CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The governor’s office hasn’t announced end of fiscal year revenue collection numbers yet but the state Senate Finance Committee did Monday, getting the word out before Gov. Jim Justice for the second month in a row.
Revenue collections for June were just short of $488 million falling below the estimate for the month by $8.9 million.
MORE read Senate Finance Committee report here
According to the information released Monday, the state collected more than $4.7 billion in taxes during the 2018-2019 fiscal year, which was approximately $8.1 million above estimates.
Gov. Justice upwardly adjusted the estimates four times during the last half of the fiscal year. Those adjustments totaled $308.2 million. The finance committee said if Justice would have left his original estimate in place the state would have had a revenue surplus on June 20 of $305.4 million.
Personal income tax collections in June fell short of estimates by $2 million but finished the fiscal year at $4.8 million above estimate.
The state’s severance taxes performed well in June, exceeding the set mark by more than $9 million. Collections for the 12-month budget year topped estimates by $11.4 million.
It will take most of the month for the state to close out the books for the fiscal year. Once it does, a final budget surplus will be known. State law requires half of any money left to go to the Rainy Day Fund. The state’s two Rainy Day funds currently have a total balance of $753 million.