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…
Reports & Briefs
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…
Recent federal action, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), has likely saved 56,000 West Virginia jobs and prevented a high unemployment rate from escalating further. Read
Coal plays a significant role in West Virginia’s economy, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local revenue and providing well-paying jobs to tens of thousands of West Virginians. However, the size of the coal economy, while substantial, is not as considerable as previous accounts suggest. Further, such accounts have only presented coal’s…
A state version of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit would bolster the economic security of working families, according to a new report released February 17 by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy and the Alliance for Sustainable Families. The state credit would impact an estimated 90,000 working families who struggle to make…
When year-to-date budget revenues declined by $13.7 million in November, the governor reacted by ordering state agencies to cut 3.4 percent of their budgets. Read