CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Justice administration Chief of Staff Nick Casey called tax collections numbers for July, the first month of the new fiscal year, “pretty flat” in a conference call with reporters Thursday.
The state finished the month with collections approximately $2.9 million below estimates.
Like it has for the last several months, severance taxes on coal, oil and natural gas continued to show gains. The $25.6 million collected in July was 82 percent more than the severance taxes produced in July 2016, Casey said.
“Both the governor’s prediction and our expectation of severance taxes on a cash basis would continue to rise has been met,” Casey said.
Recent increases in state DMV fees, the wholesale price portion of the gasoline tax and the vehicle purchase privilege tax started to have some impact on revenue last month, Casey said.
State Road Fund collections, which the increases feed into, were above estimates a modest $3.4 million but that was $16 million more than was collected last July. Casey believes the numbers will continue to climb.
“We don’t have the full benefit of the increases that went up on July 1 because these numbers are for the month of July and some of those remittances will come in during August,” Casey said.
The state is close to wrapping up the books for the 2016-2017 fiscal year that ended June 30.
Casey said the state ended with a $76 million carry-over with half of that, by law, being put into the Rainy Day Fund. He said the remaining $38 million is “already spoken for” including $8 million for repairs to the state capitol dome and rotunda.