West Virginia entered December with its general revenue budget$121 million in the black while nearly a dozen other states facedeficit threats totaling $10 billion, according to figures fromacting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration and a new nationalreport.
November state tax collections brought in $278 million, or $26million more than expected. Marking the seventh straight month forbetter-than-projected revenues, West Virginia is 8.2 percent aheadof its forecast for the budget year.
State government has banked on raising $3.7 billion for itsgeneral revenue budget by the year's June 30 end. It's collectednearly $1.6 billion of that.
The Tomblin administration released the tax figures Wednesday,just as a new report found other states still struggling in theGreat Recession's wake.
That report also suggests West Virginia is well-positioned tobalance the upcoming budget that the Legislature must craft earlynext year.
The National Governors Association and the National Associationof State Budget Officers released their latest fiscal survey ofstates. Among other findings, the report said 14 states have alreadycut $4 billion from current spending to avoid deficits. They includeone of West Virginia's five neighbors, Pennsylvania.
While states overall have seen revenues rise, the survey found 11facing a combined $10 billion in budget gaps.
"Even with a slight improvement over fiscal 2010, fiscal 2011 isexpected to be another very difficult fiscal year for states," NGAExecutive Director Raymond Scheppach said in a statement.
The report also warns of challenges to 2011-2012 budgets, notingthat states can no longer rely on federal stimulus dollars. Thatwill combine with slow revenue growth and rising costs to "create acliff in fiscal 2012 and contribute to state fiscal strains," thegroups said.
"Strained state budgets will be the norm for the next severalyears as mandated expenditures such as Medicaid continue to grow,"Scott Pattison, the state budget officers' executive director, saidin a statement.
"While states will continue to fund 'core functions' from theirgeneral fund, they may fund other services such as parks or artsprograms from different sources, including user fees."
But West Virginia may avoid that route, as well as such toughchoices as tax hikes, program cuts and public worker layoffs. Thesurvey ranked it second nationally, behind only Alaska, for the sizeof its revenue balance when compared to its spending. Balancesinclude emergency reserves as well as funds left unspent from priorbudget years.
Mountain State lawmakers passed a balanced budget earlier thisyear by tapping the surplus portion, sparing the state's "rainy day"fund. Just over half the states have seen their reserves declineover the last two years. Fifteen began this budget year with anempty rainy day fund, the survey said.
With West Virginia's reserves at $631 million, the surveyestimates the state still has unspent surplus it could devote to itsupcoming budget. The report found 23 states estimating looming gapstotaling $40.5 billion for their next budget. Gaps of $40.9 billionwere projected by 17 states for their 2012-2013 budgets.
November's general revenues also show continuing signs of aneconomic rebound for West Virginia. Its key sources, personal incomeand sales and use taxes, beat their monthly targets by a combined$16.7 million. These two tax areas provide 70 percent of all generalrevenue.
Another economic indicator, business franchise and corporate netincome taxes, brought in $1.5 million though only $200,000 wasexpected.
Severance taxes on coal and other extracted natural resourceshave been crucial over the past two years in buoying generalrevenues. Those taxes totaled $47.7 million, $7.9 million or 20percent above their projection.
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