EKB News

West Virginia collected $379 million in coal severance taxes last budget year while local governments and coal producing counties received roughly $36 million of that money. In the upcoming legislative session, Senator Ron Stollings (D-Boone Co.) and Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin (D-Mingo Co.) will back a plan to give coal producing counties a substantially larger share of the coal severance tax revenue. The bill, if approved, would require the state to allocate at least an additional 5% of every $1 million on top of the 9% the counties already receive. The Senators are pushing for more money to go to the top coal producing counties. However, the legislation could face strong opposition from state officials since the state keeps and spends about 91% of the revenue. Last year, the legislation made it through the Senate but failed in the House.