CHARLESTON, W.Va. — During Monday’s regularly scheduled interim committee meetings, state Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow gave an updated view on where West Virginia stands in several categories.
Muchow presented to lawmakers Monday that West Virginia’s October state road fund collections collected just below what was estimated.
“On the monthly numbers, in the month of October, we collected $86 million in state source revenue,” Muchow said. “That was $1.1 million below estimate and 19.5% behind last year, but the timing of when revenues come in have a big impact on that.
On the positive, Muchow says the federal reimbursements from the state road fund collected in 2024 has surpassed estimates.
“On the federal reimbursement side, we’ve collected $90.4 million this year, which is $15.9 million ahead of estimate and 47.7% ahead of last year,” Muchow said.
Muchow also says the state road funds year to date numbers also have their ups and downs.
“The year-to-date numbers, I think were meaningful,” Muchow said. “The motor fuel taxes were running ahead of estimate by $5.3 million. We’re about 9.4% below last year, but the tax rate in place for this year is also lower than the tax rate for last year, so that accounts for that.”
Muchow says the consumer spending is fairly refreshing.
“The consumer is doing pretty well. Even though regular sales tax collections were a little on the soft side, the sales tax on motor vehicles (were) very strong in the month of October. $10.5 million above estimate, 7.1% ahead of last year, so this is just that the consumer spending is still doing well, it just might be that we’re spending a little more on certain items than other items,” Muchow said.
During the meeting, it was presented that the state’s miscellaneous category is down from 2023, but Muchow says that’s in part to a decision made a year ago.
“The miscellaneous category, you’ll notice that it’s down $170 from last year,” Muchow said. “That is because, last year in the special session, we allocated $150 million from general revenue to highways. That was a one-time type allocation. That’s not in this year’s numbers, and the overall grand total is off by $145.9 million, that mainly represents that $150 million that was there last year and not this year.”
Muchow says federal reimbursements within this year’s miscellaneous category are quite impressive.
“We’re doing quite well. $308 million through four months of the year,” Muchow said. “In many years past, we’d average about $400 million per full year on federal reimbursements. We’ve been a lot higher recently and that’s 9.6% ahead of last year.”
The state reported that total taxes collected in the month of October ended up $15 million below estimates.