Daily Athenaeum - Union leaders in West Virginia are angry over the state's right-to-work legislation expected to pass this year. The House of Delegates is expected to vote today on the bill after a last-minute amendment from the judiciary committee. ReadExperts agree that the legislation, which 25 other states have already passed, will drive down…
WVCBP in the News
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - Democratic Senators continued with attempts to slow or kill a bill that repeals the state's prevailing wage, but the GOP majority maintains the bill will help West Virginia's economy. ListenSean O'Leary with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy and John Deskins with the West Virginia University Bureau of…
West Virginia Public News Service - Some state lawmakers want to make it harder for single adults to collect SNAP benefits. Critics say that would cost West Virginia's economy tens of millions of dollars a year. A plan at the legislature would make it more difficult for adults without dependents or disabilities to collect from…
Beckley Register-Herald - As officials in Charleston grapple with how to tackle West Virginia's $354 million budget shortfall, due largely to less than expected severance tax collections, states facing similar financial gaps are using other ways to shore up their finances. ReadNearly one out of every seven dollars going into West Virginia's coffers comes from…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Would a right-to-work law bring more jobs to West Virginia? ReadWould a right-to-work law lower wages in West Virginia?There is evidence to support both points, and business and labor leaders made familiar arguments during a public hearing on right-to-work in the West Virginia House of Delegates chamber Thursday.A right-to-work bill (SB 1)…
Beckley Register-Herald - Thursday's public hearing on right to work — or the West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act (SB 1) — produced little in the way of new thought from either side of the issue, but it produced about two dozen people who shared their views with members of the House Committee on the Judiciary.…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - The West Virginia Senate waived its normal constitutional rules Wednesday to pass four pieces of legislation which must be enacted by the end of the month for the state to keep paying its bills on time. ReadThe four bills (SB 342, 357, 360 and 364) shuffle money among various government accounts so…
Associated Press, Charlotte Observer, Houston Chronicle, Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram, Wheeling Intelligencer - West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin plans to give struggling coal producers a break by dropping a tax used to pay off a workers' compensation debt. ReadMassive coal company Murray Energy, however, isn't satisfied with just eliminating the extra 56-cent-per-ton cost. Amid a dire…
Beckley Register-Herald - State officials, grappling with a budget deficit for the third year in a row and foreseeing at least two more years of lagging revenues, are looking for answers. Depending on which side of the political aisle is promoting the solution, those answers vary. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's 2017 budget has a mixture…
The State Journal - Jason Barrett proved himself as a small businessman, running pizzerias long before his two-year stint as an elected official. ReadThat experience gave him a perspective other delegates heavily leaned on as they crafted a bill that became law during the 2014 legislative session, increasing wages for thousands of West Virginians.Barrett was…