Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Former Lawmakers Reflect On Bob Kiss And His Legacy Of Service To W.Va.

Friends, family and many West Virginians will pay their respects Monday evening to former lawmaker and Speaker of the House of Delegates Robert “Bob” Kiss.

Kiss, who was 63, passed away on Friday after a battle with cancer.

A Democrat from Raleigh County, Kiss was elected to the House nine times, and was one of a handful of lawmakers elected in the late 1980s that one reporter referred to as the “young guns.” Kiss served as House Finance chairman from 1993 to 1996. Richard Browning was also on the committee.

“The sad thing about it is that a lot of people didn’t know what he contributed,” said Browning, now executive director of the Coalfields Expressway Authority. “And what a statesman he was.”

Considered the “young guns” — (left) Roman Prezioso, Robert “Bob” Kiss, Jim Rowe, Rick Staton and Richard Browning.

Another “young gun” of that era, Rick Staton, served in the legislature with Kiss for 18 years.

“There’s no question that Bob was instrumental in turning the state’s finances around,” Staton said. “When we came in 1989, we (West Virginia) were handing out vouchers for income tax refunds. PEIA cards were not being accepted by hospitals because we weren’t paying our bills.”

Staton says Kiss was part of the team of legislators who put together a funding package for the Public Employees Insurance Agency. Staton also said Kiss never sought credit but was always part of important conversations that helped West Virginia financially.

“I think he didn’t think of his service in that term,” Staton said about Kiss. “He just thought that he was trying to do the best he could for West Virginia.”

Kiss represented Raleigh and Summers counties and was the Speaker of the House of Delegates from 1997 to 2006. Kiss is credited for creating West Virginia’s ‘Rainy Day Fund’ or basically a financial safety net for the state.

“His legacy, I think, is righting the ship of state,” Staton said. “Putting us on a sound financial background and I think that we see things from it that will be felt for years.”

The fund has helped West Virginia weather several financial storms after coal severance tax revenue declined over the past decade.

Rick Staton (left), Melinda Kiss, Bob Kiss, then-Gov. Bob Wise, Sandra Wise, then-Sen. President Earl Ray Tomblin, then-House Republican Leader Charles Trump

Kiss was appointed in 2013 as the Cabinet Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Revenue by then-Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. Staton says he didn’t think of Kiss as fiscally conservative, but rather fiscally responsible.

“And so if there was something that we could do, that helps people, if we could afford to pay for it, then he’d go for it,” he said.

“We’ve lost a good voice for fiscal responsibility. I think that his tenure in the House, although we’re several years removed from it, is going to be shown to be kind of a shining time and a turning point for West Virginia.”

Kiss received his law degree from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 1982 and his bachelor’s degree in economics from OSU in 1979. He worked as an attorney at the Charleston firm Bowles Rice at the time of his death, and is survived by a wife and two sons.

“We all brag about our kids, but he just was so proud of them, and just worshiped Melinda,” Staton said. “You could see a visible change in him if he started talking about his family.”

Former Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Robert “Bob” Kiss with his wife and twin boys.

Kiss is also remembered as an advocate for southern West Virginia. He didn’t grow up in Beckley, but Staton says Kiss always remembered the community even while living in Charleston.

Visitation will be held from 5-7 p.m. Monday evening at the Snodgrass Funeral Home in South Charleston.

Gov. Justice has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on Tuesday, November 9, in honor of the former West Virginia Speaker of the House.

Revenue Sec. Warns of Longterm Budget Hole Without 2017 Fixes

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has already taken action to close an estimated $165 million budget gap this year, but the state’s Revenue Secretary said that unless lawmakers take significant action in the upcoming legislative session, that hole will only grow.

Sec. Bob Kiss presented the latest revenue estimates to a Joint Committee on Finance during interim meetings Tuesday.

Through November, those collections are down more than $90 million for the year and Kiss estimated that hole will grow to $165 million by June.

Gov. Tomblin has already taken steps to close that gap. Last month, he cut agencies by 2 percent, state funding for schools by 1 percent, and the Medicaid program by $25 million.

Those cuts along with a redirection of funds that were meant to pay off old worker’s compensation debt total $85 million. The rest of the gap, Kiss said, will be filled by recommendations that the Legislature will receive from Tomblin next year.

While Kiss said the state’s current fiscal issues aren’t as bad as last year, he says there is a structural hole in the state’s budget that will last for at least six years, if not longer.

“Our anticipation of the revenues and the timeframe at which they will come back will not keep pace with that structural hole. So, again, cuts or revenue measures,” he told the committee.

Kiss said without tax increases or significant cuts during the 2017 Legislative Session, that structural hole could be as large as $400 million for years to come.

