WVCBP in the News

May 6, 2023 by WVCBP
Statehouse Beat: Inflated Budget Surpluses Proving Costly for WV

Charleston Gazette-Mail - West Virginia politics is a bundle of contradictions, as we’ve seen recently. Read the full article. At roughly the same time Gov. Jim Justice was lauding the latest state budget surplus figures (made possible by hilariously low-balled revenue estimates), legislators were hearing about how multiple state agencies, notably Highways and DHHR, owe…

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May 5, 2023 by Sean O'Leary
Days Are Numbered For State’s Severance Tax Windfall, Expert Says

West Virginia Public Broadcasting - Higher coal and natural gas prices, and higher demand for both generated a severance tax windfall that fattened the state’s budget surplus last year. But the prices for both fossil fuels have declined in recent months.  Read the full article. Sean O’Leary, senior policy analyst for the West Virginia Center…

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May 4, 2023 by Sean O'Leary
Predicting West Virginia’s Budget This West Virginia Morning

West Virginia Public Broadcasting - On this West Virginia Morning, higher coal and natural gas prices, alongside higher demand for both fossil fuels, generated a severance tax windfall that fattened the state’s budget surplus last year. But the prices for both fossil fuels have declined in recent months.  Listen to the full segment. Sean O’Leary, senior policy…

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May 3, 2023 by Kelly Allen
Slimming Down to Stay Afloat

Inside Higher Ed - At his semiannual State of the University address in March, West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee gave a blunt assessment to a crowd of faculty, administrators, students and staff: WVU is too big—and its student body shrinking too fast—to operate sustainably. Read the full article. With enrollment rates eroding and…

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May 3, 2023 by Sean O'Leary
Setting State Revenue Estimates Subject Of Debate

West Virginia Public Broadcasting - West Virginia’s annual budget is based on revenue estimates that come from the governor’s office. The budget surplus comes from taxes collected above those revenue estimates. How those estimated amounts are determined garners differing points of view. Listen to the full segment. Sean O’Leary is the senior policy analyst at…

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May 2, 2023 by Sean O'Leary
Gov. Jim Justice Calls April Revenue Collection Historic

Charleston Gazette-Mail, Coal Valley News - Gov. Jim Justice announced this week the largest single-month surplus in West Virginia history. Read the full article. During an announcement Monday at the Capitol, the governor said West Virginia’s general revenue collection for April 2023 was $319 million above estimates, marking the largest single-month surplus in state history.…

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April 20, 2023 by WVCBP
‘Harm Reduction Saves Lives’: Meet the Appalachians Doing the Work

100 Days in Appalachia, The Good Men Project - The numbers are now frighteningly familiar: More than a million Americans dead from a drug overdose in the past two decades. More than 100,000 of those deaths came in 2021, in the middle of a global health crisis. Read the full article. Americans are now more likely to…

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April 10, 2023 by Sean O'Leary
Mountain State Spotlight Explains: Why West Virginia’s Reliance on Volatile Severance Taxes is Problematic

Mountain State Spotlight, Fayette Tribune - For months, West Virginia lawmakers have said one thing repeatedly: the state has more than $1 billion in budget surplus. And when you look at the numbers, that’s largely thanks to the severance tax.  Read the full article. That trend continued last week, as Gov. Jim Justice announced that the state…

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April 6, 2023 by WVCBP
The Dismissive Attitude Toward Solving Addiction

Beckley Register-Herald - When local attorney Todd Kirby was running for the Beckley seat in the House of Delegates last fall – a race he won – he talked about solving the drug overdose death crisis in the state. He wasn’t the first and he won’t be the last. Read the full op-ed. The candidate…

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