Beckley Register-Herald - After an angst-filled debate that featured the Senate Health Committee chair's declaration that a hike in tobacco taxes would not curb smoking and a second plea for a $1 increase from Democrats, the upper chamber moved forward with an unchanged bill Senate leaders say won't make it through the House of Delegates.…
WVCBP in the News
Marketplace (National Public Radio) - West Virginia holds its primary Tuesday amid another war of words over coal mining. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has said, "We're going to put a lot of coal miners out of business." And Republican Donald Trump recently retorted, "We're going to put the miners back to work." ReadThe reality of…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Well, here it is May, and still no state budget passed. ReadSpeculation in March was that legislators would drag budget talks out beyond May 10, so they couldn't be accountable in the primary election for supporting any tax increases needed to balance the budget, and that scenario appears to be playing out.Whatever's…
Huntington Herald-Dispatch - Brooke Drake, of Charleston, knows how smoking affects her health, and she wants to make sure her nieces and nephews are never tempted to pick up her bad habit. ReadDrake and representatives of education, public health and faith-based organizations called on West Virginia legislators to raise the state's tobacco tax from 55…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Proponents of a $1 increase in West Virginia's tobacco tax said Thursday that the struggling proposal is a "no-brainer" for the state with some of the highest rates of smoking among both teens and adults and an existing tax lower than that of 45 other states. ReadOn Thursday, a coalition representing members…
The State Journal - West Virginia will save tens of millions of dollars in medical costs if lawmakers increase the taxes on tobacco products, local health care providers say. ReadMembers of the policy research group West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy and local health care providers hosted a news conference Thursday, April 28 to…
WV Metro News - An increase of at least $1 to the state tax on a pack of cigarettes could make the difference for West Virginia's physical and fiscal health, according to representatives from a coalition of West Virginia education, public health and faith-based community organizations. ReadAs state budget talks continue, those groups came together…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - As the Legislature discusses the West Virginia budget, I hope that they will bring a smart business approach to our budget dilemmas. Nobody like taxes but everybody wants good roads, good schools, health care, police protection and other services that require investments by our state. Read West Virginia legislators should understand that…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Under new requirements to either work or be in training, 1,566 West Virginians will lose their food stamp benefits beginning next month, according to the state Department of Health and Human Resources. Meanwhile the state is reviewing a request from legal advocacy group Mountain State Justice to exclude the chronically homeless from…
The Dominion Post - Severance tax trust funds are a good way for fracking states to turn a finite revenue source into long-term stability to ride out inevitable boom-bust cycles. That's the essence of a report issued this past week by the Brookings Institute, an esteemed nonpartisan D.C. think tank. ReadWest Virginia has such a…