This week, Governor Justice held a press conference to provide an update on the state's fiscal situation at the start of the 2021 fiscal year (FY) and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the governor, West Virginia is starting FY 2021 with a $243.9 million surplus, and ended FY 2020 with a $23 million…
Budget Beat
This Monday, August 3, join national expert Professor Alex Vitale and state and local leaders for an in-depth discussion on redefining policing and public safety in West Virginia. Professor Vitale will give a presentation about the research and analysis in his book The End of Policing which he summarizes this way: "I would say that we over-rely…
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt strongly in West Virginia. In just a matter of weeks, the state lost 92,000 jobs and the unemployment rate spiked to 15.9 percent. As West Virginia has begun to reopen, some jobs have returned, but the unemployment rate remains above 10.0 percent, more than double its pre-pandemic…
Since the end of March, when unemployed West Virginians began receiving Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (PUC) payments - the $600 per week enhancement to unemployment benefits that were part of the CARES Act - West Virginia has received at least $753 million through the federally funded program. However, that aid is set to expire at the…
Last month, Governor Justice unveiled his plan for using the $1.25 billion in CARES Act funding that West Virginia received to help the state respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Treasury Department guidance forbids states from using the funds to offset revenue losses due to the pandemic, limiting what states can do with the funding. This is unfortunate, as West…
The cost of prescription drugs is one of the leading health care issues in the United States, accounting for $335 billion of total health care spending in 2018 and over 23 percent of total health insurance premium costs. And the cost of prescription drugs is rising. The cost of prescription drugs is one of the…
This year marks the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the end of slavery when word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Galveston, Texas. This historic day perhaps takes on even more significance as our nation continues to protest the recent murders of Black people at the hands of police and vigilantes. For…
According to WorkForce West Virginia, West Virginia lost 90,100 jobs in April, as the COVID-19 pandemic and the response to it rocked the state's economy. Since the end of March, 157,807 West Virginians have filed for unemployment insurance. This week, the Department of Labor released data on the characteristics of those who filed unemployment claims…
In a previous email this week, the WVCBP staff and board released our statement to express our commitment our solidarity to those fighting for racial justice. Our conclusion stated that we stand in solidarity with Black-led organizations across our state including Our Future WV, CARE, NAACP, Black Lives Matter WV, and the Partnership for African…
While COVID-19 is having wide-ranging impacts on every corner of our society, no one is more impacted by this crisis than women, particularly women of color. Women dominate the industries most affected by the pandemic, including making up two-thirds of frontline workers in West Virginia and the majority of employees in industries who've seen job…