West Virginia Watch, Beckley Register-Herald – Earlier this month, Gov. Jim Justice announced that legislators have had sufficient time to reach a consensus on his proposal to slash the state’s personal income tax for the third time in 18 months. In reality, the first two rounds of tax cuts have not even been fully phased in yet, and the state is already seeing historic revenue losses alongside major spending needs after years of austerity.
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The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy’s new analysis finds that the change in tax revenues from FY 2023 to FY 2024 — driven in large part by 2023’s tax cuts — was the largest year-over-year revenue decline West Virginia has seen in 25 years, even outpacing the revenue losses during the Great Recession. And with about $310 million annually in already-enacted tax cuts still to be phased in, revenues will continue to drop, making it even more difficult for policymakers to address the state’s significant spending needs. Indeed, the Justice administration’s revenue department expects collections to decline another $500 million this fiscal year (FY 2025) compared with FY 2024.
But revenue losses are more than just numbers on paper — they mean there are fewer dollars to put toward funding for our public schools, health care, infrastructure and other public goods families and businesses rely upon.
