There's been considerable press over the last couple of years about the costs associated with the retiree health care subsidy (affectionately know as OPEB or Other Post Employment Benefits) offered to state and local employees. I've written about it several times in the past. The basic story is that this subsidy is too generous and…
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Here is an article done by the folks at the Center for Rural Strategies, which I may have stolen the title from, about the impact of the Great Recession on rural counties. West Virginia was one of four states, the others being Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia, that lost over 10 percent of their rural jobs. Since July…
Often when analysts or journalists look at economic growth over a long period of time, they tend to break things down by decade, comparing the 2000s to the 1990s and so on. Sometimes they will look at economic trends by presidential administration, often to tie economic growth or decline to particular administrations and their policies.…
Natural gas is quickly becoming one of the most important contributors to the nation's energy portfolio. Natural gas is a very versatile energy source and emits lower levels of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants than coal and oil. Natural gas will likely be an integral part of the nation's energy future. Natural gas production…
Congresswomen Capito argued in the Gazette on "Labor Day" (of all days...) to renew Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. In the op-ed, Capito resorted to presenting voters with a "false choice" about the Bush tax cuts and by presenting the facts in a way that would make Orwell blush. Here's Capito: "Contrary to popular belief, the…
There is bright news coming from the West Virginia State Budget Office August cash flow report. General Revenues collected in August are ahead of schedule, most likely due to increased sales in back-to-school purchases and improvements in business activity due to stimulus spending. General Revenue collections were up $31 million dollars at the end of…
I've talked before about how the middle class is falling behind, due to rising income inequality. One way to measure inequality is the Gini Index. The Gini index is used to measure the distribution of income in a region. The higher the score on the Gini index, the greater the income inequality. A score of 1…
Ted pointed out that West Virginia's employment level is at its lowest point in 14 years. A closer look shows that West Virginia's employment situation has been pretty bad for decades. One measure of how well a state or region provides employment is the employment-to-population ratio or employment rate. This ratio is the number of…
The Beckley Register decided to have some fun with my commentary this morning. Instead of reading it as a statement about moving away from coal (i.e. "transition"), they injected their own political opinion (perhaps for publication purposes) by creating an artificial headline that says "State should seize opportunity of clean coal energy." For the record, and…
Since the national recession started in December 2007, West Virginia has lost 18,200 jobs or 2.4 percent of its job base. West Virginia's job deficit - or the total number of jobs needed to keep pace with the working age population growth since the recession started - is about 25,600. West Virginia's seasonally adjusted unemployment…