West Virginia Public Broadcasting – Gov. Jim Justice announced on Friday that West Virginia’s cumulative revenue collections for Fiscal Year 2023 will come in at $1.8 billion over estimate. He said the budget surplus breaks the record for biggest single-year revenue surplus in state history for the second year in a row.
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“I’m going to work with the Legislature to take what’s left unappropriated and continue to make wise investments in what we know will bring us more goodness,” Justice said in a press release. “Things like infrastructure, federal matches, and tourism, because the more we tell the world about West Virginia, the more people will want to live, work, and raise their families here.”
Looking at the fiscal 2023 year end numbers, Kelly Allen, the Executive Director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, called this a manufactured surplus. She said because Justice set revenue estimates artificially low, that essentially capped the size of the budget and left state financial and employment crisis situations unresolved.
