Virginia sees revenue spike under Republican Gov. Youngkin, up 17.8% over year

With May’s fiscal numbers now in the books, Virginia has recorded a 17.8% revenue increase on a year-to-date basis.

In addition to improvements over the year, the commonwealth’s revenue numbers this May were 9.9% higher than May of last year. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the numbers confirm that it is time to deliver tax cuts to Virginians.

“This report confirms that the time is now to deliver meaningful tax cuts to Virginia families who are getting crushed by five dollar gas and record-high inflation,” the governor said in a statement. “While Virginia was nearly last place in recovering from the pandemic, my administration remains laser-focused on job creation, and I’m so pleased we’re now in the top third among states for job growth this year, adding more than 60,000 jobs since the beginning of my administration. We still have much more work to do but I’m encouraged by our growing labor force, increasing wages, and the fundamental strength in Virginia’s economy.”

Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings said that because last year’s tax filing deadline was in May, rather than April, the commonwealth needs to look at combined April and May numbers compared with last year.

“On a combined basis, April and May revenues in 2022 grew 27.3% versus the same period last year, reflecting better than expected final income tax payments and lower than expected individual income tax refunds,” Cummings said. “Growth in payroll withholding and sales tax collections also showed strong year-over-year gains for the month, indicative of continuing employment and wage growth in Virginia.”

In May, payroll withholding increased by 12.9%. The governor’s office noted there were 113,000 more residents employed in April of this year than in the same month of the previous year. This is a year-over-year increase of 2.7%. At this time, the commonwealth still only has 96.5% of the jobs it had before the COVID-19 pandemic and still needs to recover 151,000 jobs.

Virginia ranked 47th in the country in jobs recovered since the pandemic, despite being 16th during the first four months of 2022, according to the governor’s office.

Lawmakers passed a budget that includes an increase to the standard deduction, which is meant to provide broad tax cuts to the middle class, but did not include every tax relief plan in Youngkin’s original proposal and did not provide drivers with any relief for the gas tax amid increasing costs. The governor is still considering amendments to the budget plan.