Yesterday, the Obama administration's Department of Labor proposed a new rule that will raise the overtime salary threshold from $23,660 to $50,440 by 2016, and index it for the future. This change will extend overtime protection to about 5 million workers in its first year, including 20,000 in West Virginia. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers eligible…
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The Supreme Court upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act today, protecting subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans, and tens of thousands of West Virginians.In a 6-3 ruling, the Court found that premium subsidies should be available both in states that have set up their own health insurance exchanges, and…
While the last post found that state income taxes have little or no impact on interstate migration, there is also little evidence that slashing or eliminating the personal income tax is a surefire way to boost economic growth in the Mountain State. Most of the states that have followed this path recently have not experienced…
Reverse the CurseThis week Ted traveled to Columbus, Ohio to take part in a legislative briefing as part of the Multi-Shale Research Collaborative. His presentation, titled "Reverse the Curse", explored how states like Ohio can create permanent natural resource trust funds to ensure long-term benefits of shale drilling.Welcome, Brooke!This week we welcomed Brooke Bailey as…
In the last post, I gave an overview of West Virginia's personal income tax and how it is an important and progressive way to fund state investments in K-12 education, higher education, and other important public structures. In this post, I want to tackle misleading information surrounding the argument to cut or abolish state personal…
Monday, the Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform met again to continue the discussion of the proposed overhaul of West Virginia's tax system. The committee heard from economists from WVU and Marshall University, as well as representatives from the conservative Tax Foundation, the Council on State Taxation, and the National Conference of State Legislatures. The…
Last week, the newly created Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform held its second meeting to discuss overhauling the state's tax system. While the meeting included an overview of the state's current tax system and historical tax reform efforts of the past (e.g. Cecil Underwood's Commission on Fair Taxation), committee members made it quite clear in April…
Price of Higher Education About to Go Up?West Virginia families sending their kids to in-state colleges and universities could take another hit according to today's Charleston Gazette. West Virginia University is considering a nearly 10 percent increase in tuition which has already increased 29 percent over the past five years. Last week, West Virginia State…
Next week the Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform will meet again to continue the discussion on overhauling the state's tax system. When they last met, the Committee sent strong signals that more business tax cuts would be the top priority, despite their recent failure to create jobs in West Virginia and the subsequent budget…
Tax Reform Continues to Make HeadlinesOn May 4, the Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform will hold its second meeting to look at how to "update" the state's tax system. So far committee members have floated around some hefty suggestions, like eliminating the Personal Income Tax and further reducing business taxes. Suggestions for how to…