Today's Daily Mail had an article about a proposed tax incentive designed to lure a potential "ethane cracker" to West Virginia. The proposal would reduced the assessment rate for property taxes from 60% to 5% for the cracker facility. This would dramatically lower the facility's property tax burden, to the tune of about $500 million over the next…
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In his column this morning Phil Kabler briefly noted that the result of capping the state's contribution to retiree health insurance was "that the burden was shifted onto current and future retirees." This is something I wrote about last week, so it was nice to see this basic point acknowledged in print. Another point that has…
Last night the Charleston Area Alliance hosted a discussion between Senator Brooks McCabe, PEIA director Ted Cheatham, and yours truly on how to address the state's growing OPEB (other post-employment benefits) liability. As readers may know, we published a detailed report on how the state should handle this problem back in January. I do not…
As many readers may know, we've been pushing the idea that one of the best ways our state could create jobs today would be to issue bonds for much needed investments in infrastructure and schools. This idea is not new. If fact, other states have already implemented this policy as way to boost job creation…
The Washington Post had an interesting article yesterday highlighting that business demand is the number one reason for job layoffs, not regulations. "In 2010, 0.3 percent of the people who lost their jobs in layoffs were let go because of "government regulations/intervention." By comparison, 25 percent were laid off because of a drop in business demand." Economists also do…
Yesterday, WVU's Bureau of Business and Economic Research hosted its annual West Virginia Economic Outlook Conference. Both the Gazette and Daily Mail had good coverage of the event, where economists from WVU and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond predicted both the U.S. economy and West Virginia's economy would grow over the next few years, but at at fairly…
Earlier today Sean pointed out the growing income inequality in the U.S. What I would like to do is touch on how this has played out in the Mountain State. The graph below tells the story. From 1974 to 1977, growth in median (four-person) household incomes - or the households in the middle of the…
Growing income inequality was the topic of the week as the CBO released a new report showing the incomes of the wealthiest 1% have tripled since 1979, with little to show for everyone else. Highlights include:Between 1979 and 2007, income grew by: 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households, 65 percent for the next 19…
Richard Caldwell, a Wheeling native and the vice president for the Appalachian region of Audubon Engineering, said Charleston was chosen because of the availability of skilled and experienced workers. Availability of the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserve also was a contributing factor in the decision to come to West Virginia, he said. Last week, we issued a policy memo…