House Advances 5% Income Tax Cut

Gov. Patrick Morrisey hoped to deliver a 10% tax cut to West Virginians this year. The West Virginia Legislature is getting him halfway there.  

The House of Delegates passed an amended version of Senate Bill 392 that includes a 5% income tax cut that Morrisey proposed in his budget. 

A 2023 law that cut state income tax by more than 20 percent also set triggers for future cuts. Any time the state collects more revenue than it did in 2019, the law automatically reduces taxes based on the revenue gained.

Friday, Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, argued that this year’s cut was circumventing that mechanism.

“We’re telling people to just trust us, it’s irresponsible and negligent. We are hundreds of millions of dollars below the threshold for the automatic trigger,” he said. “So what are we going to do? We’re going to say, disregard the laws that we championed in this chamber. We did that, and now we’re saying, ‘Ah, maybe don’t trust us, because we’re not doing what we said we would do.’”

2023’s House Bill 2526 limited additional personal income tax reductions to no more than 10% at any given time. Morrisey planned to pass a 5% income tax cut and reportedly adjusted the state’s anticipated revenue accordingly. However he also asked that the legislature find another 5% to cut during their budgetary process.

The Senate complied, but the House did not.

The House Finance Committee added an amendment to raise taxes on vape products that was removed on the House floor. The bill now returns to the Senate for final approval.