several other states, is linked to the…