Don't Skip the Line: The Case for Letting the Tax Trigger Do Its Job
Editorial: West Virginians want the income tax gone. They also want smooth roads. Turns out, you can have both, if you're patient enough to stick to the plan.
West Virginians want lower taxes. They also want roads they can drive on. A recent WASP poll of high-propensity voters found that 71 percent of likely voters in this state would rather see the government prioritize road repairs and infrastructure improvements than pursue an accelerated income tax cut. That is not a razor-thin margin. It should raise eyebrows.
A Plan Already in Motion
To understand what is at stake, it helps to remember how we got here. In March 2023, Governor Jim Justice signed House Bill 2526 into law. The bill delivered the largest income tax cut in state history, slashing rates by 21.25 percent across the board. But the architects of that legislation were wise enough to build in a safeguard: a revenue trigger.
The trigger is elegant in its logic. It works like this: whenever West Virginia’s annual revenue collections surpass the general fund revenue collected in 2019, adjusted for inflation, the income tax rate automatically drops by a set percentage, up to 10 percent per year. Hit the benchmark, earn the cut. Miss it, the rate holds steady. The mechanism was explicitly designed to let the state “march to zero” on the income tax over time, but only when the economy is strong enough to absorb the loss in revenue. It was, in short, a responsible conservative plan built for the long game.
The plan has worked. It triggered a 4 percent reduction that took effect on January 1, 2025. The state officially certified that cut in August 2024, with then-Governor Justice declaring, “Our state is on a pathway to eliminating its personal income tax. Let’s keep the ball rolling.” In late 2024, the legislature passed SB 2033 in a special session, locking in the lower rates for 2025 and extending the trigger framework for future reductions.
The people of West Virginia, for their part, have embraced this approach. They like the plan. They want the income tax gone. What they do not want is for someone to throw out the rulebook in the name of political enthusiasm.
A Governor in a Hurry
In his State of the State address in January 2026, Governor Patrick Morrisey called on the legislature to pass a 10 percent across-the-board income tax cut, bypassing the trigger mechanism entirely. Flanked by Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist at a subsequent press event in Parkersburg, the Governor argued that the state had earned the cut through budget discipline, citing a $128 million surplus at the midpoint of the current fiscal year and nearly $6.5 billion in newly announced private investment since October.
The Senate agreed and passed Senate Bill 392 on a 28-4 vote, cutting personal income tax rates by approximately 10 percent, retroactive to January 1, 2026. If fully implemented, it would return roughly $250 million to taxpayers annually. The House, however, was not so quickly convinced.
House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, a Republican from Wood County, said the quiet part out loud. “We have a tax plan in place,” Criss told reporters. “We have a formula in place that works.” He warned that accelerating cuts beyond what the economy can support is how you end up in a fiscal crisis. He remembered the late 1980s, when West Virginia found itself in a taxing spiral after similar miscalculations. “Bring me the economy,” Criss said flatly, when told the Governor wanted to cut taxes regardless of whether the growth benchmarks had been met.
State Senator Eric Tarr, Republican from Putnam County and the former Senate Finance Committee chairman, voted against the bill containing the tax cut, warning that any reductions running ahead of the state’s 3 percent economic growth rate would force a future legislature to either raise taxes or make cuts nobody wants to vote on. As of this writing, the legislature and Governor appear to be settling toward a compromise around a 5 percent cut, with the House holding firm against the full 10 percent proposal. The session wraps on March 14.
Meanwhile, the Roads Are Grading Themselves
While the tax debate consumes Charleston, the asphalt is doing its own accounting. In December 2025, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave West Virginia an overall infrastructure grade of D+. The state maintains the sixth-largest highway system in the nation, covering 38,000 miles of roadway and 7,000 bridges. That is a remarkable amount of pavement for a state of 1.8 million people, and it costs a remarkable amount of money to keep it from falling apart.
The price tag for fixing what is broken is staggering. Across just seven infrastructure categories including roads, bridges, schools, and water systems, the state faces an estimated $13 billion in funding needs over the coming years. Annual pavement maintenance costs alone are projected to approach $400 million. And rather than increasing investment to meet that challenge, Governor Morrisey used line-item vetoes on the FY2026 budget to cut $25 million from road maintenance through the State Road Fund and another $25 million from the Division of Highways surplus fund, stripping out $50 million in road funding the legislature had approved.
Lawmakers took note. The line-item vetoes did not sit well with them. The budget this year was passed in record time and submitted to the governor well before the close of the session. This was by design. The governor has five days to approve the budget and to make any line-item vetoes. The legislature will have time to override any changes the governor makes to the budget that is not to their liking.
In addition to line-item veto fears, federal transportation funding to the state is not guaranteed to hold at current levels. If those dollars shrink or disappear, West Virginia will need its own resources ready to fill the gap, and cutting $250 million in annual income tax revenue is not the way to build that cushion.
The West Virginia Business and Industry Council, not exactly a left-wing organization, has made infrastructure investment a priority issue for two consecutive legislative sessions. Their logic is simple: you cannot attract businesses to a state where the trucks hauling their goods lose axles on county roads. Good roads are not a government handout. They are the foundation of a functioning economy, and in a state as geographically rugged and rurally dispersed as West Virginia, they are non-negotiable.
The WASP Position: Honor the Plan, Fix the Roads
Let’s be clear about where we stand. The West Virginia WASP wants the income tax eliminated. Full stop. It is a drag on economic competitiveness, a penalty on work and wages, and an obstacle to population growth in a state that can ill afford to keep losing people. Neighboring states are cutting their rates and watching people and businesses respond. The vision of a zero income tax West Virginia is the right one.
But the vehicle for getting there matters enormously. The legislature built a sensible, sustainable machine in 2023. It requires the economy to demonstrate strength before the state absorbs additional revenue losses. It caps annual reductions at 10 percent to prevent fiscal whiplash. It is a measured climb toward a goal that, if we stick with it, we will actually reach. Tossing that mechanism aside because a surplus showed up at halftime is the fiscal equivalent of a dieter declaring victory after one good week.
Governor Morrisey’s heart is in the right place. And some of his arguments are worth hearing. The state has done legitimate work to tighten its belt, and fiscal discipline deserves recognition. If trigger benchmarks are met going forward, West Virginians should absolutely receive the cuts. But “we have a surplus right now” is not the same as “the benchmarks have been met.” The trigger exists precisely to make that distinction.
In the meantime, 71 percent of the most engaged voters in this state are telling their elected officials something that should be impossible to ignore: fix the roads. Not someday. Now. Before the federal money dries up. Before another bridge goes on the weight-restriction list. Before another family in a hollow somewhere watches a school bus take the long way because the short way isn’t safe anymore.
West Virginia does not have to choose between fiscal conservatism and functional roads. The trigger plan is the conservative path to income tax elimination. A serious investment in roads and bridges is the conservative path to a growing, competitive state. Both goals fit in the same budget. What they do not survive is impatience.
Let the trigger do its job. Let the economy earn the next cut. And while we are waiting for that, let us patch the holes in the road. West Virginians have been patient. Their roads should show it.
The West Virginia WASP is a West Virginia political news, humor, and commentary outlet. Follow @wvwasp on X. 🐝