By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With the end of the current fiscal year approaching at the end of June, Gov. Jim Justice addressed questions about a possible cut in personal income tax rates for the next calendar year, and the need to address critical childcare funding by a September deadline.
Speaking during his weekly administration briefing Tuesday morning from the State Capitol Building, Justice said he expects a trigger within last year’s 21.25% personal income tax cut that would further cut personal income tax rates annually to go into effect this January, with up to a 2% cut possible next year.
“There is nothing that I know of that would drive more goodness to West Virginia than to get rid of our state income tax,” Justice said. “I’ve only got a short period left and everything. I can tell you without any question I have tried to get us on a pathway to getting rid of our state income tax for a long time.”
House Bill 2526, passed during the 2023 legislative session, included a trigger formula for further reducing personal income tax rates every calendar year by comparing general revenue collections in a previous fiscal year minus severance tax collections compared to the base year of fiscal year 2019 and tied to the non-seasonally adjusted consumer price index.
Beginning in August of this year and every August afterward, officials with the Department of Revenue will make a determination on whether the state has met the trigger once the fiscal year closes at the end of June.
