During a recent meeting of the Lewisburg Rotary Club, three state-level representatives of the county gave a preview of what they expect to see in the upcoming legislative session.
State Senator Stephen Baldwin and Delegates Cindy Lavender-Bowe and Jeff Campbell attended the panel “mostly to listen” and take questions from the rotary club and public at large before the beginning of the next legislative session. All three Greenbrier County representatives are Democrats working in the minority in both the House of Delegates and state Senate.
A majority of the panel was taken up by questions concerning the budget and taxes – despite West Virginia running a surplus the past few years, the current budget projections have raised questions about how long the state will do so. Baldwin noted that the budget looks “about $40 million behind through the first five months of the year.”
“In the short term, it’s not good. [Oil and gas are] what’s driving the budget right now in terms of having a surplus or having a deficient, it’s severance taxes,” explained Baldwin. “Severance taxes on coal, natural gas, mainly. Those were good a year ago, budget was in a good situation. They’re bad right now, budget is in a bad situation. The Legislature also voted to cut severance on steam coal, so that takes money out of the budget as well. In the short and long term, the analysis reports I’ve read recently from the state and private sources are not good for the next six months. Some of the projections over the next two years aren’t even that rosy. Long term, West Virginia has got to have more diversification of the economy if we’re not going to be in this situation over and over.”
The representatives support the continued diversification of the economy, such as the growing $4.5 billion tourism industry in the state, a major player in creating a stable budget.
“As long as we put all our eggs in the basket of oil and gas, it’s going to be volatile,” Lavender-Bowe said. “It’s going to be dependent upon the market and those prices. We can have projects like [we had] showing a surplus through the end of the year, but that didn’t happen. We do have to think about ways to diversify the income of our state and if you guys have ideas … please reach out to us.”
Some discussion of reintroducing a food tax ended soon after Bowe noted the legislature’s opposition to any new or increased taxes at all, explaining opposition to a tax increase she pushed for to keep teenagers and kids from using electronic cigarettes.
“We do have legislation that’s going to carry over from the last session that [deals] with electronic cigarettes,” Lavender-Bowe said. “It introduces a tax on those products and for the funding to go toward a [tobacco] education program that doesn’t exist currently in the state for our children. I was told point blank, as a sponsor for that bill, that there was no way we’re going to add any taxes on anything. So even when you have something that seems as simple as taxing electronic cigarettes at a little higher rate to use funding to cut down on the number of teens [vaping], it’s not. We’re not going to see any increase in taxes anywhere.”
In fact, according to the representatives, there are some talks about attempting to eliminate the state’s business and inventory taxes. The legislature itself, however, would not be able to eliminate the tax alone.
“That would take a constitutional amendment,” explained Campbell. “That’s is something that definitely could come up this session. … They could make a push for that this year and get it on a referendum for the election coming up.”
Lavender-Bowe voiced opposition to the elimination of the tax, due in part to the potential budget deficient.
“It doesn’t apply to your small shops on Main Street, it’s not a true small business thing,” said Lavender-Bowe. “It’s more for larger businesses and equipment, folks like that.”
According to Greenbrier County Assessor Joe Darnell, the Business and Inventory Tax generated approximately $23 million alone in Greenbrier County, 74.5 percent of which goes toward Greenbrier County Schools.
“My concern with the business inventory tax is … the only option they give us to replace the [tax] is to raise real estate taxes,” said Darnell. “Unless they come up with a different idea than that, there’s going to be a lot of people, when they get their real estate bills raised, that will be losing their property.”
One member of the crowd stated that the tax did affect smaller manufacturing businesses, stating his business was affected by the inventory of parts, and not by whether or not the business is profitable or not.
Ronceverte Mayor David Smith noted the struggle of municipality’s infrastructure funding, such as water and sewer systems, and asked if there would be any help from the state.
“There are two initiatives that will be proposed in the senate that will address that,” Baldwin said. “To the extent that you would like, maybe not, but I think they’re steps in the right direction. One deals with dilapidated buildings – the state providing funding to tear down buildings that are havens for crime or whatever else. … The other is something our caucus has been working on, working with the infrastructure council to redirect more money for water and sewer systems because they have been so badly underfunded. People talk about our road system … Our water and sewer system is in much worse shape and you can make the argument that it’s much more important. … It’s 20 billion to do all the water and sewer work that’s needed across the state.”
Baldwin noted that although that level of funding is not available, there would be an increased push for getting more funding to the infrastructure projects from his caucus. Of note in Greenbrier County, within the last few years, Alderson, Lewisburg, and Ronceverte, White Sulphur Springs, and the county have each worked toward major water system improvements. This includes an approximate $37 million water project in Lewisburg, the renewal of the White Sulphur Springs Tax Increment Financing district providing approximately $15 million primarily for water and sewer systems, Ronceverte’s $6.2 million water improvement project and upcoming $4.5 million sewer project, at least $3 million in planned upgrades and lines in Alderson, and the county’s expansion of water lines in Sam Black.
Also included in the discuss was support for a potential fix to insulin price escalation, unlikely increased funding for arts programs, support for grandparent’s rights, Lavender-Bowe voiced support and Baldwin voiced opposition to full marijuana legalization, and spoke on several other issues that could emerge in the upcoming legislative session.
“This year, just from the chatter I hear from some of my friends in the majority, there is going to be less push on public education and they’re going to take more of a look at higher education and look at some of the issues facing our public colleges and universities,” Campbell said.
The upcoming legislative session is expected to begin on January 8, 2020.
Read more in the Thursday, December 12, 2019, edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.