CHARLESTON, W.Va. — “Brace yourselves” is what Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael (R-Jackson, 04) is advising all West Virginians ahead of next week’s Special Session for lawmakers focused on the 2017 state budget.
The Special Session agenda, one Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has sole discretion to set, had not been released as of early Thursday afternoon.
However, indications were Tomblin was preparing to again propose a combination of tobacco tax increases, a lifting of the telecommunications tax exemption and a consumer sales tax hike to fill a projected $270 million shortfall in the budget year that begins July 1.
“This Administration is coming at you with a massive tax increase, an incredibly big tax on the citizens of West Virginia to take almost $300 million out of their pockets to put into government,” warned Carmichael on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Lawmakers have seen most of the proposals before now.
The Senate passed a $1 per pack increase to the state tax on cigarettes during the 2016 Regular Legislative Session, but that proposal went nowhere in the House of Delegates and Carmichael predicted that kind of hike would face opposition again in the Special Session.
Tomblin originally proposed the lifting of the telecommunications tax exemption in his State of the State Address, but that went nowhere with lawmakers. It’s a possible six percent tax on cell phone and landline usage.
A Senate proposal to raise the consumer sales tax by one percent would have dedicated that money solely to road construction and maintenance, not allowed it to be used for the general fund.
“At a time when West Virginians are struggling, the economy has been attacked by the national administration, now the state leader wants to take $300 million more dollars out of their pockets. I just think it’s the wrong way to go,” Carmichael said.
Earlier this week, Chris Stadelman, communications director for the Tomblin Administration, said Tomblin would have a “preferred plan” for the Special Session. “But that doesn’t mean there’s not some flexibility or willingness to negotiate,” Stadelman noted.
Budget negotiations have been ongoing since the close of the 2016 Regular Legislative Session two months ago.
Carmichael is a continuing advocate for additional across the board budget cuts for specific, but not all, state agencies.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to produce a balanced budget that does not completely backfill the revenue missed with new taxes on the citizens of West Virginia. We’re just not going to do that,” Carmichael said.
“We’re going to ask this governor, or require this government, to operate more efficiently.”
The Special Session begins Monday.