Another Week, Another Reason Why the State Has a Budget Deficit The number of reasons for West Virginia's budget deficit keeps growing. This week's culprit is a decrease in personal income tax collections which fell almost $8 million below projections. Read more in the Charleston Gazette. Add that to the self-inflicted problem caused by business…
Budget Beat
State Will Need More College-Educated Workers for the Future This week the Charleston Gazette ran an editorial on how West Virginia needs to prepare for jobs of the future. Citing the WVCBP's 2013 State of Working West Virginia report, the editorial pointed out that good-paying jobs of the not-so-distant future will require a college education…
In response to the bumpy roll-out of the Obamacare website, Senator Joe Manchin is promoting a delay in the individual mandate which requires people to sign up for health insurance by April 1. In this blog post, Brandon explains why the delay is not a good idea and how it would be costly to West…
Who do you think would be most affected by an increase in the minimum wage? It might not be who you were thinking. Sean explains how an increase in the minimum wage would benefit not only West Virginia workers but the state's economy as well here. For much more on what increasing the minimum wage…
Budget Beat - October 11, 2013 Under Obamacare, West Virginia, along with Michigan and Kentucky, will see 81 percent of its currently uninsured residents receive some sort of assistance in getting health insurance, either by qualifying for Medicaid or tax-subsidies in the Marketplace. Of the estimated 270,000 West Virginians without health insurance, about 219,000 of…
Budget Beat - October 4, 2013 Thousands of West Virginians signed up for health care as open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act kicked off this week. Have questions about how it all works? Brandon's OpEd in the Daily Mail answers many questions about Obamacare. In Case You Missed It This week the WVCBP released…
Budget Beat - September 27, 2013 This week the WVCBP was a part of history as months of work came to together at the state Capitol. On Tuesday and Wednesday, activists, policymakers, West Virginia families met to set policy priorities for how to lift working families out of poverty at the Our Children Our Future…
Budget Beat - September 20, 2013 House Votes to Cut Food Stamp Benefits to Millions Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to cut funding to SNAP, the food stamp program, by $40 billion over the next two years, kicking nearly four million people off the program. This bill would have harsh impacts for West Virginia…
Budget Beat - September 13, 2013 How Much Should You Be Making? Over the Labor Day weekend, the Economic Policy Institute released a tool you can use to see what you would be earning had wages kept up with productivity. Read more in Sean's blog post this week. Starting October 1, 2013 the new insurance…
The Big, Bad, Scary Wolf that is Obamacare is coming after the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. At least that's what our insurance provider wants us to think. In a letter sent to the office a couple of weeks ago, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield plays the Obamacare fear card, and then, somewhat astonishingly,…