State still in budget hole with one month to go in fiscal year

The state of West Virginia entered the last month of the fiscal year $57 million short of where it thought it would be in tax collections. State revenue officials released the latest revenue numbers Tuesday.

“We’ve had an unusual ride this year,” state Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss said. “We made every effort several months ago to identify the problem and put a solution in place. We are optimistic that that solution will bring a budget in that’s constitutionally balanced.”

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin ordered mid-year budget cuts and the state legislature agreed to $70 million in one-time funding to help balance the spending plan.

State Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow said the state’s economy has taken the biggest hit in the export markets. At the end of 2012 the exports, lead mostly by metallurgical coal, topped $7.5 billion now it’s down to $4.5 billion.

“We’ve lost about three billion dollars and that decrease in coal activity stems throughout the economy and that effects other collection areas like sales tax and income tax,” Muchow said.

Personal income tax collections were down $7 million for May and Muchow said sale tax collections haven’t jumped like they thought it would.

State law requires a balanced state budget.