By OWEN WELLS
Civitas Media
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Governor Jim Justice said he has taken the proposed advertising tax off of the table in budget negations.
(Photo by Kyle Lovern)
Justice made the announcement at the West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Breakfast.
Justice noted, “One of the things was the sales tax exemption in regard to advertising…after going back and reviewing that and looking at it, I pulled that back off of the table.”
Justice, speaker of the house of delegates Tim Armstead (R-Kanawha) and president of the state senate Mitch Carmichael (R-WV4) were among the speakers at the event where the commonn theme of discusion quickly became the the state’s budget.
Justice opened his remarks on the budget saying, “Thus far, the process has been interesting to say the least.” Justice added, “Hopefully, all of us are concerned about one thing and that this about getting our state into a prosperous position, doing for our people the goodness we’ve been elected, and humbled by the vote, to be able to do.”
Justice also touted his revised budget proposal which would increase the state’s sales tax by 1/4 of a cent and tax corporate earnings at .00075 percent.
During his remarks, senate president Carmichael explained he was anxiously working to reform the state’s tax system.
“As we enter the second 30 day period…I think all of us come to this moment in the time with a sense of energy and urgency to get this thing going in the right direction,” noted Carmichael. “This is a chance to fundamentally reshape the direction of West Virginia.“
Speaker Armstead also spent much of his time discussing the state’s budget saying, “When we talk about curing the challenges that we face in West Virginia, we can’t cure those by growing governing. We are not going to solve the issues just by having a larger government that just continues to spend more. And that why there’s a great deal of discussion in the capital about the governor’s proposal to add over $300 million to the current year’s budget.”
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