Join Us for the First Evening of the 2016 Summer Policy InstituteThe Inaugural 2016 Summer Policy Institute (SPI) will be held July 29-31, 2016 at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon.Students from across West Virginia will be a part of this first-ever event.The first evening of 2016 Summer Policy Institute is free and open to…
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At this week's Lunch and Learn, Tara Holmes, our Summer Research Associate, presented the potential benefits to West Virginia if marijuana were to be legalized for medicinal and recreational use in the state. Her research shows that legalizing marijuana for recreational use would bring in between $26 and $45 million a year in tax revenue…
FY 2016 officially came to an end on June 30th, bringing to a close one of the most difficult budget years the state has faced in years. The final revenue report for the fiscal year showed revenue totaling $4.10 billion for the fiscal year, $203 million below the estimate. However, that number was inflated by…
Lunch and Learn - This WednesdaySeveral states will vote this November on whether or not to legalize marijuana. If West Virginia passed such a measure, what would it mean for the state's budget? Find out on Wednesday at our next Lunch and Learn on July 13 from 11:30AM - 1:00PM at the West Virginia Covenant…
After their first attempt did not survive the governor's veto, the legislature finally passed a budget for FY 2017 last week, bringing an end to the budget standoff and an extended special legislative session. While the legislature's previous attempt relied almost entirely on the Rainy Day Fund and one-time transfers, the final version uses a…
After nearly three weeks of a special session, the legislature finally passed a budget for FY 2017 last week. However, it did not pass any of the revenue measures proposed by the governor to close the budget's $270 million gap, instead deciding to close it by relying heavily on the Rainy Day Fund and other…
Yesterday, the Labor Department issued its final rule updating overtime regulations, which will automatically extend overtime protections to millions of workers in its first year of implementation. The rule extends overtime protections to workers earning less than $913 per week or $47,476 annually for a full-time worker, and established a mechanism to update the threshold every three…
Last week, Governor Tomblin issued a proclamation to call the legislature into a special session to address the state's impeding budget crisis on Monday. This announcement came on the heels of a recent downgrade in the state's bond rating from Standard & Poor's Rating Service. Due to a lack of consensus between the legislature (mostly the…
Last week, Governor Tomblin finally issued the call for the legislature to come back into a special session to balance the FY 2017 budget. The special session will begin today, May 16th, and the governor will once again submit a budget proposal for the legislature to consider.During the regular session, Governor Tomblin proposed $130 million in…
Earlier today, Delegate Patrick Lane issued a press release calling for more budget cuts as the solution to West Virginia's budget gap. As part of his argument, Delegate Lane made the misleading claim that the state's general revenue fund has grown by $564 million in 5 years, which is a reflection of "unchecked" government spending.However,…