Rory Mcllmoil (Downstream Strategies ) and I will be testifying Monday, July 19 at 11am to the Subcommittee B of the Joint Standing Committee on Finance on our report, "The Impact of Coal on the West Virginia State Budget." We will be joined in adiscussion of coal's impact on the West Virginia state budget and…
Tax and Budget
There is a lot of buzz lately at the national level regarding tax cuts, unemployment extensions, and the federal deficit. Last month, Congress failed to pass an extension of unemployment subsidies, which means by the end of this month 13,300 unemployed West Virginians will have exhausted their benefits, putting them at risk of succumbing to the dangers of long-term unemployment.…
This is the only conclusion I can reach after reading Steve Roberts' op-ed in the State Journal attacking our report on coal's fiscal impact on the state's budget. It's obvious that Mr. Roberts didn't read the entire report. In the op-ed, he responds to the report's findings by calling us "anti" everything and he dismisses…
West Virginia has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the country, and nearly 25 percent of personal income in West Virginia comes from government transfer payments. The national average is just under 15 percent. Transfer payments are mainly made up of payments by the government for various social benefit programs. These programs include Social…
According to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), halving the incarceration rates of nonviolent criminals would result in an estimated nationwide savings in corrections spending of $16.9 billion annually, with state and local governments receiving $14.8 billion, or nearly 88 percent of the savings. The national incarceration rate is…
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…
Sorry for not posting over the last two weeks, but I've been out of the country. I am just now catching up on the news. Howard Swint had a thought provoking op-ed in the Gazette this past Friday advocating for a 40% profits tax on coal to replace the coal severance tax. As many may…
Back in December, the Governor issued an executive order to cut $120 million from the FY10 budget . He did this, according to our report, based on an overly pessimistic review of the November 2009 tax revenue collections. When collections rose in December, the Governor said "we must stay the course." We said then…
As I mentioned in my last post , the Census projects that by 2030 one in four West Virginians will be over age 65. As a result, it could cost state and local governments a lot revenue. This is because seniors, in general, are not part of the labor force. This means they pay less in…
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…