Daily Athenaeum - West Virginia is the opioid overdose capital of the country. Read Just last month, there were 26 overdoses in a single four-hour span in Huntington. While all 26 people survived, it seems more to the credit of health professionals and state legislators who in June made the lifesaving antidote Narcan available without…
WVCBP in the News
Huntington Herald-Dispatch - The number of West Virginians without health insurance decreased 31 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to data on health insurance coverage from the U.S. Census Bureau. Read The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy on Tuesday in a release credited the decrease to health care reform, especially Medicaid expansion. The…
The Wall Street Journal - If there is a "war on coal," as Donald Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell allege, it has been under way for a very long time. In Mr. McConnell's home state of Kentucky, coal mine employment peaked at 75,633 in 1948. It fell by two-thirds to about 25,000 in the late…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - West Virginia ranks as one of the top states in the country when it comes to reducing the number of uninsured people in recent years, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Read West Virginia saw the number of uninsured state residents drop from 255,000 to 108,000 people between 2013…
Williamson Daily News, Coal Valley News - The state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) could help West Virginians who work but struggle to get by on low wages, according to Seth DiStefano, Campaign Coordinator for the EITC supporters. This would be similar to the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit that is already in effect. Read…
The Point Pleasant Register - Marshall University will host the first forum in a series of statewide Mental Health Matters panel presentations to advocate for juvenile justice and a system of community-based mental health care for youth. Read The forum will be 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, in the Memorial Student Center's room BE5 on…
Dominion Post - Close to 30 people turned out at WVU's Mountainlair on Sept. 6 to get schooled on West Virginia's budget crisis and some of its effects on higher education. Read Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, explained some of the factors that led to Fiscal Year…
WBOY - To pass the most recent budget, the state legislature had to fill a $250 million gap and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy says that some of the deepest funding cuts went to higher education. Read/Watch That was the topic of a presentation they held on Tuesday afternoon at West Virginia…
This state possibly could reap nearly $200 million in new taxes — and save $17 million currently spent on police prosecutions — if marijuana were legalized, an in-depth study by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy concludes. Read Further, allowing safe pot could reduce the state's terrible opioid death toll, and save many…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Both promise to bring back vanishing coal jobs, despite scant evidence that it's possible. Read Both would fight West Virginia's drug epidemic by cracking down on dealers and pushing for increased treatment options for addicts. Both want a pay raise for teachers but are vague on where the money would come from.…