OHIO COUNTY, W.Va. (WTRF) – West Virginia Governor Jim Justice continues his push to cut the state’s personal income tax by 50%.

Under his plan, the tax cut would be incremental over 3 years; 30% in the first year, with 10% in each of the following two years.

The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy held a town hall at WVNCC Thursday evening to discuss the proposal with the public. They oppose the tax cut, saying that a $1.5 billion dollar cut to the budget would negatively impact programs that families, workers and small business rely on.

“There’s a lot of need in the state. We just heard, you know, Wheeling Hospital considering not taking PEIA anymore, we need to invest more in PEIA. We know we have teacher shortages due to non-competitive pay with our neighboring states. We know families have a difficult time affording child care and if we take a big sledgehammer to the state budget, primarily to give a big tax cut to the wealthiest households that could really undermine our ability to make improvements in things that really serve families in our state.”

KELLY ALLEN, Executive Director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy

Governor Jim Justice will be in Wheeling Friday at noon for a town hall on his tax proposal at Independence Hall to give his side of the issue.

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