By Charles Boothe, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Part of a state Senate plan to gradually end the personal income tax includes a hike in the hotel/motel tax, a move that has local ATV resort owners dismayed.
Fifteen of those owners sent a joint letter to all state senators last week, asking them to remove that tax hike, which is proposed at 4.3 percent.
The letter comes on the heels of a summit set by Gov. Jim Justice for Monday to try to iron out differences in the three plans to end the personal income tax on the table.
In Justice’s plan, 60 percent of the personal income tax would end starting July 1,2022, with a loss of more than $1 billion to the state for fiscal year 2022-23.. He wants a variety of tax increases to raise more than $900,000 to help make up for the lost revenue.
That includes increasing the consumer sales tax from 6 percent to 7.9 percent along with targeting extra taxes on soft drinks, beer, tobacco products, among other products and services…