Governor Justice has finally unveiled his proposal to make sweeping changes to the state's tax system, including a substantial cut to the state's personal income tax, while raising a variety of sales and other taxes. The tax reform would create a dramatic change in who pays state taxes in West Virginia, shifting the responsibility onto…
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It’s now been almost four months since Governor Justice announced that his top priority for the 2021 West Virginia legislative session would be eliminating the personal income tax. But despite the time elapsed, we’ve yet to see a plan put to paper. That’s likely because it’s really difficult to eliminate the state’s largest source of…
The West Virginia Legislature is one-fourth of the way through the 2021 session, and thus far the focus has largely been on areas other than criminal justice. Legislation concerning criminal law that has been passed out of committees includes a juvenile restorative justice program and several bills that enhance sentences for certain crimes. Last Friday,…
With the elimination of the business personal property tax once again a top legislative priority, the first piece of the plan has been introduced in the legislature, with Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 7. SJR 7 is identical to SJR 9, which failed to pass the legislature last year. SJR 7 starts the process for eliminating…
In 2017, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) launched a three-year pilot program that screened drug use among recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Otherwise known as WV WORKS, TANF provides cash assistance for low-income families and helps with child care, skills training, and job searching. As the pilot…
This week the West Virginia House passed HB 2013, the Hope Scholarship Program. After concerns about the growing costs of the proposal, the bill was sent back to House Finance for further consideration. This is a necessary move, as the program is much broader and potentially much more costly than any similar Education Savings Account…
The West Virginia legislative session began on Wednesday, February 10 and legislators have wasted no time rolling out their priority bills. Several bills with major fiscal impacts are being moved quickly, raising worries of whether lawmakers have had adequate time to thoroughly consider individual bills — much less to consider how the interaction of numerous…
Eliminating the Income Tax and Raising the Sales Tax Would Worsen Racial Inequality in West Virginia
Historic and present-day injustices, both in public policy and in society more broadly, have resulted in vast disparities in income across race and ethnicity in West Virginia. And West Virginia's upside down tax system does little to address those disparities. The average income of white families is 53.7 percent higher than that of Black families…
Urge your legislators to protect revenues by taking action here. We've covered Governor Justice's and legislative leadership's goal of eliminating the state's personal income tax from several angles over the past few weeks, showing that states without income taxes aren't growing any faster than states with the highest income taxes, that eliminating the income tax…
The COVID-19 pandemic has both underscored and exacerbated Black Americans’ health disparities across the United States. While this pattern has garnered national attention, West Virginia has been less successful in identifying and quantifying similar patterns, in part because Black West Virginians comprise less than 4 percent of the population, or roughly 64,500 people — well below the national average of 13…