CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday revenue collections in January missed estimates by $3 million, but he said he’s not upset about it.
Justice said during a state capitol news conference the state remains on track for a very good fiscal year with collections. He said missing the mark by $3 million isn’t bad when you consider he recently adjusted revenue estimates upward by $142 million. The move came after the state collected $185 million more in taxes than it thought it would through the first six months of the fiscal year.
Justice said the new numbers also send a message to state leaders who have a direct impact on the budget.
“The good part about coming in a little short is it is a little bit of a shot across the bow for all of us in government to say, ‘Let’s don’t get carried away upstairs and think that money is just coming from everywhere under the sun,’” Justice said.
Following January’s numbers, the state is about $40 million ahead of estimates for the fiscal year. Justice said that new collection surplus number is expected to grow between now and June 30.
“We believe that these numbers are going to continue to be really good, but I love it that what we’ve done here is we got something other than just runaway revenue where everybody is going to try and spend every dollar in the history of the world,” he said.
Justice already promised millions of dollars for pay raises and additional spending for increasing health care costs for state workers.
Several factors had an impact on the collection numbers into last year’s federal tax reform, quarterly estimated tax payments for the month were down 22.7 percent from last year. The money is expected to surface in about two months.
Taxes that continue to perform well include severance, personal income, consumer sales and corporate net.