May Revenue Spike 'Anomaly' According to Secretary Kiss

Tax collections for the month of May were stronger than expected, according to Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss.

In a press release, Kiss said general revenue collections were up 12 percent when compared to those collected in May 2015 and some $28 million above the month’s estimates.

But Kiss said the collections are an anomaly and not a sign that the state’s revenues are bouncing back from a long trend of decline. He attributed the increase in funds to measures taken this year by the governor and the Legislature.

In October, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced mid-year cuts for state agencies of some 4 percent to reduce expenditures.

During both the regular and special sessions, lawmakers approved bills to divert some tax collections from special accounts to the general revenue fund and pull money from the Rainy Day Fund and other one-time accounts to pay the state’s bills through the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Bond Downgrade Adds to State's Financial Woes

Like Gov. Tomblin, West Virginia Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss said Friday he was not surprised to hear Standard & Poor’s had downgraded West Virginia’s bond rating from AA to AA minus, but he said there are silver linings to the decision.

One is the renewed emphasis for lawmakers to approve a budget that includes some long term funding solutions for the state. For Kiss, that means revenue increases.

Tomblin and Republican legislative leaders are well into a month of their budget impasse and although Senate President Bill Cole said last week he felt lawmakers were coming closer to an agreement, there is still no word on when a special budget session will be called.

For Kiss, the downgrade of West Virginia’s rating shows that the “structural hole” he and Gov. Tomblin have been pointing to must be taken care of now and not temporarily patched this year pushing, a more permanent solution down the road.

“We need to find a way to get out of this hole,” Kiss said. “If we continue to live beyond our means we’re going to very quickly drain the Rainy Day Funds.”

The Rainy Day Fund, or revenue shortfall reserve, is the state’s savings account simply put. In recent years, lawmakers have drawn money from the account to balance the budget, but Kiss said if that trend continues, the state could face an even sharper rating downgrade.

But West Virginia is not the only state facing challenges tied to the energy sector. Alaska saw a downgrade earlier this year and Illinois in late 2015.

In West Virginia, the downgraded rating means the interest rate on bonded projects- road construction, school construction, etc.– is likely to go up, and that increase won’t just be seen on statewide projects. Kiss said counties and municipalities piggy back off of the state rating for their own projects.

“They will have to pay more for interest costs so it has an effect,” Kiss said.

Tax Collections Below Estimates for March

West Virginia’s Secretary of Revenue Bob Kiss says there were few surprises for the state when it comes to tax collections in March, but not a lot of good news.

March 2016 saw no growth in personal income tax or sales tax revenue collections compared to March 2015. Severance tax collections were also down close to 40 percent compared to the same month in the previous year.

Total tax collections for March came in at just over $300 million, down about 11 percent from 2015. Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow says that’s about $28.6 million below the estimate for the month, and year to date, collections were nearly $150 million below estimates.

Muchow says the biggest deficit for March was the insurance premium tax, and the bright spot was the sales tax — where collections were 9 percent above prior year receipts, about $100,000 above estimates.

Tomblin Seeks to End Special Casino Fund

The state’s budget is always the final bill approved by lawmakers before they end their legislative work for the year. But even though that vote won’t come until the end of March, members of the House Finance Committee are already looking for ways to deal with declining revenues. On Wednesday, they focused in on lottery funds.

The West Virginia Lottery Commission has generated 22.1 billion dollars since it was created in 1985. More than 8 billion dollars of that revenue has gone to support senior programs, education and tourism.

Representatives of the Lottery Commission presented their budget to the House Finance Committee Wednesday morning, and discussed ways the Legislature could help the industry be more competitive with surrounding states while helping to balance the budget by the end of the 2016 session.

Lawmakers also discussed the future of the Racetrack Modernization Fund. Lottery revenues each year are set aside in the fund to help casinos pay for updated video lottery games, helping to keep them competitive with out-of-state casinos.

However, Governor Tomblin’s Cabinet Secretary Bob Kiss says the Racetrack Modernization Fund will be going away.

“The Modernization Fund, which is going to expire anyway even under current law, is not something that was ever intended to be in place permanently; I’m sure you can hear different opinions, but the governor believes that it can be ended now, and we’ll make a proposal to do so,” Kiss explained.

Instead of relying on the Modernization Fund, Acting Director John Myers, says the lottery commission is looking for novel ways to generate new revenue. Things like online poker and a smartphone-based iLottery.

No legislation was proposed during Wednesday’s House Finance meeting, but lawmakers say they will be thinking of ways they can improve the state’s revenue through the lottery commission.