New Report Finds Biggest Landowners Headquartered Outside State Contact Ted Boettner at 304-720-8682 or tboettner@wvpolicy.org A study released today found that the top land owner in West Virginia is the Heartwood Forestland Fund, which manages more than 500,000 acres across 31 counties. Heartwood replaces energy-based corporations that were the state's top landowners for most of…
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Contact: Ted Boettner, 304-720-8682, tboettner@wvpolicy.org Charleston, WV — Drilling in the six states that span the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations has produced far fewer new jobs than the industry and its supporters claim, according to a new report released today by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative, a group of research organizations tracking the impacts…
Contact: Sean O'Leary - 304-720-8682, soleary@wvpolicy.org In order to decide whether or not to vote for a piece of legislation, West Virginia's legislators often rely on fiscal notes. Calculated by various state agencies, fiscal notes are intended to give legislators information on the financial impact of a particular bill, how much a new law will…
Contact: Sean O'Leary, 304-720-8682 or soleary@wvpolicy.org. Working full-time for today's minimum wage is not enough to stay out of poverty. In West Virginia, and at the federal level, the minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. Nineteen states have raised the minimum wage on their own and, in 2013, the West Virginia legislature passed…
Contact: Sean O'Leary, 304-720-8682, soleary@wvpolicy.org, Stephen Smith, 304-610-6512, ssmith@wvhealthykids.org More than 320,000 West Virginians lived in poverty in 2012, including nearly 90,000 children, according to today's release of the 2012 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. The income and poverty data released show the continued struggle for thousands of families in West Virginia. Read…
Contact: Ted Boettner, 304-590-3454 (cell), Rick Wilson, 304-993-8950 (cell) or 304-743-9459 (home) Not that long ago West Virginians had access to good-paying jobs with benefits that did not necessarily require a college education and provided a good wage. A transition took place in the 1980s and 90s, however, causing the number of those jobs to…
Contact: Sean O'Leary at 304-720-8682 or soleary@wvpolicy.org The best way for West Virginia to grow its economy is by investing in a well-educated workforce, according to a new paper from EARN—the Economic Analysis and Research Network, a project of the Economic Policy Institute, which includes the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. In Education…
Contact: Brandon Merritt at 304-720-8682 or bmerritt@wvpolicy.org As states prepare for full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) next year, West Virginia could take advantage of one of the Act's lesser-known provisions to extend Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage to public employees. According to a report released today by the West Virginia Center…
Contact: Ted Boettner or Linda Frame at 304-720-8682 or lframe@wvpolicy.org 350,000 people in West Virginia will see a cut in their food assistance benefits this fall, when a temporary boost to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) is set to expire, according to new data released by the U.S. Department…
Massive Cuts in Federal Funding to States and Localities under Ryan Plan Could Harm West Virginia Schools, Public Health and Safety, Report Finds Contact Ted Boettner at 304-720-8682 or tboettner@wvpolicy.org — Critical federal funding for West Virginia's schools, health care, clean water, law enforcement, and other key services would be slashed under U.S. House of…