On Tuesday, Governor Tomblin announced at a bi-partisan press conference that he is proposing to transfer $44 million from the teacher's retirement account (TERS) to help close an estimated $195 million gap in the FY 2016 state budget.The state is able to use the $44 million from TERS, according to the governor, because the investment returns…
Tax and Budget
At the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy's 2nd Annual Budget Breakfast, Executive Director Ted Boettner recapped Governor Tomblin's proposed Fiscal Year 2016 state budget and the impact it will have on West Virginia's low- and moderate-income working families. View his presentation here.
Yesterday, Governor Tomblin announced that the business franchise tax will be fully eliminated beginning tomorrow (Jan 1). While the governor says the elimination of the business franchise tax and the reduction in the corporate net income tax has helped to "secure additional investments" and that the state has benefited from these changes, there is no…
Earlier this week, the state's monthly revenue report was released, which keeps track of the various taxes that make up the state's General Revenue Fund. For October, the General Revenue Fund was up $5 million over the estimate, a pretty good month. This was largely due to severance taxes, which came in at $38.1 million…
On March 23, Governor Tomblin used his line-item veto power to cut several early childhood and domestic violence programs from the FY2015 budget passed by the legislature. This included over $1 million in cuts to In-Home Family Education, Family Resource Networks and Starting Points Family Resource Centers, Child Advocacy Centers, domestic violence programs and services,…
The Legislature passed 201 bills during the 2014 Legislative Session. 51 of those bills came with fiscal notes attached, the price tags attached to legislation that inform legislators and the public of the estimated cost to the state in either expenditure increases or revenue losses. Fiscal notes are usually attached to a bill when taxes or fees are…
With the 2014 Legislative Session ending without the completion of the FY 2015 budget, Governor Tomblin has called the legislature back into a special session. The House and the Senate have their own budget bills, as does the governor. All three must be reconciled into one bill before the budget can be finalized. Read PDF…
Yesterday, the House Judiciary and Finance Committees both amended and passed out Senate Bill 461 and Senate Joint Resolution 14 that creates the West Virginia Future Fund. The amendments made several modifications to how much revenue will flow into the fund over time, how the principal of the fund is protected, and how the state…
Once again it looks like another year will go by without an increase in the state tobacco tax. This year it is quite surprising though as West Virginia is facing a severe budget crisis and raising tobacco taxes would essentially fix it all in one fell swoop. Nevertheless, our legislators seem intent on using our…
Governor Tomblin released his proposed FY 2015 budget last month and, for the second year in a row, made another round of cuts to programs and services instead of dealing with the state’s revenue problem. While his FY 2015 budget makes some improvements in public employee and teachers’ salaries, it continues to hurt the state’s…