Over the weekend, the governor's proposal to end the teacher's strike in West Virginia hit a snag, as the Senate cut the proposed teacher and service personnel pay raise from five percent, as passed by the House, to four percent. The House refused to accept the changes and now we wait for the outcome of…
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Earlier this month, this blog post examined the impact of the booms and busts of the natural gas industry in the counties where it is most active, using some broad economic metrics. As it showed, despite producing billions of dollars in natural gas during the recent boom in production, there hasn't been a significant impact on…
On the eve of the Marcellus Shale boom, we at the West Virginia Center on Budget Policy released a report on the economic boom and bust cycles of West Virginia’s natural resource extraction economy. AS the report showed, counties in West Virginia with high concentrations of mining employment were particularly affected by the boom and…
West Virginia's free community college bill continues to move through the legislature. While the bill in its current form is fairly limited in who it applies to, it is worth revisiting the question of what it would take to provide free tuition to all of West Virginia's in-state college students, and how that cost compares…
West Virginia joins states around the country in moving towards free higher education, with SB 284, the free community college bill supported by Governor Justice and Senate President Carmichael. The "WV Invest Grant" program would provide a grant offsetting tuition for eligible students who enroll in one of the state's two year colleges. The grant…
This week the Senate introduced SJR 9, or the Just Cut Taxes and Win Amendment. SJR 9 would call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate the business personal property tax for certain industries. As you might tell from the title of the resolution, this is the state’s latest effort to spur job and economic growth…
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that states could remove some low-income adults from receiving Medicaid coverage if they are not working more than part-time or participating in work-related activities. This is a sharp departure from prior administrations that have rejected so-called “work requirement” waivers from states because it doesn’t align with…
Previous blog posts have covered West Virginia’s proposal to modify its Medicaid program through a request to the federal government to waive certain requirements of the law, known as a 1115 waiver. As the posts explained, the proposed 1115 waiver would result in decreased access to health care with fewer West Virginians covered, ultimately harming…
In November 2017, the WV Department of Health and Human Resources announced that they plan to modify the state's Medicaid program through a waiver under Section 1115 of the Social Security Act in 2018. DHHR stated that they plan to align the proposed “work requirements” with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that imposes time limits or restrictions on unemployed adults that…
The final tax bill that Republicans in Congress are poised to approve would provide most of its benefits to high-income households while raising taxes on many low- and middle-income West Virginians. While the bill goes into effect in 2018, many of the provisions directly affecting low- and middle-income individuals and families would all expire after…