Tag: West Virginia Department of Revenue

West Virginia Revenue Secretary Warns Of $100 Million In Budget Cuts

West Virginia’s secretary of revenue is warning of potential budget cuts over the next few years.

In a news release, Secretary Dave Hardy said Gov. Jim Justice asked him to prepare for up to $100 million in cuts to the budget in the current and upcoming fiscal year.

Three months into the current fiscal year, state revenue collections are down $30 million from year-to-date estimates.

Hardy has said the volatility of severance taxes from coal and natural gas has played a role in lower than expected revenue collections.

No specific amounts have been set, but Hardy said if revenues improve, some of the cuts that are made would be restored.

Hardy said his office has held 21 budget hearings with state agencies over the last two months. Revenue officials asked agencies to identify potential areas for budget cuts in the event the cuts are necessary.

 

Gov. Justice Says W.Va. Has Hit Historic Moment in Revenue Numbers

Gov. Jim Justice and officials from the state Department of Revenue say West Virginia has hit a historic moment in general revenue collections.

In a press conference Wednesday, Justice announced West Virginia’s general revenue collections for fiscal year 2019 has generated more than $450 million so far, with a projection for that to hit $500 million by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Justice compared that with the state’s general revenue growth between 2007 and 2017, which yielded only $314 million during that 10-year period – a less than 1 percent growth rate.

This year, the state has seen an 11.5 percent growth rate, which officials say is the highest level in the state’s history.

Revenue Secretary Dave Hardy explained that puts West Virginia among the top in the country.

“West Virginia’s growth at the end of April was 11.5 percent, which made us the second largest growth this year in the whole United States of America,” he said.

Hardy said Oklahoma beat West Virginia in growth rate this year.

Feds Subpeona West Virginia Governor's Tax Records

A federal investigation of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has widened to include a range of tax documents on the governor’s expansive business portfolio, according to a subpoena sent to his administration last month.

The federal grand jury subpoena that the state Revenue Department released Friday asks for communications, meeting records and tax documents involving the state and any of the roughly 100 private business interests held by the Republican governor.

Last year, Justice held a press conference with revenue officials to say he resolved a series of state tax disputes that had long followed his companies. Officials said the governor wasn’t involved in resolving the debts and would not say how much money was paid.

Prosecutors are largely targeting records from 2010 to 2016, before Justice took office in 2017. But they also want documents relating to last year’s announcement that the governor’s tax debts had been cleared.

The subpoena is the second such document to become public in less than a month.

A separate federal grand jury subpoena sent to the state commerce department sought contracts, communications and financial records from the state relating to a posh resort owned by the governor, its annual PGA golf tournament and the tournament’s financial arm.

The state previously sponsored the golf tournament at The Greenbrier resort, but Justice said he ordered the arrangement to stop after taking office in 2017 because he didn’t want any perception of impropriety.

After that subpoena became public in early April, the governor said he was cooperating with the investigation.

“I don’t have anything whatsoever to hide,” the governor told reporters then. “Anything you’re going to find around me is going to center around — there’s some mistakes, naturally, along the way. But anything you’re going to find around me is going to be goodness and it’s going to be the right thing.”

He has since declined to elaborate much on the status of the investigation.

“When it really boils right down to it, I’d love to just go off and tell you every little thing that I know about anything and everything, but I just can’t. I just can’t,” Justice said Thursday when asked about the investigation.

Both subpoenas were requested by the same Department of Justice trial attorney.

Butch Antolini, the governor’s spokesman, did not return a voicemail and an email seeking comment Friday. A lawyer for Justice’s companies didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Justice has been reported to be the richest man in West Virginia, with a fortune estimated at more than $1 billion by Forbes magazine and a profusion of coal and agricultural interests.

The existence of the subpoenas was first reported by MetroNews.

West Virginia Monthly Tax Receipts Up Again from Last Year

West Virginia tax officials say collections of nearly $949 million so far this fiscal year are 3.7 percent or almost $34 million higher than the same period last year.

Treasury Secretary Dave Hardy says revenues from September alone were up 3.5 percent mainly due to increases in corporate net income tax as well as severance tax receipts from coal mining and natural gas drilling.

He says the first-quarter results show “things are materially better than they were last year.”

The Department of Revenue reports severance taxes from production of coal, natural gas and oil are up 19 percent for the month and 47 percent for the quarter from a year earlier.

Hardy says that trend is expected to continue upward due to improving natural gas and higher coal sales.

State Reports Gains for Income Taxes, Employment

West Virginia is reporting a 15 percent increase in October income-tax collections, reflecting gains in employment from a year earlier, while overall state revenues of $322.3 million were 2 percent below this year’s budget estimate.

The Department of Revenue says overall collections for the first three months of the state fiscal year were almost $1.24 billion, slightly ahead of last year but $87.4 million below the estimate.

The hike in personal income taxes comes mainly from a 12.4 percent rise in payroll withholding.

The report shows quarterly severance tax distributions up slightly for coal but down 35 percent for natural gas and oil due to lower energy prices.

Department Secretary Robert Kiss says they’re seeing some better news than the state has seen for some time.

West Virginia Expects $353 Million Deficit for Current Budget Year

State officials expect a $353 million deficit for the current budget year as revenues from unearthing coal, oil and natural gas continue to drop.

The Department of Revenue on Wednesday projected a continued dive in severance tax revenue.

West Virginia’s coal industry has withered amid lower natural gas prices, competition from other coal regions, dismal markets, dwindling coal seams and regulations. Natural gas revenues fallen because of low prices.

In a news release, Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss said the struggling severance tax will impact other critical revenues, including personal income tax and sales tax.

Kiss said Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is committed to ending the budget year with a balanced budget. He’ll share his plan next week.

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