The state budget directly affects everyone living in West Virginia. It is the one law that makes state government function. It defines how we plan to use our resources to do the things together that cannot be done alone, such as creating good schools for our children, protecting the environment, making our communities safe, making…
Reports & Briefs
When lawmakers reconvene this spring to address the state’s looming budget crisis, it is clear that West Virginia should take a balanced approach that includes additional revenue, rather than a cuts-only approach that threatens our state’s struggling economy. Our state’s worsening revenue situation isn’t due entirely to plunging energy prices. Rather, that situation exacerbates the…
Governor Tomblin’s plan for closing an estimated $381 million budget gap for the current fiscal year (FY 2016) and a $466 million shortfall for the 2017 state budget (FY 2017) includes a mix of spending cuts and budget reductions, as well as tapping the Rainy Day Fund, using surplus and one-time revenues, and raising taxes…
Too many working families in West Virginia are paid low wages and have trouble making ends meet, with basic living expenses stretching family budgets beyond their limits. With tax overhaul a main topic in front of the legislature, a bottom-up tax cut like a state Earned Income Tax Credit that would help people who work…
This report is the eighth in an annual series that examines the state of West Virginia’s economy. While previous editions examined data on employment, income, productivity, job quality and other aspects of the economy as they impact working people, this issue is an in-depth look at one specific economic measure - West Virginia’s labor force…
This fall our members of Congress will have the chance to show that they support hard-working low-income families. PDF of report. Important provisions of two anti-poverty, pro-work policies, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC), are set to expire unless Congress acts to save them. By doing so, Congress will…
With tax reform on the West Virginia Legislature’s agenda, attention has once again turned to West Virginia’s business personal property tax. In October, the conservative anti-tax group The Tax Foundation testified to the Select Joint Committee on Tax Reform that moving away from the business personal property tax would help attract businesses and grow the…
The development of the Marcellus Shale has led to a boom in West Virginia’s natural gas production. But aside from the increase in drilling activity and state and local tax revenue, the natural gas boom has not brought with it the jobs and economic growth that many predicted. While the state’s natural gas production has…
Overhauling West Virginia’s tax system is on the agenda of the leadership of the West Virginia legislature. As citizens and stakeholders of West Virginia, we appreciate this effort and the thoroughness with which the Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform has investigated the many issues involved. Read PDF. A diverse coalition of organizations that cares…
Several years ago, West Virginia enacted a series of large business tax cuts with the belief that they would help grow the state’s economy. Today policymakers are promoting that same theory, even though the previous tax cuts have largely failed to put West Virginia on a path to prosperity, with the state losing thousands of…