New tax credit recycles old tax credits; results still bad for WV

By Brenda Jo McManama

WV SB 52 would “entitle natural resource producers to economic opportunity tax credit.”  

That sounds innocent and technical enough, but what this bill would actually do is slice the severance tax and corporate taxes on natural gas and coal companies by around 80%.

In fact, this is exactly like the old Super Tax Credit back in the late 80s and early 90s where we gave coal companies huge tax breaks for investing in machines that put miners out of work. 

More here: Fiscal Note SB 52

This is a backdoor way of gutting the money we need to keep our state running, a tax giveaway to out-of-state companies that adds up into the $100Millions.

It passed out of Senate Energy, and is on its way to Senate Finance now. Don’t let them get you entirely distracted watching the poker game on the table while they quietly saw the legs out from under it. Call members of Senate Finance and tell them to “Vote NO on giant tax breaks that break West Virginia–NO on SB 52.”