West Virginia's Legislative Auditor found the state arts department went 10 or 11 years without collecting sales tax and had more than 10,000 items outside its official inventory
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A September 2026 audit by the West Virginia Office of the Legislative Auditor, presented to the Post Audits Subcommittee on Sept. 14, 2026, found financial and inventory problems at the Department of Arts, Culture and History, which the Legislature moved under the Department of Tourism in 2025. According to West Virginia Watch, the audit showed the department went 10 or 11 years without collecting sales tax on items including gift-shop sales (the audit dates the lapse to about 2015, as reported to the auditor by Tourism officials, who self-reported it to the state Tax Department); per the audit, an October settlement covering Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2024 had the department pay $122,025 in unremitted sales tax. The audit also identified 72 grants totaling about $900,000 that the department did not account for, cash left in registers or unsecured folders at some collection points, and more than 10,000 items outside the official inventory record. Legislative Auditor's office manager Adam Fridley told lawmakers new financial and cash-handling policies are now in place; Tourism Secretary Kayla Kessinger, appointed in August, said the problems predate her appointment. Fridley said he has no way of telling whether similar problems exist in other agencies.
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