Tag: State Road Fund

State Revenue Estimates are 'on Target' Halfway through Fiscal Year

West Virginia is on track to meet its budget estimates for this fiscal year.

In a press call with reporters, Revenue Secretary Dave Hardy said the state’s General Revenue Fund is 4.5 percent ahead of where it was this time last year – and overall budget estimates for this fiscal year are, so far, on target.

November saw nearly $300 million in increased revenue bringing the cumulative General Revenue Fund collections to more than $1.6 billion.

“I’m happy,” Hardy said, “I think the revenue projections are good for the people of West Virginia, and there’s certainly, hopefully, we’re beginning to see the making of a trend here, because we are 5/12 of the way through the fiscal year.”

There were some shortfalls in November collections, however – such as severance tax – which taxes coal, oil and natural gas. Severance taxes were down $3.5 million last month, but compared to last year, Hardy notes, it was up 19 percent from November 2016.

Hardy says collections in personal income, consumer sales, and corporate net receipts helped to offset November’s shortfalls.

The State Road Fund saw a big increase from the previous year – over 16 percent above prior year receipts. Hardy says this is due, in large part, to the increase in license plate fees, fuel tax, and a 1 percent sales tax enacted by the West Virginia Legislature.

W.Va. Senate Approves Governor's Gasoline Tax Hike

Members of the Senate voted 27-6, with one member absent, Saturday to increase the state’s gasoline tax and some vehicle fees to increase funding for the state’s Road Fund.

Senate Bill 477 was presented to lawmakers on behalf of Gov. Jim Justice.

The bill would increase the state’s gasoline tax by 4.5 cents. It also sets a new baseline for the wholesale gasoline price.

The bill increases several Division of Motor Vehicle fees, some of which haven’t been changed for more than 30 years. The largest of those is an increase of the annual vehicle registration fee from $30 to $50.

Those fees are also then tied to a federal consumer price index to be adjusted for inflation every five years.

Several Senators from both parties stood to support the bill and the additional dollars it will create for road maintenance and construction in the state. The DMV estimates that increased revenue could be as much as $42 million each year. 

The bill now goes to the House of Delegates for its consideration. 

Sen. Robert Karnes, a Republican from Upshur County, was in attendance Saturday, but was not in the chamber to vote on the bill. 

Can W.Va. Overcome Political Pressures to Fund Roads?

"As I listen to people out in my area, they are very interested in us doing something and they're not naive enough to think you can do it without money." – Sen. Finance Chair Mike Hall.

Republican Senate Finance Chair Mike Hall has been outspoken on the issue of road funding since his party took over the legislature in January.

Weeks, if not days, into the session Hall began pushing the idea of a road bond- leveraging the state turnpike in southern West Virginia to bond out more than a billion dollars of new road construction.

Hall’s attitude, it hasn’t changed much.

“We need to go ahead and take action this session,” he said after a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance Monday. 

Hall is backing a road bond using the state’s turnpike in southern West Virginia as leverage. His plan would keep the tolls, which are set to expire in 2019, on the road and bond that future income at $1  billion to put toward new road construction. 

Hall’s counterpart in the House of Delegates, Eric Nelson, is still open to considering other options like implementing TIFs, or tax increment financing districts. 

When a new road is built, the property taxes in that area go up. A TIF captures those additional property taxes and uses them to pay for the developed infrastructure in the area. 

“You’ll see us push that this time,” Nelson said.

Both funding sources have their issues. Counties and municipalities lose out on the extra property tax revenue under TIFs and continued tolls on the turnpike further alienates those in southern West Virginia who feel they bare the burden of the fees.

So, Hall said, it will come down to the political willingness of both the Legislature and the governor, and he’s asking for that financial support in an election year. 

“I know that there are people around here that say no new taxes ever,” he said. “Even the governor campaigned on that if you remember, but in this case, we could do a better job growing our state.”

Hall believed you can garner public support if you plan road projects for all areas of the state, “so everyone feels like a winner,” he said.

Both Hall and Nelson agreed there will be no special session this fall to deal with the state’s road funding issues and will wait to deal with the issue during the 2016 legislative session. 

House Passes Raw Milk Bill

At the legislature today, the pros and cons of consuming raw milk is debated in the House.  Senate Bill 30 passed overwhelmingly and heads back to the Senate to consider House changes to the bill.  In the Senate there’s more discussion about funding for state roads and another agreement for more study about that issue.  And we begin a two part series about ginseng. Could it become a leading cash crop? These stories and more coming up on The Legislature Today.

Lawmakers to Consider Yearlong Study of Road Funds

It’s too late in the session for Senators to approve a bill that would increase dollars committed to the state Road Fund, but members on both sides of the aisle say they are prepared to commit to a study of the issue. 

Sen. Bob Plymale of Wayne County introduced Senate Bill 478 nearly a month ago, which would do just that. The bill proposes increasing revenues for road construction by upping the gasoline and consumer sales taxes and raising Division of Motor Vehicle fees that haven’t been touched since the 1970s.

Plymale told members of the Senate Transportation Committee Tuesday the bill takes some of the unofficial recommendations from Governor Tomblin’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways and incorporates them into code.

“We did come out with a comprehensive plan,” Plymale, who was a member of the Commission, said, “but what is missing from that is the tolling aspect.”

“If we don’t keep the tolls on and allow that money to be spent on new construction, on the King Coal Highway, the Coalfield Expressway, within a 75 mile radius of the turnpike, we’re not going to continue to have the commerce that we need.”

Neighboring Ohio, Plymale said, has leveraged their turnpike to pay for road construction and Virginia and Maryland implemented blanket sales tax increases, dedicating those funds to roads. 

Mike Clouser with the Contractors Association of West Virginia told the committee a study by his organization shows if the state would increase highway spending by $500 million, it would create 10,000 jobs not just in construction, but across a variety of industries in West Virginia.

“These states are realizing that Washington is not going to solve our problems,” he said. “That if it’s going to be done, its going to be done on the state level.”

Transportation Chair Sen. Chris Walters said it’s too late in the session for both chambers to approve Plymale’s bill, but he’s working to craft a resolution to commit the Legislature to study road funding for a year. 

The resolution would have to be considered and approved by a simple majority voted of both chambers by the final day of session Saturday.

Senate Kills Two Budget Proposals Leaving $17 Million Gap

Two bills proposed by the governor to fill general revenue budget holes died in a Senate committee Tuesday. The failure now leaves about a $17 million gap for the Finance Committee Chairs to plug at the end of session.

Subcommittees of Senate Transportation and Infrastructure held the two bills without making a decision for almost a month.

The first, Senate Bill 329, would take about $4 million from the state Special Railroad and Intermodal Enhancement Fund and deposit them instead in the general revenue budget for Fiscal Years 2015 and 2016.

The subcommittee reported the bill back with the recommendation it do not pass and the bill died.

A second subcommittee took up Senate Bill 334 which takes about $13 million for the same two fiscal years from the State Road Fund and also puts the money into the general revenue budget.

That money comes from sales taxes levied on construction and maintenance material used specifically for highway projects.

The bill received no recommendation from the subcommittee, was defeated on a voice vote and also died.
 

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