With Governor Manchin and bipartisan legislative support, the State Road Fund will be seeing more funds to meet West Virginia’s transportation needs. Among key transportation bills enacted during the 2007 regular session are: H.B. 2877 (ending certain diversions from the Road Fund) will provide an extra $15.5 million to the Road Fund and S.B. 690 (restoring a state Consumer Sales Tax exemption on materials used in highway construction and maintenance projects) will provide an added $13.5 million to the Road Fund. Many of these proposals were driven by the state Department of Transportation/Division of Highways.
Lawmakers also enacted legislation (H.B. 2955) that will continue a 5-cent-per-gallon state gasoline tax. This tax, which generates about $55 million a year for the Road Fund, has been reauthorized until August 1, 2013. The final vote on the gasoline tax reauthorization was 81-17 in the House and 30-3 in the Senate. Voting against the bill in the state Senate were Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, Sen. John Yoder, R-Jefferson, and Sen. John Pat Fanning, D-McDowell. Language that would have allowed legislators to control which projects in their districts would be funded was struck by a conference committee of House and Senate members. Legislators did approve compromise language that requires the WVDOH regularly to inform the Joint Committee on Government and Finance about how much money is collected and how it is being expended. Governor Manchin had threatened a veto if the original language was not struck from the bill.
State's Priveledge Tax to End
Lawmakers also enacted H.B. 2775, which will do two things. First, it will repeal the state’s Privilege Tax imposed when someone purchases or registers an automobile or truck in West Virginia. Instead, the state will be imposing a state Consumer Sales Tax (at a 5 percent rate) on the purchases of motor vehicles (autos, trucks, motorcycle and ATVs). The second component of H.B. 2775 is that it will exempt new residents from paying the soon-to-expire Privilege Tax upon showing that the applicant was not a resident of this state at the time the vehicle was purchased. Note: this exemption will delete about $5 million annually in highway funds.