CHARLESTON, W.Va. — House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss says state lawmakers should consider a tax cut proposal by Gov. Jim Justice before a new administration takes over.

“I think it’s prudent to do it now. I do, along with the other things of the surplus dollars that we have left over that we need to take a look at,” Criss (R-Wood) said on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”

Justice announced earlier this month he wants to follow up an automatic reduction in the personal income tax with another 5% on top of that.

Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr (R-Putnam) came out against the proposed cut and said doing so could get the state out of balance with other tax cuts already going into place alongside the state’s projected expense obligations.

Criss said the reduction is worth exploring.

“I still think giving back the people their money so they can do what they want to do with it actually increases the economy and will boost revenues down the road,” Criss said.

Even with the changes to the automatic reduction and the governor’s tax cut, Criss said the state income tax in West Virginia still won’t be competitive enough with neighboring states. He said he knows what that’s like as a representative of an area that borders Ohio.

“We’re going to be at 4.5% so we’re still outside the range in our market conditions for our employees to be able to be competitive with somebody from the living conditions in West Virginia versus Ohio, especially in our area,” he said.

Criss added it’s important to be smart about this and not let history repeat itself.

“I want to make sure that we do not invade any cash-flow problems and to be able to pay our bills because I was there in the late 80s and early 90s when we couldn’t pay the electric bill,” he said.

Tarr previously said another 5 percent equals about $100 million. That’s on top of a tax cut automatically triggered by economic indicators of 3% or 4% for this coming year, amounting to about $90 million. He said lawmakers also agreed to phase out the state income tax on Social Security benefits, equating to about $10 million this year.

The most recent fiscal year resulted in revenue of $826 million above the estimate set annually by the governor. The difference came as the state instituted a 21.25% personal income tax cut this year.

Justice plans to call lawmakers in for a special session in August.

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New UK finance minister Rachel Reeves vowed Monday to immediately “fix the foundations” of Britain’s economy, fuelled by onshore wind power and house building, after her Labour party won power.

In her first major speech since being appointed the UK’s first woman chancellor of the exchequer by new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Reeves said there was “no time to waste” on reversing “the legacy of fourteen years of chaos and economic irresponsibility” under Conservative rule.

Reeves, 45, takes over as chancellor with Britain’s economy recently out of recession, the country’s inflation rate back to normal levels and as the Bank of England prepares to cut interest rates.

Centre-left Labour, which had put growing the UK economy at the heart of its manifesto, won last Thursday’s general election with a sizeable majority.

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“New Treasury analysis I requested over the weekend exposed the opportunities lost” under the Conservatives, Reeves told business leaders in London.

She said weak growth meant Britain last year missed out on £58 billion ($74 billion) in tax revenues, impacting public services.

But Reeves stressed that growing the economy would occur alongside “robust fiscal rules”, with Britain’s debt having ballooned in recent years owing to huge state spending caused by the Covid pandemic and surging energy prices.

The chancellor said Labour would double onshore wind energy by 2030, helping the island nation move closer to net zero carbon emissions.

“That means immediately removing the de facto ban on onshore wind in England, in place since 2015,” the government said in a separate statement Monday.

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Reeves said the reform of planning rules would hasten infrastructure building across sectors, helping it to also construct 1.5 million “affordable” homes in partnership with the private sector.

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