West Virginia Metro News - Opponents of a bill that would require drug testing of welfare recipients say it's a measure that targets the poor. Read"Investing in substance abuse treatment is an efficient use of taxpayer dollars, but expensive and unnecessary policies that are based more on stereotype and punishing the poor rather than on…
WVCBP in the News
WDTV - Friday morning at a public hearing before the House Judiciary Committee many spoke out against a bill that passed in the Senate around a month ago. Read/Watch That bill is Senate Bill Six, which would require drug testing for some welfare recipients. The bill spells out a program that when there's "reasonable suspicion"…
WDTV - Many of you tell us over and over again you're upset with some of the road conditions in our state. Read/Watch Now lawmakers are working to try to get those roads fixed, but it could come at the expense of higher sales taxes. One of the pieces of Senate Bill 555 would increase…
Charleston Gazette-Mail, Transport Topics - Legislation to increase highways funding by more than $290 million a year — primarily through increasing the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent — is headed to a West Virginia House of Delegates that has proven adverse to tax hikes. ReadHowever, Mike Clowser, of the state Contractors…
The State Journal - As the coal market continues to crumble, the West Virginia coal sector is jumping at any opportunity it can find to give itself a competitive advantage. However, industry leaders fear they'll ultimately need more than the state might be willing to give them in order to survive. ReadOne small stepIn what's…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Having already removed the "excess" severance tax on the coal and gas industries, the West Virginia Senate wants to give even larger tax cuts to the extractive industries, potentially blowing a massive hole in the 2018 state budget.The bill (SB 705) passed a procedural barrier on a party-line vote, 18-16 on Monday.…
Wheeling Intelligencer - Bad legislators, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy chided a few days ago. Read Why, there wouldn't have been a state budget crisis had lawmakers during a period of several years not made the horrible mistake the center cited: Cutting taxes. Heck, if lawmakers starting about a decade ago hadn't…
Beckley Register-Herald, Bluefield Daily Telegraph - The State Senate voted Tuesday to join five other states in demanding Congress call a Constitutional Convention of States, "limited to proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government and limit…
Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram - Area lawmakers have mixed reactions to a public policy research group's call to raise "sin" taxes, close loopholes in the sales tax and eliminate greyhound breeding subsidies. ReadLawmakers said they agree with some of the recommendations in the report by the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, but not all of…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - So far in the 2016 session, conservative legislators have wasted most of their time on gay-hating, pistol-carrying and other far-right topics, while doing little about West Virginia's partly self-induced financial crisis. ReadThanks mostly to huge business tax cuts in the past, plus decline of the coal industry, the state government lacks $381…