On April 26, 2011 Senator Manchin endorsed a plan to limit total federal spending to 20.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While on the surface the plan looks like a benign proposal to handle the federal deficit and debt, it would eventually lead to major cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and possibly Social Security.…
Reports & Briefs
Governors and legislators across the country are targeting public sector compensation as they try to cut spending and rein in budget deficits. To justify cuts to wages and benefit packages, the argument is that public sector workers have it better than their private sector counterparts. What is the situation in West Virginia? An analysis by…
Acting Governor Tomblin's Fiscal Year 2012 budget survived the legislative process relatively intact and contained no major cuts or new taxes. West Virginia remains in a fiscally stable position. Read
In The State of Working West Virginia: The Road to Recovery 2010, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy examines how the 2009 Recovery Act and other federal programs benefited West Virginians, how the Great Recession caused the loss of good paying industry jobs and how the gap between the rich and the poor…
Each year, the use of tobacco claims the lives of thousands of West Virginians. The state currently has the nation’s highest smoking rate among adults and pregnant women and one of the highest among children. Currently only seven states have a lower tobacco tax than West Virginia. Bills (SB 362/HB 2973) introduced in the 2011…
Unlike many other states, West Virginia is not cutting any major programs or imposing any new taxes in FY 2012 but does face many challenges in the years ahead. A report released February 3, 2011 by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy provides an overview of the state’s budget, describes the proposed major…
Does West Virginia's business personal property tax keep companies from investing in the state? Do states with low business taxes have stronger economic growth? Evidence suggests that taxes actually may have a minor impact on a state's economic development. Instead, other factors like a highly trained workforce are more important. Read
The issue of retiree health care for public employees, or Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB), is likely to top the policy agenda for the 2011 West Virginia Legislative Session. By placing the OPEB issue in context, this paper aims to demonstrate that the liability is not a crisis, but rather a manageable concern. Read
An Issue Brief identifying the facts behind the federal deficit. Both spending and revenues have contributed to the deficit. Growth in federal spending is projected to slow, and the economy is expected to outgrow the current deficit. The brief identifies healthcare costs rather than spending as the primary source of the long-term deficit problem.…
In 2010, the West Virginia House of Delegates and the WV Tax Modernization Working Group endorsed allowing counties to exempt business personal property from property tax rolls. A recent analysis by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy shows that such an exemption would reduce much-needed funding of our education system, put a financial…