West Virginia's tax collections in January were not as bad as prior months but provided no real signs of hope for an economic turnaround, state Revenue officials said Wednesday.
"We have not veered off of our path, for the most part," Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow said. "The numbers will continue to look bad in February and March."
Overall revenue collections of $374.3 million for January were down $9.8 million from January 2015 and missed estimates by $11.5 million.
That's after coming up $22.8 million short in November, and missing estimates by $43.4 million in December.
The state remains headed for a severe budget shortfall for the 2015-16 budget year, which ends June 30, with overall year-to-date tax collection of $2.29 billion running $169.5 million below estimates.
Revenue officials have estimated that the shortfall will grow to $356 million by the end of the fiscal year.
Severance tax collections continued to be the drag, with January collections of $11.75 million falling $16.5 million below estimates, and $13.4 million below January 2015.
"Low energy prices are continuing to plague the energy sector," Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss said. "Coal, oil and gas industries are all affected."
Seven months into the 2015-16 budget year, year-to-date severance tax collections of $120.3 million are down 44 percent from the same point in 2015.
The two largest tax categories actually exceeded estimates in January, with personal income tax collections of $195.3 million topping projections by $7 million, and consumer sales taxes coming in $415,000 better than expected at $132.6 million.
However, Muchow said the sales tax collections are inflated as a number of cities have enacted or increased municipal sales taxes in recent months, taxes the state collects and remits to the cities.
Last January, he said, municipal sales taxes totaled $4.1 million, but jumped to $10.1 million this January.
Asked why sales and income taxes have not dropped as steeply as severance taxes in light of the weak energy market, Muchow pointed out that mining accounts for only about 3 percent of total state employment, and jobs indirectly tied to mining probably bring that up to 5 percent to 7 percent.
"In terms of state employment, it's not huge, but it does have an impact on sales and income tax collections," he said.
The uncertain economy was also reflected in the state Road Fund, where January collections of the 5 percent privilege tax on vehicle sales dropped 3 percent from January 2015, coming in at $14.2 million.
"The fact that there's no growth here is a combination of the lack of employment growth and the lack of wage growth in West Virginia," Muchow said.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304 348-1220 or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.