Morgantown Dominion-Post - More than 75 people jammed the Monongalia County Commission chamber Monday evening for a public comment hearing on the proposed new Longview Power plants – one gas-fired, one solar. Read article. The vast majority were members of the North Central West Virginia Building and Construction Trades Council who turned out in force…
WVCBP in the News
WV News - Business tax cuts, changing the bail system and creating a new court are some of the top priorities for West Virginia's Republican leaders in the upcoming legislative session, lawmakers said Friday. Read. Senate President Mitch Carmichael and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw gave reporters a broad preview of their 2020 agendas at an…
WOWK-TV - Seth DiStefano, Policy Outreach Director for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, talks about the state budget, multiple taxes in the Mountain State, and the 2020 Legislative Session. Watch.
West Virginia Metro News - A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down the individual mandate of former President Barack Obama’s health care law. Read/listen. Judges, however, also punted questions about the rest of the law to a district judge who previously ruled “Obamacare” as unconstitutional. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2-1 ruling prolongs…
WOWK-TV - One of the biggest fights this year will be the ongoing battle to repeal the state’s Business Inventory Tax. Only 14 states levy this tax, and critics say it discourages out-of-state businesses from moving here. Read/watch full story. “I think it’s definitely a tax that needs to be reformed. I think It needs to…
Ohio Valley Resource, WFPL, WV Public Broadcasting - The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates almost 700,000 people across the country will lose food stamps in a new Trump Administration rule announced Wednesday. Regional anti-hunger advocates and policy analysts say the Ohio Valley — and Appalachia in particular — could be disproportionately affected by this rule.…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Reporters dug into the details of Gov. Jim Justice’s announcement on Monday that the “number of West Virginians who have jobs is now the highest it’s been in more than a decade.” Justice claimed that 19,000 more people were working in the state than a year ago. Read full op-ed. Joining Justice…
West Virginia Metro News - Gov. Jim Justice is touting impressive West Virginia employment figures, although those numbers likely don’t tell the whole story. Read full article. Justice put the spotlight on federal labor statistics showing West Virginia gained 19,000 jobs over the past year. Moreover, the governor said, these are the best employment numbers for…
Washington Post - WVCBP Director of Policy Engagement Kelly Allen is quoted in this Washington Post article on how West Virginians have been losing coverage and enrollment in the Obamacare marketplace since 2017. One of the reasons may be because West Virginia is one of just three states banning "silver loading" which, if allowed, would…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - In public schools in the majority of states, fourth-graders’ math scores held steady or improved on average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress from 2017 to this year. Read article. Not in West Virginia. It was among only three states to see statistically significant drops in their average scores in this…