West Virginia experienced strong growth in tax revenues leaving it with a surplus of $413 million at the end of fiscal year 2021, Gov. Jim Justice announced.
Despite the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state saw corporate net income taxes, consumer sales taxes, personal income taxes and severance taxes all increase in the last fiscal year.
June revenue collections totaled $540.3 million, up 6.7% from the same month last year.
“Our state is diversified today in many different areas; from medicine to high-tech to tourism and all the different things that are happening all across our state,” Justice said in a statement on Thursday.
Total fiscal 2021 general fund revenue collections were $458 million above the original pre-pandemic estimate. Final fiscal 2021 collections of $4.988 billion were 11.0% above the same period in the prior fiscal year.
General revenue fund personal income tax collections totaled almost $2.254 billion, up 15.7% from the prior year. Fiscal 2021 corporation net income tax collections totaled almost $320.5 million, compared to $152.0 million in the previous year.
Consumer sales tax collections rose 9.1% in June. Cumulative collections were 10.9% above prior year receipts.
Severance taxes, fees on extraction of non-renewable natural resources intended for use elsewhere, rebounded in the second half of the fiscal year to finish at nearly $274.3 million, up 2.7% from the previous year and $1.3 million ahead of a revised estimate. Collections of $56.3 million in June alone reflected a rebound in natural gas prices and overall energy production and sales.
During two special sessions, the state Legislature approved about $150 million of spending for roads and almost $254 million of funding for other projects. The remaining surplus will be put into the state’s rainy day fund.
“We asked the Legislature to step up ... they did so and those dollars will be flowing through projects to help our roads and to help all kinds of other different projects all throughout our state,” Justice said.
