Governor Jim Justice announced that West Virginia’s General Revenue collections for September 2022 of $638.8 million were $192.8 million above estimates and 26.6% ahead of prior year receipts.
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Year-to-date record collections of $1.527 billion were $427 million above estimate and 27.9% ahead of last year.
“We are only three months into this fiscal year, and we’re already at over $420 million in surplus,” Governor Justice said. “What this proves more than anything is that it is time to return this money in the form of immediate cuts to our personal income tax.”
“Cuts to our personal income tax will put money directly in the pockets of hard working West Virginians who are battling inflation, not in the pockets of large corporations, like what will inevitably happen should Amendment 2 pass in November.
“Without question, the elimination of our personal income tax will drive growth and prosperity to our state for decades to come. Amendment 2 will eliminate the possibility of cuts to our personal income tax, do nothing to entice people to move to West Virginia, and do nothing more than ‘build a field and hope and pray they will come’ for businesses that may want to move to West Virginia. It will leave us high and dry when bad times come.”
Coming off a $1.308 billion surplus in Fiscal Year 2022 – the greatest year of revenue collections in state history – and all-time records for severance tax collections in July and August, September notched total year-to-date severance tax collections to an all-time record of $272.2 million, $224.8 million above estimate.
September personal income tax collections totaled $260.9 million. Collections exceeded the estimate by nearly $46.7 million and prior year receipts by 20.5%. Record year-to-date collections totaled nearly $608.2 million, an amount that was $75.1 million above estimate and 18.6% ahead of prior year receipts.
Corporation Net Income Tax collections totaled $94.6 million in September. Monthly collections were $54.6 million above estimate and 53.6% ahead of last year. Record year-to-date collections of $102.9 million were $56.9 million above estimate and 36.7% ahead of prior year-to-date collections.
Consumer Sales Tax collections of nearly $147.7 million were $19.0 million above estimate in September and 6.2% ahead of prior September collections. Record cumulative collections of nearly $294.9 million were $49.5 million above estimate and 6.7% ahead of last year.
West Virginia reached the 2nd-highest export growth rate of any state in the nation for 2021. ■