Charleston Daily Mail - A bill that would put a portion of oil and natural gas severance tax revenue in a special account for future use has passed its first hurdle in the Senate. Read Senate Bill 461 creates the Future Fund and was introduced by Senate President Jeff Kessler last month. The measure was…
WVCBP in the News
Charleston Daily Mail - The House Industry and Labor Committee on Wednesday moved a bill that would incrementally increase the state's minimum wage to $8.25 an hour. Read An expert testifying before the committee said West Virginia has the second-lowest minimum wage at $7.25 an hour. That can be pinpointed as the root cause for…
Beckley Register-Herald - As state lawmakers debate how to close a $143 million budgetary shortfall for this budget year, the options are less than thrilling. Read They are debating a second year of 7.5 percent budget cuts and a hiring freeze for state employees. And they are looking everywhere for sources of revenue to somehow…
West Virginia Public News Service - As the West Virginia Legislature debates raising the minimum wage, lawmakers will talk about how hard work is necessary to get ahead. But sometimes language like that glosses over the reality of working poor families trapped by low wages and debt. Read Ray and Nicole are a couple with…
Charleston Gazette - The state and federal agencies that have been responding to the Elk River chemical leak all have one thing in common: They have had their budgets cut in the last few years. Read And people connected with those agencies say, perhaps not surprisingly, that the cuts have hurt their ability to prevent…
The State Journal - Is WV doing enough to prepare for the downsized role of coal in the state economy? Read Cal Kent and Ted Boettner inhabit opposite ends of the political spectrum, but they agree that West Virginia must face the fact that coal soon will play a smaller role in the state's economy.…
WCHS-TV - State lawmakers were up early Wednesday, meeting at the Charleston Marriott. Read/View The main topic was the budget, which is always a priority for the lawmakers, but this session, the ongoing water crisis is on everyone's mind. Now politicians are vowing to take action on a regulatory bill to prevent chemical-related disasters. "Our…
Charleston Daily Mail - The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy and the American Friends Service Committee released a report last month, "Who Owns West Virginia?" Read Their answer, in parts of the state, was mainly timber and other natural resource companies. A better question would be, "Who farms West Virginia?" West Virginians eat $7…
Bloomberg - The incidents have residents asking themselves whether officials have their safety at heart, said Ted Boettner, director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, a Charleston-based public policy group that favors more government regulation. Read "The real impact will be in the long-term as we experience a brain drain," Boettner said…
Charleston Daily Mail - Several community, labor, faith and civil rights groups are opposed to the shipment of prisoners to out-of-state facilities and expressed that opposition Wednesday in a letter sent to state lawmakers. ReadThe state is examining the cost of shipping its prisoners to private, out-of-state facilities in an effort to reduce the prison…