Governor Jim Justice announced that West Virginia’s General Revenue collections for October 2021 came in at $38.7 million above estimates.
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“It’s become old hat. But to have all this success, month after month, we would have danced in the streets not that long ago. Before I walked in the door, all of this would have been impossible,” Gov. Justice said. “We had deficits like you can’t imagine. No one had a solution whatsoever, other than more and more cuts.
“But with the great work of the Legislature and all those with me, we started to make things change,” Gov. Justice continued. “We’ve managed to not grow our spending. We’ve managed to push the right buttons. We’ve brought so much goodness to our people, it’s off the chart.”
October collections were 7.3% ahead of prior year receipts.
Year to date collections are $181.4 million above estimates four months into Fiscal Year 2022.
“It’s almost become a broken record: ‘Justice is going to come in at the end of the month and report more and more surpluses,’” Gov. Justice said. “The state is doing really good.”
Personal Income Tax collections for October were 8.1% above last year for the month and 8.7% ahead year to date after the removal of prior year deferred collections.
Consumer Sales Tax collections for October were 6.3% above last year for the month and 5.7% ahead year to date.
Corporate Net Income Tax collections for October were 8% above last year for the month and nearly 44% ahead year to date after the removal of prior year deferred collections.
Severance Tax collections for October were 84% above last year for the month and 119% ahead year to date.
Current natural gas prices are roughly four times the price at this time last year.
Average coal prices are also higher, along with higher production for natural gas products and coal.
After inheriting a $500 million budget deficit, Gov. Justice has led the state to a string of consistent budget surpluses by using his lifelong experience as a businessman to make West Virginia a more business friendly state and by standing behind the energy industry.
Over the past month alone, West Virginia has cracked the top 10 states in the nation for quarterly GDP growth, set an all time state record low unemployment rate, and the Governor announced that his Billion Dollar Broadband Strategy will bring high speed broadband availability to 200,000 more homes and businesses.
Additionally, the Governor’s Roads to Prosperity program is the state’s largest ever investment in road maintenance and improvement; after 50 years of neglecting its roads, the state has committed more than $2 billion dollars to fixing them.
Teachers and state employees have received their two largest pay raises ever. The state’s Rainy Day Fund now exceeds $1 billion another record and its public pension funds are better funded than they have been in decades.
Additional investments in the state’s tourism efforts have visitation and intrigue in West Virginia through the roof. Thanks to Gov. Justice, Veterans now live in West Virginia tax free and senior citizens do not face state taxes on social security.
The Governor has also led West Virginia through a once in a century pandemic, protecting the state’s most vulnerable citizens, and achieving some of the best numbers and lowest fatality rates of any state in the nation. ■