Gov. Justice Announces Nearly $7 Million Revenue Surplus For December

Gov. Jim Justice announced December revenue collections in West Virginia totaled nearly $430 million dollars — slightly more than what was collected last year.

In a Thursday press release, the governor said revenue collections for December came in $6.9 million above estimates, which was 1.2 percent above prior year receipts. Justice said the “state is still in great financial health.”

The release highlighted areas such as personal income tax, which saw $175 million — nearly 3 percent ahead of prior year receipts.

Consumer sales tax collections were just below $127 million, which was more than $1 million below estimates, but ahead by nearly 3 percent of prior year receipts.

December severance tax collections totaled nearly $43 million. Monthly collections were more than $0.1 million above estimate and 5.1 percent below prior year receipts.

Business & Occupancy tax collections totaled nearly $17.6 million in December. Monthly collections were up 121 percent from the prior year receipts largely due to a carryover of deposits due at the end of November to early December.

Corporation net income tax collections totaled $30.4 million in December. Monthly collections were nearly $2.6 million below estimate.

According to the governor’s release, the month of December also marked the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2020. The release also states that the first two months of the 2020 fiscal year were “disappointing” in terms of revenue collections. However, the last four months were $16.4 million above estimates.

Coal sales have also dipped because of both a global economic slowdown with lower steel demand, and stiffer domestic competition from natural gas in the electric market, according to the release.