Tag: House Finance

House Committee Refuses Another Tax Bill

A bill that would reduce the state’s severance tax on coal and natural gas from 5 percent to 3 percent has been postponed in the House.

Senate Bill 705 was taken off the table for lawmakers this session and instead was turned into an interim study measure during a House Finance Committee meeting Wednesday.  That would give the legislature time to study the effects of the tax cut in more detail during the months between legislative sessions.

The bill passed quickly through the Senate, but with some debate. Some argue the proposed 2 percent cut over two years would help aid a struggling industry, while others say the bill would simply mean government-funded services in coal-producing counties would shoulder the cuts.

House Finance Chairman, Eric Nelson, says lawmakers need more time to consider a bill that would decrease state revenue, especially in a tight fiscal year.

“These taxes, according to that bill, would not have been dropped until fiscal year 2018, so it would have been July 2017,” Nelson said. “What a study does is, it puts much greater emphasis on addressing potentially reducing this tax, helping these industries out, and we can look at that over the next 8 months. Then, at the beginning of next session, then, we are handling a tax reduction that can potentially help some industries. Instead of hitting this in the last few days of this session and rushing into something we will second guess later.”

Lawmakers did approve another measure to cut some taxes for the coal and natural gas industries this session. The bill got rid of a surcharge on the resources that was helping to pay off the state’s Worker’s Compensation Debt. That bill was already signed by Governor Tomblin.

Road Funding Bill Slowing in House Committee

The House Finance Committee will continue debating a bill Tuesday morning that would increase Division of Motor Vehicle fees and some taxes to help fund road maintenance and construction projects.

The House Finance Committee began debating Senate Bill 555 Monday afternoon, but after an hour of discussion, Chairman Eric Nelson moved to lay the bill over until Tuesday morning.

As approved in the Senate, the bill adds a trigger to increase the state’s gasoline tax by 3 cents when the wholesale price of a gallon drops below $2 dollars, but also generates dollars for the state road fund through increased taxes and fees.

A House Finance Subcommittee of seven members discussed the bill on Friday, and suggested the committee as a whole move forward with caution because of the included increases.

There are two pending amendments to the bill that were suggested by the subcommittee. Those amendments are expected to be discussed further when the committee meets again Tuesday.

Delegates Take First Look at Road Tax Bill

On the final day to approve bills in the chamber, Senators passed out Senate Bill 555. The bill adds a trigger to increase the state’s gasoline tax by 3 cents when the wholesale price of a gallon drops below $2, but also generates dollars for the state road fund through increased taxes and fees.

The bill made its first appearance in a House Finance Subcommittee Friday.

There were seven members on the subcommittee. Initially, the bill only included the gasoline tax increase, but before leaving the Senate it was amended. Senators included increases to Division of Motor Vehicle fees and an increase to the tax on purchasing a vehicle. 

House Finance Chairman Eric Nelson says most of the new revenue would be committed to road maintenance and construction projects.

“Collectively, all of these, so called revenue measures would generate, according to numbers, about $300 million dollars and go into roads,” Nelson said.

All seven members in the House Finance Subcommittee expressed concern with the bill, including Delegate Carol Miller, a Republican from Cabell County.

“I started reading this bill [Thursday] night, at approximately 7:30 p.m., and the more I read, the more I circled, the more I underlined, the more I flagged, and it just went times three, times eight, times negative one percent, up one percent, and, I mean, I stopped flagging after about fifteen, and I just think that there’s too much in this bill to be, without us really understanding the true dollar amount of how many fees we’re gonna put on people,” Miller said.

The subcommittee did vote to move the bill to the full committee, but suggested Chairman Nelson collect more information about the impact of the provisions before putting it to a vote.

“I think any revenue measure is gonna have a word of caution with it,” House Finance Chairman Nelson said, “rightfully so in our tough times, but at the same time, we have a big need as it relates to road maintenance and road construction, and so we’ve got to put everything on the table, and I think that’s what we have in front of us. The reason for the subcommittee is to give it a little extra time, then they can report back to the big committee so that we aren’t rushed into certain decisions.”

Nelson anticipates the full Finance Committee will take up Senate Bill 555 Monday.

Tobacco Tax Bill Dies in House Finance

A bill to raise the state’s tobacco tax was approved by Senators earlier in the session and made its first appearance in a House Committee Thursday.

 

Delegates on the Finance Committee took up the bill Thursday morning and continued their discussions that afternoon.

 

Delegates continued their consideration of Senate Bill 420 for almost two hours voting on a few amendments, but in the end, the committee killed the bill.

 

The bill was presented on behalf of Governor Tomblin and originally included a 45 cent tax increase on each pack of cigarettes. As it passed the Senate, the bill bumped that tax up to a dollar.

The House Finance Committee adopted an amendment to the bill Thursday afternoon reducing the tax once again to the 45 cent per-pack rate as well as two other amendments.

One removed the tax hike for all other tobacco products- leaving only a tax increase for cigarettes. The second removed the tax for e-cigarette liquids.

After the amendments were adopted, only three members of the committee voted in favor of the bill. House Chairman Eric Nelson voted against it.

House Votes to End Racetrack Modernization Fund

Members of the House have approved a bill that would halt the state-funded updates casino games.
 

 
House Bill 4271 ends discretionary transfers to the Licensed Racetrack Modernization Fund. Proposed on behalf of Governor Tomblin, the bill would end the program that was set to expire in 2020 four years early — putting $9 million a year back into the general revenue budget.
 

 
Some Delegates expressed concerns on the floor that without the Licensed Racetrack Modernization Fund, the state’s four racetrack casinos won’t be able to stay competitive with out-of-state businesses, but the bill passed on a 62 to 37 vote.
 

 
The Senate will still have to take up the measure.

Sales Tax Bill Dead in the House

Members of the House of Delegates have killed a bill that would have reduced the state’s consumer sales tax while removing exemptions for certain types of professional services.

House Bill 2704 was tabled on a 92-2 vote in the House.

On Saturday, the bill was passed out of the House Finance Committee and also pushed forward on first reading.

The committee version of the bill would have reduced the state’s sales tax to 5.5 percent beginning January 1, 2017, while closing loopholes in some services that are exempt from the tax.

It was expected to bring in an additional $70 million dollars in the first calendar year, imposing the tax on legal, accounting and engineering services, just to name a few. After that, the bill proposed continued to reduce the sales tax, aiming to reach 4.75 percent by January 1, 2020.

House Finance Committee Chairman Eric Nelson said both sides of the aisle had concerns and leadership felt it was best to table the bill.

Minority Leader Tim Miley made the motion to table the bill initially Monday afternoon, but his motion was rejected.

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