West Virginia Watch - The state school board last week approved closing or consolidating six schools in Kanawha County because of dwindling student numbers. Read the full article. The county has lost 5,000 students over the last 11 years, resulting in losing $30 million in state funding. According to an October headcount from the West…
Tax and Budget
Beckley Register-Herald - Pick up a dart, throw it from your West Virginia front porch and we guarantee you will hit a societal problem that has been long ignored by a Republican-controlled state Legislature that could not care less. Our elected state officials have proven to be most interested in providing income tax cuts to…
Mountain State Spotlight - Patrick Morrisey will be the next governor of West Virginia, after walloping Democrat Steve Williams. Read the full article. The Associated Press called the race for Patrick Morrisey as soon as polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Just before 10:00 p.m., Morrisey led 62% to 32% with around three-quarters of votes counted. In his…
West Virginia MetroNews, Charleston Gazette-Mail - We will know Tuesday night who will be the next governor of West Virginia. The winner will celebrate the victory, and probably take a few days off from a long campaign. However, the governor-elect will have to get to work quickly on an emerging issue with the state’s finances.…
West Virginia Watch - Craig Snyder, a biology teacher at Winfield High School, wants the state’s next governor to give teachers a pay raise. Read the full article. West Virginia’s teacher pay is the worst in the country. With proposed price increases to the Public Employees Insurance Agency — a monthly spousal surcharge for state employees would more than…
West Virginia Watch, News from the States, West Virginia Daily News - With days to go before an election that will likely send him to the U.S. Senate, Gov. Jim Justice on Thursday celebrated signing a bill that cuts the state’s income tax. Read the full article. Senate Bill 2033, which lawmakers passed during a…
The Hope Scholarship Program was established in West Virginia in 2021 as an expanded school voucher-style program which diverts taxpayer funds from the public school system to families who can use them for private school or homeschool-related costs. Research shows that these programs primarily benefit families whose children were never enrolled in public schools. After…
As we enter the final quarter of 2024, a number of economic indicators show West Virginia's economy both slowing down and lagging behind the rest of the country. Growth in gross domestic product (GDP), personal income, wages and salaries, and employment have all shown signs of slowing, while business tax revenue collections are below that…
Beckley Register-Herald - Gov. Jim Justice – as pompous, pretentious and self-promoting as they come and, as a person, politician or potentate, take your pick, a decidedly poor personification of the people he is supposed to serve as chief advocate – went out of his way on Wednesday at the end of the most recent…
Mountain State Spotlight, Clay County Free Press, Times West Virginian - In mid-September, Gov. Jim Justice told the people of West Virginia he’d be calling the Legislature back into session at the end of the month. Read the full article. “I promised you I’d fight like crazy for a 5% tax cut, I promised you…