Charleston Gazette-Mail - Throughout their reign, the GOP legislative supermajority has treated public school and public employees as adversaries, perhaps because they are the literal personification of the party’s failure to achieve a core goal of drastically shrinking the size of government and government services. Read the full article. Certainly, two successful statewide walkouts by…
WVCBP in the News
Dominion-Post - Recently, The Dominion Post Editorial Board met with Kelly Allen from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, and she taught us a few things about how the state’s budget works (or, as is sometimes the case, doesn’t work). Read the full editorial. Unlike many other states, the governor of West Virginia…
West Virginia Watch, Hampshire Review - Child protective services workers are responding to around 68% of abuse and neglect referrals in the required timeframe, according to state health department leaders, revealing some children may remain in dangerous situations. Read the full article. The rate marks an improvement for the West Virginia Department of Health and…
West Virginia MetroNews - Gov. Jim Justice has suggested a 5% pay raise to offset rising insurance premium costs for public employees, but West Virginia’s Senate Finance chairman says officials will need to calculate how much state government can actually afford to spend. Read the full article. “You can’t just write checks and then not…
West Virginia News - The Public Employees Insurance Agency's Finance Board is holding public discussions across the state regarding a proposed 10% premium increase for the coming year. This increase would be in addition to the 24% increase implemented for the current year for state employees and educators. The increases are a result of legislation…
West Virginia MetroNews, Dominion Post - PEIA’s Finance Board is going around the state for conversations about what many public employees will likely consider bad news, a 10 percent premium increase for the coming year. Read the full article. That’s on top of a 24 percent increase for state employees and educators instituted for the…
Public News Service - A new study of incarceration trends shows Black people are jailed at a rate three times higher than their white peers in West Virginia, even though they only make up 14% of the population. Read the full article. In addition, research from the Prison Policy Initiative found disparities in the criminal justice system…
Mountain State Spotlight - From the Greenbrier to the governor’s mansion, Jim Justice has spread the word about the state’s $1.8 billion surplus this year. But there’s another $1 billion just laying around, too. Read the full article. It’s called the Rainy Day Fund. In plain English, it’s West Virginia’s emergency fund — the proverbial “oh crap”…
WOWK - On this week’s episode of Inside West Virginia Politics, we take a look at foster care and child protective services in the Mountain State, as well as the current open enrollment period for Medicare. We also hear more about the saga to elect a new Speaker of the House in Washington. Read the…
WOWK - West Virginia has the highest rate of foster children in the nation, and advocates are again calling for more help. Some have called the foster care system a crisis, and it’s certain to be one of the top three issues when the legislature convenes in January. Read the full article. For every 1,000…