Mountain State Spotlight - Just two years after changing it, lawmakers have taken another whack at the Rainy Day Fund formula. Read the full article. But that change could lead to problems later on, according to one policy expert. The Rainy Day Fund — West Virginia’s emergency fund — has been around since 1994. While it’s been…
WVCBP in the News
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - The West Virginia House of Delegates refused to concur with the state Senate’s amendment to Senate Bill 1001 in a late-night session Monday. Read the full article. Senate Bill 1001 and its counterpart, House Bill 101, aim to restore funding to the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services, focused…
West Virginia MetroNews - Lawmakers have rolled into a special session focusing on the state’s level of funding for human services plus additional surplus spending priorities. Read the full article. Senators on Sunday evening took up more than a dozen bills and passed about half of them without much disagreement or discussion. The Senate’s Republican…
West Virginia MetroNews - West Virginia lawmakers expect to convene for a special session starting Sunday, focusing on the state’s level of funding for human services plus additional surplus spending priorities. Read the full article. The expectation is that the special session will gavel in late Sunday afternoon with the likelihood of continuing into Monday.…
Mountain State Spotlight, Times West Virginian - When West Virginia lawmakers passed a wide-ranging tax cut in 2023, much of the attention focused on the immediate 21.25% income tax reduction. But in recent months, the main topic has turned to a “trigger” added to the law as a way to cut taxes even more in…
New Yorker - On a snowy day in late January, Zach Shrewsbury, a thirty-two-year-old Marine Corps veteran, picked me up in his battered Chrysler 300, near the West Virginia state capitol. Our first stop was a gas station, where Shrewsbury bought a gallon of wiper fluid and, because his wiper hose had broken the night…
West Virginia MetroNews - Gov. Jim Justice still plans to call legislators in for special session, but it’s still not clear when that will be or what the agenda might include. Read the full article. Justice has consistently said he wants lawmakers to return for higher funding of state human services programs. And lawmakers have…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - Medicaid provides free or low-cost health coverage to low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities. Read the full article. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), West Virginia has the highest percentage of Medicaid enrollment in the U.S., with more than 564,000 people enrolled, or 29…
West Virginia Watch, News from the States - Over the past year, as the programs returned to pre-pandemic eligibility rules, more than 200,000 West Virginians were removed from the Medicaid or the Child Health Insurance Program, state data shows. Read the full article. The vast majority of those disenrollments — 79% — were due to a procedural reason like…
West Virginia MetroNews - Lawmakers asked a range of questions about the state’s level of funding for human services, building their cases for financial decisions that could come to a head during special session as soon as next month. Read the full article. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, has said he’ll soon call a special session over…