CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state has collected more than $234 million in revenue than projected in the first two months of the new fiscal year.
Numbers released Thursday by the state Senate Finance Committee showed August collections of $507 million which exceeded estimates for the month by $141.8 million.
The state’s collections for July exceeded estimates by $92.4 million.
MORE read revenue collection report here
The big driver of the surplus once again comes in the area of severance taxes where collections exceeded estimates by $105 million for the month. Personal income tax collections exceeded estimates by more than $15 million for the month.
Revenue collections last fiscal year exceeded estimates by $1.3 billion. Approximately $500 million of that total remains unallocated.
Gov. Jim Justice told business numbers at this week’s West Virginia Business Summit at the Greenbrier that now is “go time” in the state.
“We don’t need to sit on our laurels, we don’t need to that. It’s go time and you’re the go time,” Justice said. “When it really boils right down to it, we can’t have you lay down.”
Justice predicted that at some point the revenue numbers will go in the opposite direction but the state can prepare for that now.
“If we don’t watch out and don’t mind the store properly we can slide back,” he said.
Justice also hinted in his summit remarks that he has another big economic announcement on the horizon.
“This state is really on the move and really in the weeks to come, in the very, very near weeks to come, I will blow you flat away,” Justice said.