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.