WV Rejecting Business Tax Cut Initiative Gives Governor Justice’s Agenda a Win

November 10, 2022

Mountaineer News

WEST VIRGINIA NEWS

CHARLESTON - West Virginia voters gave Gov. Jim Justice’s policy agenda and income tax reduction plan a huge win by rejecting a ballot initiative that would have allowed lawmakers to approve certain property tax exemptions for businesses.

Nearly two-thirds of voters casted their ballots against Amendment 2, which would have allowed the state legislature to approve exemptions for local machinery, equipment and inventory property taxes on businesses. Rather, because voters rejected the amendment, that taxing authority will be reserved for local governments, as it is written in the state constitution. With 99% of the vote reporting, 64.6% of voters sided against the amendment and only 35.4% of voters were in favor of it. Although the amendment had the support of the West Virginia Republican Party and Republican legislative leadership, the governor saw it as a threat to his plan to reduce the income tax. The legislation also received support from certain business associations, but was opposed by associations that represent the interests of county governments.

Legislative leadership had expressed their plan to pass business tax exemptions, which could have cut business taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars. The Senate had passed a resolution stating it would approve exemptions if the amendment had passed after refusing to vote on the governor’s income tax reduction plan. With the initiative failing, any tax cut plans would need to come from somewhere else and Justice has already started working on a large income tax reduction plan and has expressed his intent to phase out the income tax entirely.

West Virginia voters also rejected three other ballot initiatives, which included an amendment that would have given the legislature more oversight over the state Board of Education. Under the amendment, policies would have needed to go through the legislature before they could have been adopted and the legislature would have had the authority to approve, veto or amend proposed policies. With Amendment 4 failing, the policy making power will remain with the board.

With 99% of the vote counted, 57.9% of voters opposed the amendment and 42.1% supported it. Voters rejected Amendment 1, which would have limited a court’s ability to review impeachments made by the state Senate. With the amendment failing, the courts will retain their jurisdiction over impeachments. About 57.8% of voters rejected the amendment and 42.2% of voters supported it.

Amendment 3 also failed, which would have allowed the legislature to pass a bill to let churches and religious denominations incorporate. Although the initiative received bipartisan support and did not have any strong opposition from outside groups, the amendment failed to pass. About 54.6% of voters casted their ballots against the amendment and only 45.4% of voters were in favor of it.