The Journal
July’s tax collections continued a concerning trend of declining revenues, even before the WV legislature’s 2023 tax cut package has been fully implemented. July’s collections came in $46 million below the previous July’s revenues, creating significant concerns about the current and future availability of revenue to pay for a myriad of needs and funding shortages we are seeing across West Virginia’s public services – from funding crises in our volunteer fire departments and EMS services to budget shortfalls at colleges and universities and job vacancies in our public schools and correctional facilities. Adjusted for inflation, this July saw the lowest tax collections of any July for the last six years.
Unfortunately, July isn’t just a blip or a fluke. Tax collections were significantly slowing through the second half of fiscal year 2023. While West Virginia boasted a $1.8 billion “revenue surplus” for that year, it was largely based on intentionally low revenue estimates and concentrated in the first half of the year before economic factors began changing.
Read the full article here.
