This week marks the 50th Anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, which was signed into law by President Kennedy on June 10, 1963. The legislation required that employers give women and men equal pay for equal work. The Equal Pay Act was one of the first steps in the effort to eliminate the gender gap…
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Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office released its latest budget update. According to the CBO, the federal budget deficit is falling, and falling fast. The federal deficit is estimated to be $642 billion this year, its smallest amount since 2008. That will be about 4.0% of GDP, compared to 10.1% in 2009. Projected deficits…
Over the last four decades, West Virginia's economy has shifted from producing less goods (e.g. steel, chemicals, etc.) to providing more services. While the rest of the country also underwent this economic shift - often referred to as deindustrialization - it was especially problematic in the Mountain State. While the state has made strides to…
Earlier this month, Kentucky announced it would be joining West Virginia and 19 other states in expanding Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act. Kentucky, however, had stronger evidence to support its decision than West Virginia. While West Virginia estimated expansion would cost the state around $375 million over the first 10 years, Kentucky looked…
Last week, the West Virginia Economic Development Authority authorized $150 million in bonds that will be used to purchase equipment for the Gestamp stamping plant in South Charleston over the next five years. The Development Authority will purchase the equipment needed for the stamping plant and lease it back to Gestamp, which allows Gestamp to…
A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the poverty rate of seniors across the country. The report uses the new supplemental poverty measure from the Census Bureau to estimate poverty rates. According to the Census Bureau, poverty rates among elderly West Virginians are slightly higher under the supplemental poverty measure (11%) than…
An article in yesterday's Wheeling Intelligencer claims that a Northern Panhandle pediatrician is being forced to retire because of the costs of Obamacare. It makes for a great headline for opponents of the Affordable Care Act, but is it true? In short, no, at least not for the reason cited. Dr. Ventosa's primary claim is that…
When Governor Tomblin announced earlier this month that West Virginia would be expanding Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act, there was little said on how this move will positively impact the state's substance abuse problem. The Governor's Advisory Council on Substance Abuse (GACSA) (created by Tomblin in 2011) estimated that there are over…
In discussions about poverty in West Virginia and Appalachia, it doesn't take long before someone blames "welfare dependency" for the plight of West Virginia's poor and its lack of economic welfare. The idea of West Virginia having a "culture of poverty" is nothing new. In fact, its roots date back to the 1960s. As Mil…
Back when we released our report on the FY 2013 budget, we warned that the budget cuts targeting higher education would likely lead to higher tuition, making a college education even less affordable. And it didn't take long for our prediction to come true, as this week New River Community and Technical College and Marshall University both…