In May of 2016, West Virginia enacted a time limit on SNAP benefits for childless adults in the 9 counties with the lowest unemployment. Those 9 counties were Berkeley, Cabell, Harrison, Jefferson, Kanawha, Marion, Monongalia, Morgan and Putnam. While proponents maintained that cutting low-income childless adults from SNAP would boost employment, there is no evidence…
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Josh Lohnes, Food Policy Research Director for West Virginia University's Food Justice Lab, authored this guest blog post. The WVU Food Justice Lab is an experimental space for research and action focused on challenging food system inequalities. As part of their food security work, Dr. Lohnes and his team estimated the potential impacts in West Virginia…
While West Virginia has experienced positive job growth over the last two years, it is imperative that we don't use employment data incorrectly so we can have a full understanding of how West Virginia's economy is rebounding. Unfortunately, the WV Chamber of Commerce keeps misusing employment figures to overstate West Virginia's economic recovery. And even worse,…
The decline in union coverage in West Virginia and across the United States is one of the central reasons for wage stagnation and the loss of hard-fought union benefits like pensions. West Virginia can help reverse this trend by eliminating "Right to Work" and by letting public employees collectively bargain. Even as workers are…
It has been 12 years since West Virginia began its tax cut experiment, phasing out the business franchise tax and cutting the corporate net income tax rate from 9% to 6.5%, and nearly 5 years since the cuts have been fully in place. While we've explored before why business tax cuts aren't likely to work…
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Trump Administration finalized their public charge rule, which will allow immigration officials to deny green cards and citizenship to immigrants or would-be immigrants who are determined likely to receive even modest assistance from programs like SNAP and Medicaid at any point over their lifetimes. This…
Everyone gets sick, but not everyone gets paid time off work to get better. Nearly half of West Virginia’s private sector workers, 46 percent, lacks paid sick leave, and people of color and low-income workers are the least likely to have access to this benefit. This means that those who have the most to lose by…
A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds that 348 lives were saved since West Virginia expanded Medicaid in 2014. The study compares death rates of the near-elderly - those between the ages of 55 and 64 - in states that have and have not expanded Medicaid and finds that in…
The special session that once was focused on education reform saw a bill introduced and passed out of committee to help bail out a struggling coal power plant. HB 207 would exempt "merchant power plants" from the state's business and occupation tax. The Pleasants Power station in Pleasants County would be the only power plant…
This past legislative session, the House introduced House Bill 3136 that directed the WV DHHR to apply for a Section 1115 waiver to implement Medicaid work reporting requirements on all non-elderly adults in enrolled in the program. If enacted, and approved from the federal government (CMS), it would force thousands of people who do not…