Most state and local tax systems are regressive, with a reliance on sales tax and relatively flat income tax brackets leading to the poor paying more of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthy. West Virginia is no different, with West Virginians who earn less than $15,000/year paying an average of 8.7%…
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Obamacare, like it or not, seems to be working. While some headlines this week showed that the popularity of Obamacare continues to slide, recent surveys are finding the percentage of uninsured people across the country is at historic lows. (Oddly, popularity of the Affordable Care Act, which we all know -- should know, at least -- …
A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that West Virginia is not alone in making cuts to higher education in recent years, but unlike West Virginia, most states are starting to reverse those cuts, as the effects of the recession fade away. The report shows that after adjusting for inflation,…
West Virginia is one of the least healthy states in the country. With the implementation of the ACA, roughly 270,000 more West Virginians have access to medical care. This increase in health care services is a huge step toward a healthy state, but access to medical care is only one piece of the puzzle. Every day…
George Hohmann has an excellent piece (and graph) in today's Charleston Daily Mail on the uneven recovery among the state's industry sectors. In a nut shell, since we are an energy state and are heavily reliant on federal transfers (think about our elders: Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security), we've seen strong growth in the mining and health care…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the release of a bunch of Medicare data today, the biggest release in CMS history, in fact. The data include information for nearly 900,000 distinct health care providers across the country who received over $77 billion in Medicare payments in 2012. This is the second big…
While I appreciated reading a column this week by Hoppy Kercheval about the ACA, I was disappointed to see him recycle the same arguments that have been disproved for months now. Hoppy's biggest concern is how we're going to pay for Medicaid expansion in the future. He points out that the actuarial estimates showed that…
The Legislature passed 201 bills during the 2014 Legislative Session. 51 of those bills came with fiscal notes attached, the price tags attached to legislation that inform legislators and the public of the estimated cost to the state in either expenditure increases or revenue losses. Fiscal notes are usually attached to a bill when taxes or fees are…
The 2014 County Health Rankings were released this week and in a bit of a surprise, little Pleasants County took top honors, while for the 5th year in a row, McDowell County earned the dubious distinction of the least healthy county in the state. These rankings, compiled annually by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and…
The FY 2015 budget process took some twists and turns this year, with some big changes between the governor's proposal, the house and senate versions and their final compromise, and the governor's vetoes. Now you can compare all three versions of the budget in one place. This excel file lists each of the $12 billion in…