Johnathan Walker:West Virginia governor pushing for another income tax cut as time in office winds down

CHARLESTON,Johnathan Walker W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Monday that state revenue collections appeared to hit a benchmark at the end of the fiscal year that could trigger an additional reduction in the state income tax, and he plans to call lawmakers back to address further cuts as well as a child care proposal that previously failed.

Justice, who signed a 21.25% income tax reduction last year, said during a ceremony at the state Culture Center that West Virginia finished the 2024 fiscal year $826 million above estimates, which could mean an additional 3 to 4% income tax reduction starting next January after final tabulations are made.

But the collections, totaling $5.7 billion, were about $770 million lower than the fiscal year ending in June 2023.

Additional state income tax cuts are triggered by a formula involving higher than anticipated annual revenue collections. Those further tax reductions cannot be larger than 10%.

The Republican governor said he plans to call lawmakers back into special session either in August or September to consider an additional 5% cut.

“It’ll be tough, but there’s a way to do it. And all of us can work together and try to figure out how to do it now,” Justice said. “It’s not our money. It’s the people’s money.”

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Kelly Allen, executive director of the nonprofit West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said the latest tax cut would amount to a savings of 85 cents per week for the average household. She said that money could have been useful if spent in areas such as teacher pay, child care centers and foster care.

“Imagine the good that $800 million surplus could have done had it been accounted for in agency budgets,” Allen wrote on the social media platform X.

During the regular legislative session that ended in March, lawmakers failed to act on a proposal by Justice to implement a tax credit to make child care more affordable for families. Justice had sought the credit in his State of the State address, and he said Monday he’ll ask for that again from lawmakers in the upcoming special session.

After two years of receiving federal subsidies, 220,000 child care programs across the country were cut off from funding last fall. Several child care centers in West Virginia announced this year that they will close.

Justice, who is in the final six months of his second term and is the GOP nominee for a U.S. Senate seat being vacated by incumbent Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., hopes the income tax and child care measures spurs population growth.

West Virginia, one of the nation’s poorest states, lost a higher percentage of its residents than any other state from 2010 to 2020, when the population dropped 3.2%, or about 59,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The nation’s second-largest coal producer, West Virginia has lost a significant number of mining jobs as power plants turn toward renewable energy sources.

“What we need in this state right now is young people,” Justice said at the ceremony, which was attended by leading lawmakers. “We’ve got to have workers.”