West Virginia relies more on license fees and severance taxes to pay its bills than do a majority of states, according to a new survey of just where states get their tax dollars.

The report by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation concluded that West Virginia generated more than 12 percent of its revenue from fees and from severance taxes on coal mining and other natural resource extraction from 2006 to 2007.

Only nine states generated more money from the same revenue sources, but a critical difference is that most of those states also offset that disparity by completely eliminating another form of tax.

Alaska, for instance, generated more than half of its revenue from fees and severance taxes yet charges no individual income taxes. Taxes on oil extraction help bolster that state’s budget. At the same time, Montana collects no sales taxes yet draws a large part of its budget from taxes on coal, natural gas and extraction industries.

There is a danger on relying too heavily on severance taxes, said Tax Foundation economist Gerald Prante, who authored the report. If the price of natural resources drops, then so do the amount of taxes collected from that resource. Alaska experienced budget troubles earlier this year because of a drop in the price of oil.

Coal usually doesn’t experience the same price volatility as oil, so the state probably won’t see a similar situation arise, Prante said.

“Having a high reliance on that in the short term probably won’t do anything because it is going to be there as an energy source for a while,” he said.

He noted a wild card hanging over the coal industry was climate change legislation to cap the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. West Virginia probably would be one of the most adversely affected states in terms of tax revenue if the bill resulted in less coal production.

Policymakers sometimes talk about a “three-legged stool” of sales, property and income taxes when debating how best to fund government. West Virginia’s budget rests on all three of those legs, with it drawing nearly 19 cents of every dollar from property taxes, 37 cents from sales taxes and 30 cents from income taxes. The remainder comes from fees and severance taxes.

The state ranks below the national average dependency on property taxes and general sales taxes, but it ranks above the average on relying on corporate income taxes.

Whether there is a perfect mix of taxes depends on your philosophy, Prante said. Progressives, for example, generally don’t like high sales taxes because they see them as a large burden on the poor. Conservatives usually favor low individual and corporate income taxes.

Prante noted that sales taxes are a more stable form of revenue than income taxes, which are subject to changes in the population and swings in the economy.

West Virginia has lowered some of its sales taxes and corporate income taxes since the years reflected in the data. The state also relies heavily on gambling revenue to fill its coffers, which was not reflected in the report.