Funding Cuts Restored This week, the legislature voted to fully restore funding cuts to family-support programs that Governor Tomblin had vetoed in March. Governor Tomblin has said he will sign the legislation this time around. Support in the House of Delegates was unanimous, with a vote of 90-0. In reversing course, the governor and legislators…
Budget Beat
Some Funding Cuts Restored This week, Governor Tomblin announced that he would restore one-time funding to some of the family-support programs that were impacted by his veto in March. While he did restore $260,000, this falls far short of the $1 million in funding passed by the legislature. The Our Children Our Future campaign will…
West Virginia One of Just Eight States Still Cutting Funding for Higher Education Now that the recession is in the past, most states are restoring funding to higher education. West Virginia, however, is still reducing funding, second only to Wyoming, spending 21.6% less per student in FY 2014 than in FY2008, a reduction of over…
Report Calls on Governor to Restore Budget Cuts In a report released this week, the Our Children Our Future campaign called upon Governor Tomblin to restore budget cuts to vital family support programs. In March, the governor vetoed over $1 million in funding to programs that help prevent domestic violence, provide in-home visiting and much…
Wetzel County Not Seeing Same Impact from Natural Gas Drilling as Neighboring States West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania are undoubtedly at ground zero when it comes to the gas drilling boom created by fracking in the Marcellus Shale. A new report out this week, however, shows that Wetzel County has felt the gas boom differently…
Governor Tomblin Signs Minimum Wage Bill into Law Nearly a month after the end of the 2014 Legislative Session, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed into law legislation to raise West Virginia's minimum wage to $8.75 an hour by 2016. Raising the minimum wage will give a raise to over 120,000 working West Virginians, boost the…
Legislative Wrap-Up The last 24 hours of the 2014 Legislative Session were busy with several pieces of legislation passing at the last minute, like the bills to raise the minimum wage and create a West Virginia Future Fund. In the end, the legislature passed the House bill to raise the minimum wage. This was the…
Legislation Session in Final Hours Tomorrow night at midnight the 2014 Legislative Session will be over. As we go to press, pieces of legislation that we have followed for the last 59 days are changing quickly. The Senate version of the bill to raise the minimum wage was passed today. It drags out the incremental…
Legislation Still Alive Post- Crossover Day Wednesday was Crossover Day, the day that legislation has to have passed one chamber to stay alive. Here's what we are watching: The West Virginia Future Fund bill passed the Senate unanimously last week and is awaiting action by the House of Delegates. Want to know more about what…
Senate Passes WV Future Fund Bill As the 2014 Legislative Session heads into its final two weeks, there is good news to report! Today the WV Senate unanimously passed the Future Fund bill (SB 461). The legislation, which now heads to the House of Delegates, would go into effect July 1, 2014 and sets aside…