As Sean pointed out in a recent Charleston Gazette commentary, the decline in corporate net income tax and business franchise tax collections is threatening programs such as Medicaid. With this in mind, let's take a historical look at the growth these two taxes. As the chart below shows, revenue from the CNIT/BFT is expected to…
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There has a been a lot of chatter about the shrinkage in the U.S. labor force. Brad Delong takes us to two fed studies and Rorty Bomb provides the analysis. This graph from Ezra Klein shows the long-term and accelerated decline in labor force participation: As the graph points out, the labor force participation rate…
George Hohmann does a great job breaking down the Gestamp deal in his Sunday column. (see here and here for background info). Hohmann makes the following observations: * It can be argued that without incentives, Gestamp would not be coming to South Charleston and the stamping plant would remain idle. * The $25 million in loans…
On Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported on the tax incentives offered to Gestamp, the auto parts company that is re-opening the stamping plant in South Charleston. Recently, we looked at the B&O tax incentive, but now with this memo of the agreement between the state and Gestamp, we can take a closer look. The highlights…
A new report by our friends at Demos finds that "state disinvestment in public higher education over the past two decades has shifted costs to students and their families." As readers may know, this is something we've looked at before (see here and here). From 1991 to 2011, total state support for higher ed has dropped from…
Today the Governor officially ordered Workforce WV to begin drug testing those enrolled in job training programs (see below press release). What was not mentioned was that these programs are completely funded by federal dollars and that they mostly go to the "disadvantaged and at-risk youth, adults, and dislocated workers." However, the big question is…
West Virginia could lose tens of thousands of jobs over the next five years if Congress enacts the major cuts to Medicaid as proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan and passed by the House of Representatives last month. According to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, the $544 billion in Medicaid cuts in the Ryan Budget over…
Here is an interesting, if troubling blog post from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The post shows that low-wage workers (those making less than $10.00 an hour in 2011 dollars) are becoming more educated. In every state across the country, low wage workers are more educated than they were thirty years ago, meaning that…
The big news yesterday was that the South Charleston stamping plant has been leased by Gestamp, a Spanish automotive stamping company. According to reports, Gestamp could eventually employ 700 workers. Gestamp chose South Charleston for several reasons, but mainly it was because the plant already contained necessary stamping equipment which allows it to be occupied immediately. The…
Over the last 20 years, West Virginia has made substantial progress in reducing the state income taxes paid by families living in poverty. In 1990, the state income tax threshold (the point at which residents begin to pay state income taxes) on families of four living at the federal poverty line was $8,000 compared to…