The State Journal - As West Virginia struggles with above-average unemployment, a dying coal industry and continued population and job losses, state lawmakers are ready to again consider controversial right-to-work legislation to help save the state's struggling economy. ReadBut what is right-to-work, what does it do, and is it the magic bullet needed to kick-start…
WVCBP in the News
The State Journal - West Virginia has been losing population for three straight years; the coal economy is in shambles; it now appears inevitable the state will lose a Congressional seat after the 2020 Census; and until now, government consolidation has never been taken seriously. Perhaps the time has come to realize the days of…
Parkersburg News and Sentinel - A public policy research group is advocating a state Earned Income Tax Credit in West Virginia. ReadA bottom-up tax cut like the Earned Income Tax Credit could help residents who work for low pay make ends meet, said Sean O'Leary, a senior fiscal policy analyst with the West Virginia Center…
Huntington Herald-Dispatch - A new year means a new, higher minimum wage for workers in West Virginia. ReadGov. Earl Ray Tomblin in 2014 signed into law House Bill 4283, which increased the state's minimum wage in two steps - from $7.25 to $8 per hour on Jan. 1, 2015, and again to $8.75 per hour…
Charleston Gazette -West Virginia lost about 6,000 people in the 2014-15 fiscal year — shrinking for the third straight year — the U.S. Census Bureau says. By losing one-fourth of a percent, the Mountain State had the nation's worst decline, while most of America keeps growing. ReadConsider this contrast: In the 1940 census, both West…
Associated Press, Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram, WCHS-TV -A report says West Virginia is lagging much of the country when it comes to recovery from the recession. Read The Pew Charitable Trust report shows that the state's tax revenue was about 1.1 percent higher in mid-2015 than it was in 2007 when adjusted for inflation. Nationally, states brought…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - A new report from Pew Charitable Trusts shows that revenue in a majority of states has recovered from the recession of 2008-09, although recoveries have varied widely, with revenue in 21 states still below the pre-recession peak year of 2007 when adjusted for inflation. Read West Virginia's tax revenue, as of the…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - West Virginia lost more than 6,100 people between July 1, 2014, and July 1, 2015, according to the 2015 population estimates put out by the U.S. Census Bureau. ReadPercentage-wise, West Virginia's 0.25 percent decrease was the largest in the country. Six other states lost population, according to the Census: Illinois, Connecticut, Mississippi,…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Up to 47,700 West Virginians could lose their food stamp benefits next year unless they work part-time or take job-training classes. ReadThe state Department of Health and Human Resources announced Monday that it is reinstating work and job-training requirements for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) benefits in nine counties — Kanawha,…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - West Virginia's two senators were on opposite sides of the giant year-end budget package passed Friday by Congress, and in somewhat unorthodox positions, with the Democrat bemoaning the billions the deal will add to federal debt and the Republican touting the funding increases for programs that will impact West Virginia. ReadRepublican Sen.…