This is the only conclusion I can reach after reading Steve Roberts' op-ed in the State Journal attacking our report on coal's fiscal impact on the state's budget. It's obvious that Mr. Roberts didn't read the entire report. In the op-ed, he responds to the report's findings by calling us "anti" everything and he dismisses…
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As the Daily Mail pointed out yesterday, Moody's Investors upgraded the state's bond rating. As I've opined before, how could this happen if the state has a debt "crisis" due to OPEB? The reason is quite simple. West Virginia's long-term OPEB liability is just one of numerous factors that Moody's uses to determine our credit…
African Americans in West Virginia earn significantly less than their white counterparts. From 2006 to 2008, the median family income for white West Virginians exceeded that of black families by over $17,000. Obviously, numbers like this - since they are consistent with national trends - are far from surprising. And clearly, many factors are at play…
The jobs picture in West Virginia continues to look bleak. This is especially true for males. The male 2010 1st quarter unemployment rate was 11.6% compared to a strong 4.0% in the last quarter of 2007. While the female unemployment rate increased 2 percentage points since the start of the Great Recession, the male unemployment…
The Wall Street Journal joined the fray yesterday in making the time honored claim that West Virginia under performs neighboring states because of its tax laws (not to mentioning bashing our late Senator Byrd). It's important to note that no one, I mean no one, has ever proved this, people just say it all the…
West Virginia has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the country, and nearly 25 percent of personal income in West Virginia comes from government transfer payments. The national average is just under 15 percent. Transfer payments are mainly made up of payments by the government for various social benefit programs. These programs include Social…
On July 3, 2010 it was estimated that 6,900 unemployed West Virginians exhausted their unemployment benefits because the U.S. Senate failed to reauthorize the expired jobless aid that was included in the 2009 Recovery Act. It gets worse. By the end of July the number of unemployed workers in West Virginia exhausting their benefits will…
On Friday, State Senator McCabe had a nicely written retort to my op-ed last week on OPEB . Senator McCabe is a friend and I value his opinion greatly and I think he takes a well reasoned and balanced approach. I just wish I was as optimistic as McCabe about addressing OPEB and our long-term…
According to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), halving the incarceration rates of nonviolent criminals would result in an estimated nationwide savings in corrections spending of $16.9 billion annually, with state and local governments receiving $14.8 billion, or nearly 88 percent of the savings. The national incarceration rate is…
During a recession, businesses respond to weak demand by laying off workers. Paul estimated that there are 103,000 jobless workers in West Virginia. In this recession job creation has been slow as we struggle to make it from recession to recovery. As a result, many of the jobless face long-term unemployment. Almost 46 percent of unemployed…