Senate Passes SCR 13 ~ Calls for a Convention of the States to Pass Balanced Budget Amendment After debate in the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees, as well as on the Senate floor, the Senate passed Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 13 yesterday on a voice vote. The measure now moves to the House. If passed,…
Budget Beat
Make or Break Time With Just a Week to Go The 2015 Legislation Session is in the home stretch with time running out to pass legislation. We are happy to report that the bill to drug test recipients of TANF benefits is dead. This expensive and inefficient program would have been an unnecessary expense for…
Legislative Session Enters Crunch Time With March right around the corner, and cross-over day looming, time is running out for legislation to pass during the 2015 Legislation Session. Here's a quick recap on keys issues we've been following: Legislation to gut the current Prevailing Wage is now under consideration by the House after a compromise…
Bill to Drug Test TANF Recipients Passes First Committee The 2015 Legislative Session is now more than halfway over and there are several measures we are keeping an eye on that would impact West Virginia's working families. Yesterday the House held a public hearing on legislation that would require drug testing of Temporary Assistant to…
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,…
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…