WVCBP in the News

April 8, 2014 by Ted Boettner
Coal’s Clout Endures in Washington Even as Jobs Decline

Bloomberg BusinessWeek - Natalie Tennant, the presumptive Democratic nominee for West Virginia's open U.S. Senate seat, got an earful visiting a company where workers said President Barack Obama's environmental policies threaten their jobs. Read "I'll fight it," Tennant said of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule affecting coal-fired power plants during a campaign stop at…

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April 3, 2014 by Ted Boettner
Chemical Valley: The Coal Industry, the Politicians, and the Big Spill

The New Yorker - On the morning of Thursday, January 9, 2014, the people of Charleston, West Virginia, awoke to a strange tang in the air off the Elk River. It smelled like licorice. The occasional odor is part of life in Charleston, the state capital, which lies in an industrial area that takes flinty…

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April 3, 2014 by WVCBP
Highmark Reports Spike in ACA Enrollment

Charleston Gazette - In the weeks leading up to the enrollment deadline, more West Virginians signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act than in previous months, according to Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state's only insurer participating in the exchange. Read As of the March 31 deadline, 20,131 people had enrolled…

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April 3, 2014 by WVCBP
Groups Call for Federal Minimum Wage Increase

Charleston Daily Mail - Now that Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has signed legislation increasing the state's minimum wage, focus turns to a change in the federal standard. Read Groups including the West Virginia chapter of the AFL-CIO and West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, as well as local employees and business owners, rallied Wednesday…

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April 3, 2014 by WVCBP
Minimum Wage Bus Tour Visits City

Charleston Gazette - A bus traveling through 11 states on its "Give America a Raise" tour to advocate for an increased federal minimum wage stopped in front of the state Capitol along the Kanawha River on Wednesday afternoon. Read Urging Congress to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, slogans…

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March 31, 2014 by Ted Boettner
Statehouse Beat: Fairs and Festivals Survive State Budget Cuts

Charleston Gazette - Meanwhile, Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, takes the time to read the fine print in the budget bill. Read Boettner found at least 12 other accounts where the Legislature's appropriations were larger than Tomblin's proposed budget, but were not rolled back by the governor…

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March 27, 2014 by Sean O'Leary
Many Big Corporations Paying No State Taxes

West Virginia Public News Service - Many huge, profitable corporations pay no state taxes, according to a new report from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Read The report looks at 300 Fortune 500 companies that made a profit every year from 2008 to 2012 and found at least…

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March 27, 2014 by Ted Boettner
Don’t Sign Flawed Minimum Wage Bill

Wheeling Intelligencer - Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is being urged by liberal groups to sign a bill he has good reason to believe was not what West Virginia legislators intended. Read As we reported last week, a bill to increase the state-required minimum wage was approved overwhelmingly by both the state Senate and House of…

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March 26, 2014 by Ted Boettner
Minimum Wage Law May Hike Pay for Other Workers

Beckley Register Herald - Employers ready to budget for next year's minimum wage increase may want to look at another, perhaps unintended, consequence of the law that will raise wages for approximately 100,000 state residents. Read Because of a change in the State Code's definitions, workers formerly exempt from overtime laws may now be eligible…

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March 26, 2014 by Sean O'Leary
Debate Continues on Bill to Raise State’s Minimum Wage

Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram - Even though the Legislature's proposal to raise the state's minimum wage has moved to Gov. Tomblin's desk, debate over the bill continues. Read In a conference call Tuesday, Brian Peterson, an attorney with Bowles Rice and a member of the firm's Labor and Employment Group, said the bill could have an unintended…

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