Blog

March 30, 2018 by Ted Boettner
Two Options For Addressing PEIA Revenue Shortfall

Last week, the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) Task Force held its first meeting to address the growing costs of health care coverage for public workers in West Virginia. The growing costs of health care for teachers and other public employees was a central reason why teachers went on strike for nine school…

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March 30, 2018 by WVCBP
The WVCBP Legislative Wrap-Up

The 2018 regular legislative session was certainly one to remember. West Virginia saw its first-ever statewide teachers strike, a host of bad bills introduced, and a governor often missing from the statehouse at critical times. Let’s take a look back at what happened and how low- and moderate-income West Virginians fared under the capitol dome…

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March 26, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
Rising Natural Gas Prices Responsible for Construction Job Growth

Governor Justice made headlines last week, citing the latest employment figures showing that West Virginia led the nation in construction job growth in 2017. While the governor took the numbers as a sign that his job rocket ship is ready to launch, a closer look at the numbers shows that the recent growth has little…

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March 14, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
FY 2019 Budget Recap

The 2018 Legislative Session came to a close last week, and in a break from the past two years, the budget was passed early with little controversy. While every year, the budget undergoes some changes from the governor's proposal to the final product, this year most of the changes to the budget were part of…

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March 7, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
Breaking Down the Pay Raise and Budget Cuts Deal

The teacher and school service personnel strike came to an end on Tuesday with an announcement of a five percent salary increase for all state employees. This ended the standoff between the House, which wanted a five percent raise for teachers and a three percent raise for other state employees, and the Senate, which proposed…

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March 5, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
House and Senate at Odds Over 0.1% of the Budget in Pay Raise Fight

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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February 26, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
Can WV Afford to Not Increase the Natural Gas Severance Tax?

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…

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February 12, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
Booms and Bust: Natural Gas Update

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…

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February 2, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
What’s More Expensive, Business Tax Cuts or Free Tuition?

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…

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January 23, 2018 by Sean O'Leary
Free Community College is a Good Idea, Residency Requirements and Drug Tests are Not

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…

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