Beckley Register-Herald – The state Legislature should “proceed with extreme caution” when considering any changes to the state’s tax structure, according to Ted Boettner. Read
Boettner, the executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, held a press conference Tuesday just after the Joint Committee on Tax Reform closed its bi-monthly session.
Noting that previous tax cuts had not helped the state’s economy, Boettner said those cuts had, in fact, had the opposite effect.
“Years of austerity and tax cuts have not boosted the West Virginia’s economy,” he said. “Since 2007, the state has reduced business taxes by 10 percent, over $225 million this year alone, and we not only have the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.5 percent, but over 45,000 fewer West Virginians are employed today than when the tax cuts were first put into place.”
Boettner said the state has also lost jobs in manufacturing, construction and other industries, while the number of children in poverty has grown by 18 percent and incomes and wages have declined or stagnated for most working families.
