West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: Senate Income Tax Cut Plan is More of the Same: Tax Cuts for the Wealthy, Tax Increases and Budget Cuts for Everyone Else
ITEP Work in ActionThis week, the Senate Finance Committee took up HB 3300, the House’s income tax cut plan, and made significant changes before quickly passing it out of committee. Unlike the House plan, which phased out the income tax over time with no revenue offsets, the Senate’s plan is more similar to the governor’s proposal, making a substantial cut to the income tax while raising a variety of sales and other taxes. Like the governor’s plan, the Senate’s plan would create a dramatic change in who pays state taxes in West Virginia, shifting the responsibility onto working families to make room for tax breaks for the wealthy. The Senate’s plan would also create an immediate $200 million gap in the budget, which would grow larger as more income tax cuts are enacted, and the income tax is replaced with slower growing sources of revenue.