On Wednesday, the governor gave his annual State of the State address. From a policy point of view, Governor Tomblin made several pronouncements regarding education, child well-being, prison reform and substance abuse that deserve high praise. However, the governor also left me scratching my head regarding his proposal to deal with the state's budget gap…
Tax and Budget
(Continued from Part 6 - published 1/22/2013) Raising real property taxes or the sales tax aren't the only ways to offset the losses from eliminating the personal property tax in West Virginia. For example, last year's H.B. 4473 called for using the proceeds from the proposed future fund to reduce the personal property tax burden on businesses. Advocates for the…
Today's Charleston Gazette noted that the State Advisory Council of Students is planning to petition Governor Tomblin over proposed budget cuts to the state's higher education system. The students are concerned that any state cuts would result in higher tuition, making college less affordable for many students, and pushing more students into debt. However, even…
(Continued from part 5 - published 1/14/13) Eliminating the personal property tax would cost a substantial amount of revenue at all levels of government across the state. Eliminating the personal property tax without some replacement revenue would be wildly irresponsible, and would have devastating effects on local services and education throughout the state. And to its credit,…
Last fall, the WVCBP published a report critiquing the state's efforts at evaluating business tax incentives. One of the documents examined in the report was the state's Tax Credit Disclosure List. Published every five years, the Tax Credit Disclosure List compiles a list of each individual claimant for any of the state's multiple tax credits…
(Continued from Part 4 - published on 1/4/2013) While the overwhelming majority of property tax revenue is collected at the local government level, the state of West Virginia does levy a small property tax. In FY 2012, total property taxes levied by the state of West Virginia amounted to $6,042,911, or about 0.4 percent of…
Although a "fiscal cliff" deal to prevent tax hikes and sweeping spending cuts was brokered at the eleventh hour, West Virginians will still see a tax increase. The rarely mentioned payroll tax holiday has officially expired, impacting the paychecks of about 900,000 working West Virginians. Enacted in 2010, the payroll tax holiday was designed to…
(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…
(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…