Delegate Lisa Zukoff: West Virginia Missing Out on Millions in Tax Revenue From Out-of-State Mineral Owners
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WHEELING -- Delegate Lisa Zukoff says some out-of-state property owners aren't paying taxes on oil and gas royalties, and it is costing the state.
Zukoff, D-Marshall, will try again this session to pass a bill that requires gas and oil companies to subtract any taxes from the royalty check before it is sent to the property owner.
Pennsylvania already does this, she explained. In the past four years, more than $30 million in taxes on oil and gas tax royalty revenues have been collected there from out-of-state, she said. That doesn't include final figures from 2021.
"We're losing millions in revenue," Zukoff explained. "For now, it's a matter of property owners being trusted to send the tax in on their own."
"It is not fair that out-of-state residents don't have to pay the same taxes West Virginians do in their own state. This became a mission of mine last year."
The measure passed the House Energy Committee last year, but got stalled in the Finance Committee.
"Several of the larger oil and gas companies said it was onerous to them to subtract the tax dollars from the royalty checks they send property owners, and send a check to the state," Zukoff said. "But they're already doing this in Pennsylvania. It's just a matter of fairness."
She also plans to re-introduce legislation requiring trauma-informed care training for all employees in West Virginia schools.
It is becoming more common for students to live in adverse situations or experience traumatic incidents as more and more are living in extreme poverty, or being care for their grandparents or someone outside their family, Zukoff explained.
Often drug abuse enters the picture, and the pandemic has exacerbated that situation, she said.
"It becomes more important for anyone in the school system to help with a child's distress, because you never know who the safe person might be for that child," she said.
The West Virginia Legislature convenes for its regular 60-day session beginning Wednesday.