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.…
WVCBP in the News
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…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - In Governor Earl Ray Tomblin's State of the State address last week, he proposed budget cuts all across the board, and Higher Education is looking at another big reduction this year. Read/ListenFor years, Higher Education in West Virginia has endured budget reductions from the state legislature. Some representatives from the…
Beckley Register-Herald -Union members continue to flock to the State Capitol to combat legislation they say will hurt their livelihoods. Friday morning, several dozen sat in the House of Delegates galleries and more on the floor during an hour-long public hearing on repealing the prevailing wage, the base pay that companies must pay their employees…
WTAP - It's up for discussion for the second year in a row in the West Virginia Legislature. Read/WatchAnd it will be discussed in Parkersburg this weekend.This time, an auto worker and former union member is talking about it with West Virginia lawmakers.He denies it's an anti-union issue.Terry Bowman says what he calls a "Workplace…
The State Journal - County by county, West Virginia's coalfield communities are being forced to cut jobs, eliminate programs and slash benefits as they steadily collapse alongside the Mountain State's plummeting coal severance tax revenue. Read Webster County Commissioner Jerry Hamrick is one of dozens of local leaders across the state's coal-reliant counties who is…
SNL - Though West Virginia coal producers expect state officials to continue to be cooperative in tugging against the federal government's "boot on our throat," there may be little even a Republican majority in the state will be able to do to dress the wounds inflicted by an increasingly hostile energy market. ReadAn industry that…