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Taking More Out Of Our Pockets

Proponents of a tax increase disguised as “tax reform” in West Virginia picked an excellent time to push for it. What they want would be devastating to many job providers.

Mountain State residents seem to be caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. State government faces a severe gap between how much revenue it collects and how much is needed to continue business as usual in Charleston.

The rock is Gov. Jim Justice, who wants big tax increases and few cuts in government spending.

The hard place is state legislators who favor some spending limits — but also a big tax increase.

Either way, families pay more. Either way, existing employers are hurt and creation of badly needed new jobs is discouraged.

Some legislators propose killing the state income tax and replacing it with hundreds of millions of dollars in new sales taxes.

Now, as many West Virginians are working on or have just completed their income tax returns for the year, is great timing for a proposal to do away with that chore and expense. But that relief would come at a stiff price. It would be in the form of repealing most exemptions from the state sales tax.

Doing away with all the exemptions would require West Virginians to pay 6 percent more for various services and goods. The tax would be 7 percent in cities that collect their own sales taxes, such as Wheeling.

Among just a few of the goods and services that could be taxed:

∫ Prescription drugs.

∫ Most room and board students pay to colleges and universities.

∫ Improvements to your home made by contractors.

∫ Haircuts and styling.

∫ Textbooks.

∫ Day care.

∫ Services provided by lawyers, doctors and other professionals.

∫ Advertising on which many job providers rely to stay in business.

There are many other exemptions.

Supporters of the change insist not all sales tax exemptions would be rescinded. But to do away with the personal income tax, budgeted at more than $1.9 billion this year, it would be impossible for the state to maintain exemptions such as those that currently aid small businesses.

Eliminating the income tax sounds good, especially at this time of year. But it sounds much less appealing in the context of a scheme intended to take more, not less, out of our pockets.

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