WOWK CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — It’s not just leadership issues that are stirring up controversy in the Charleston Police Department. The staggering cost of police overtime pay is also raising some eyebrows. Major events such as the return of the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta and Live on the Levee fuel the need for police overtime. But the city…
WVCBP in the News
Charleston Gazette-Mail A recent report from the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy found that Charleston police officers are increasing overtime by thousands of hours and dollars each year. Sara Whitaker, author of the report, found that, in fiscal year 2023 (July 2022-June 2023), Charleston officers claimed 78,004 hours of overtime to the tune of almost…
West Virginia Watch More than $300,000 in Hope Scholarship funds, which provide money for kids for private school or homeschooling, have been used at out-of-state schools that border West Virginia. The Hope Scholarship, launched in 2021, gives West Virginia students roughly $4,400 per student in taxpayer money that would otherwise go to public schools to…
WOWK : Inside West Virginia Politics CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — On this week’s episode of Inside West Virginia Politics, we talk about jails and prisons, spending, and Veterans. In Segments One and Two we talk about the state of jails and prisons in West Virginia. Segment One includes Bishop Mark Brennan, Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston,…
The Center for Public Integrity JACKSON, Miss. — Amia Edwards lives here because she wants to make a difference. But in this majority-Black city, long starved for funding by the state’s mostly white Legislature, that’s proved a steep challenge. The city’s recent water crisis came after years of chronic underfunding of Jackson’s aging water infrastructure. The stench…
Louisiana Illuminator Both sprawling, public land-grant flagship universities in two of the poorest states in the nation, Louisiana State University and West Virginia University are more similar than you’d think. It’s why higher education observers in Louisiana are watching the slashing of WVU’s budget with trepidation. Faced with a budget crisis caused by declining enrollment…
Minding the Campus One of the key stories in higher education finance is so-called “state disinvestment,” which alleges that states have made relentless cuts to college and university funding. But state disinvestment is a myth—states have not, in fact, disinvested in higher education. Disinvestment implies a downward slope, yet the slope of the line is…
The Register Herald Because it was such an unabashed political stunt coming at a time when its author is running for higher political office, it is fair to ask if Gov. Jim Justice’s campaign will be paying the $600,000 cost associated with sending 54 members of the state’s National Guard to support Operation Lone Star,…
Mountain State Spotlight As students return to campus, painful cuts to degree programs and faculty positions at West Virginia University are on the horizon as administrators work to fix a $45 million budget deficit. Based on enrollment trends and revenue, administrators proposed cuts to dozens of programs, including eliminating some bachelor’s and advanced degrees, merging other programs…
The Journal July’s tax collections continued a concerning trend of declining revenues, even before the WV legislature’s 2023 tax cut package has been fully implemented. July’s collections came in $46 million below the previous July’s revenues, creating significant concerns about the current and future availability of revenue to pay for a myriad of needs and…