West Virginia Next State to Drug Test Welfare Recipients? A bill making its way through the West Virginia Senate would create a three-county pilot program to drug test recipients of cash assistance. At its current projected costs, the drug testing program would cost over $600 per cash assistance recipient. To put that amount into perspective,…
Budget Beat
State Senate Poised to Pass Prevailing Wage On Tuesday, the Senate Government Organization Committee passed out SB 361, legislation to repeal the state's prevailing wage. The single-referenced bill is now in the hands of the full Senate where it was read for a first time today. In follow-up to our report released last week, "West…
State Senate (Almost) Takes Up Bill to Repeal Prevailing Wage This week SB 361, a bill that would repeal the state's prevailing wage, was on the Senate Government Organization Committee agenda. While the controversial bill was not taken up, it likely be next week. According to a new WVCBP report out this week, "West Virginia's…
It's All About the Budget Around Here This week was all about the most important bill that will be passed this legislative session, the state budget. At Wednesday's Budget Breakfast, Ted presented an analysis of Governor Tomblin's proposed Fiscal Year 2016 state budget (which will start on July 1, 2015) to a standing-room-only crowd. Joining…
Legislative Session Has Begun OK, we're wonks and the start of the legislative session means a new budget for everyone at the WVCBP to pore over. As with last year, the biggest concern is if funding will be preserved for important family programs. During his State of the State, Governor Tomblin talked a lot more…
Legislative Session Starts January 14 One of the WVCBP policy priorities for the 2015 Legislative Session is passage of legislation for paid sick days for West Virginia workers. Currently, over 225,000 workers cannot take a paid day off if they are sick. This has far-reaching impacts for West Virginia families and their communities, including spreading…
With the last Budget Beat of 2014, we wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2015. We leave you with two of the major policy priorities we are ready to tackle in 2015: First up, paid sick days for West Virginia workers. Over 250,000…
Budget Breakfast: Register Today to Take Advantage of Discount! Join us for the next Budget Breakfast on Wednesday, January 21 at the Four Points Sheraton, downtown Charleston. Please register by 12/31/14 to get the Early Bird discount! Join Us to Announce the 2015 Our Children Our Future Platform Monday's forecast is beautiful! Join us…
Shout-Out to Evidence Counts, the WVCBP Blog As a Budget Beat reader, you are familiar with the WVCBP blog, Evidence Counts. We are proud to be one of the top blogs followed by West Virginia Focus as mentioned in its Sept/Oct issue! Our work on broadband access is also cited on page 24. Read the…
We Are Thankful for You As we enter the holiday season we would like to pause to express how thankful we are to you, our supporters. Happiest of all holiday seasons to you and your families! Save the Date - Budget Breakfast, January 21, 2015 The WVCBP will hold its second annual Budget Breakfast…