West Virginia Public News Service – Critics of a proposal rushing through the House of Delegates say it could blow a hole in West Virginia’s state budget by using one-time money to pay for permanent tax cuts that mostly help those who are well off. Read full article.
House Bill 3137 would create a fund where new money, including out-of-state online sales taxes, would go. Then, each time that fund reached a certain level, it would trigger compounding cuts in state income taxes.
Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said some lawmakers may not realize they could end up using one-time money to offset tax cuts that continue for years and build on top of each other.
“This bill was pushed out of the Finance Committee without a fiscal note, without any understanding of what its impact would be on tax revenues or the state budget,” he said. “It’s a poorly designed tax cut that will not only lead to large revenue losses but also further exacerbate income inequality in West Virginia.”
