There has been plenty of attention lately about unfair property tax assessments for homeowners, where even without a rate increase, a homeowner's property tax bill jumps due to an increase in the assess value of the home. However, there is another issue with property taxes that has been going unnoticed. Since 1994, when the first statewide reappraisal…
Tax and Budget
Earlier this week, I voiced concern that the proposed spending cuts coming from the U.S. House of Representatives would threaten West Virginia's ability to meet important needs like education, environmental protection, and community development, while threatening the fragile economic recovery. Now a report prepared for Goldman Sachs confirms that the proposed spending cuts would hurt the economy,…
Each year, the use of tobacco claims the lives of thousands of West Virginians. The state currently has the nation’s highest smoking rate among adults and pregnant women and one of the highest among children. Currently only seven states have a lower tobacco tax than West Virginia. Bills (SB 362/HB 2973) introduced in the 2011…
The New York Times and the Economist both had interesting pieces last week highlighting the difficulties of federal corporate tax reform. Most interesting, however, was a chart in each article showing the effective federal corporate income tax rate by industry. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the chart contained a major error. The effective rates in the chart…
Unlike many other states, West Virginia is not cutting any major programs or imposing any new taxes in FY 2012 but does face many challenges in the years ahead. A report released February 3, 2011 by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy provides an overview of the state’s budget, describes the proposed major…
Does West Virginia's business personal property tax keep companies from investing in the state? Do states with low business taxes have stronger economic growth? Evidence suggests that taxes actually may have a minor impact on a state's economic development. Instead, other factors like a highly trained workforce are more important. Read
The issue of retiree health care for public employees, or Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB), is likely to top the policy agenda for the 2011 West Virginia Legislative Session. By placing the OPEB issue in context, this paper aims to demonstrate that the liability is not a crisis, but rather a manageable concern. Read
December General Revenue collections exceeded estimates by $38.2 million dollars. This was the 8th consecutive month where actual collections exceeded estimated collections. At the midpoint of FY 2011, West Virginia currently sits on a cash surplus of nearly $160 million dollars. The graph below shows monthly estimated and actual revenue collections since the beginning of…
The compromise tax plan agreed to by President Obama and congressional Republicans would double the tax cut for the top one percent of earners in West Virginia from the tax cut the President proposed, while offering a smaller tax cut to the poorest West Virginians, and almost no change for the middle class. The compromise…
West Virginia's combined cash flow for the first four months of FY 2011 resulted in $95.6 million dollars in surplus revenue, a significant reversal of fortunes from the same start in FY 2010. Figure 1 below shows the cumulative general revenue cash flow from the beginning of the fiscal year starting in July through the…