The compromise tax plan agreed to by President Obama and congressional Republicans would double the tax cut for the top one percent of earners in West Virginia from the tax cut the President proposed, while offering a smaller tax cut to the poorest West Virginians, and almost no change for the middle class. The compromise…
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At our recent annual meeting, the keynote speaker, economist and senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Dr. Robert Tannenwald, talked about how West Virginia should place more emphasis on education, infrastructure, and health, rather than creating tax cuts for businesses as a way to promote economic growth. You can listen to…
Two proposals regarding federal spending and taxes could have a major impact on West Virginia's budget. First, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have signaled that they plan to pursue the $105 billion cut in non-security discretionary programs in the 2011 budget first proposed in the "Pledge to America" campaign document. This would be…
West Virginia's combined cash flow for the first four months of FY 2011 resulted in $95.6 million dollars in surplus revenue, a significant reversal of fortunes from the same start in FY 2010. Figure 1 below shows the cumulative general revenue cash flow from the beginning of the fiscal year starting in July through the…
Approximately one in seven West Virginians found themselves in poverty during the recession years of 2008 and 2009. This number would have been even higher without crucial assistance from government programs (Figure 1). Figure 1. West Virginians in poverty with and without government programs Source. Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, 2010. Microdata…
As the election grows near, if there is a a dominant message to be heard from the candidates on the national level, it's that federal spending has been out of control and needs to be drastically cut. Advertisements often cite the financial bailouts, the stimulus plan, and the new health care law as examples of…
Less than half of all West Virginia jobs (49%) will require some post-secondary education training beyond high school in 2018, according to a recent study from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. West Virginia was the lowest among all the states plus the District of Columbia. West Virginia ranks 51st in the proportion…
Here is an animated "heat map" that shows how unemployment rates have changed across the state during the recession. While the national recession officially began in late 2007, it didn't begin to impact West Virginia until late 2008. The map tracks unemployment rates by county from August 2008 to August 2010. As the unemployment rate…
America remains a nation of jobless workers; nearly 15 million Americans have no job to get up to each morning. Among them are 70,000 West Virginians who also remain unemployed. While the 2008 US recession officially ended in June 2009 large US corporations are no worse for the wear and tear as they have managed…
Earlier this week, the Census Bureau released the 2009 data from the American Community Survey, which we have a summary for West Virginia here. The poverty rate in West Virginia increased from 16.9% in 2007, before the recession, to 17.7% in 2009. This increase, while not good, is not as much as one would expect considering…