Gov. Jim Justice joined state lawmakers Thursday to ceremonially sign Senate Bill 2033, which reduces the state income tax by 2%. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
With days to go before an election that will likely send him to the U.S. Senate, Gov. Jim Justice on Thursday celebrated signing a bill that cuts the state’s income tax.
Senate Bill 2033, which lawmakers passed during a special legislative session earlier this fall, reduces the state’s personal income tax rate by 2%. It will mean a decrease in state revenue of about $46 million.
“What could we do in the state of West Virginia that would drive more growth to West Virginia than cut our personal income tax,” Justice said. “What could we possibly do? And if anybody says there’s something that could drive more growth to West Virginia than that, you’re out of your mind.”
The governor, known for the props he often uses during speeches, brought a gold bar on a silver platter for the occasion, calling to memory the 2017 legislative session when Justice, then a Democrat, vetoed the budget from the state’s Republican Legislature, calling it “political bull you know what” and presented a platter of cow manure during a news conference.
Justice initially asked lawmakers to cut the tax by 5%, but amended the call down to 2% as a compromise with legislators who worried about the impacts on the state’s long term financial health.
The passed tax cut will amount to about 40 cents more a week for the average West Virginian, according to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
There is already a 4% personal income tax cut going into effect in January 2025 because the state hit an economic trigger.
Acting Revenue Secretary Larry Pack, R-Kanawha, told lawmakers of the $46 million, $19 million will come from a revenue bond that’s about to be paid off. Another $20-$25 million would come from available money after the lawmakers split the former West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources into three new departments.
The income tax reduction was one of 37 bills passed during a special legislative session that started Sept. 29.
Justice said the 2% tax cut isn’t the “end all, do all” for Toby and Edith, his nicknames for the average West Virginia voter.
“We are sending a message to the world that West Virginia is on a pathway of getting rid of their personal income tax,” Justice said. “What’s that worth? What’s it worth? For God’s sakes-a-living, it is worth so much it’s off the chart. So in other words, what we’ve done is we’ve said, ‘OK, Toby and Edith. We’re going to mind the store properly.’”
Justice, a Republican nearing the end of his second term as the state’s governor, is running for the seat of Sen. Joe Manchin, I-West Virginia, in the U.S. Senate.
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