West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: New Revenues to Balance the Budget Don’t Have to be Regressive
ITEP Work in Action“Last week, Governor Tomblin finally issued the call for the legislature to come back into a special session to balance the FY 2017 budget. The special session will begin today, May 16th, and the governor will once again submit a budget proposal for the legislature to consider.
During the regular session, Governor Tomblin proposed $130 million in new revenue, including applying the sales tax to telecommunication devices and increasing the tobacco tax from $0.55 per pack to $1.00 per pack (along with increasing wholesale price on other tobacco products and taxing electronic cigarettes). These revenue measures, however, did not pass the legislature, and worsening fiscal forecasts now leave a $270 million budget gap to be filled, either with further cuts or new revenue.”