West Virginia Blue
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Under Governor Tomblin's leadership, West Virginia has benefited from lower taxes AND a $320 million dollar budget surplus. Impressive. The State generated 8 percent higher revenues this year than last year. The growth in West Virginia's economy puts the State in the top ten nationally in GDP growth. West Virginia's GDP rose by 4 percent compared to the national average of 2.6 percent.
Half of the surplus must be placed in the State's Rainy Day Fund, which with this surplus infusion will take the State to $800 million. This surplus will also allow the State to further reduce the corporate income tax put in place while Tomblin was leading the WV Senate during Governor Manchin's Administration.
West Virginia is one of only a very few States with budget surpluses of this size. In fact, most states are facing historic budget deficits as West Virginia continues to put money in reserve.
With Tomblin, Senate President Kessler and Speaker Thompson also deserve a lot of credit. There are certainly a number of future expenditures that the State will need to consider before making decisions on how to use this surplus but I would much rather the State be in this position than that of most other states. Let's continue with this strong leadership and vote for Tomblin in the October election.
As a parting question, how do others think the State should approach using the approximately $120 million that will be available from this surplus?
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