Hep Mag, POZ - West Virginia will receive $2.4 million in federal funding to help the state prevent and treat HIV, The Associated Press reports. The money arrives as an HIV outbreak among injection drug users shone a national spotlight on the state’s opioid epidemic and sparked debates about syringe exchanges and the economic burdens that result…
WVCBP in the News
The New Republic - “If we hit our CO2 targets and every one of us are living in abject poverty, is that really how you really want to live?” Greg Kozera is making his pro-fracking case to me. Later in our phone call, he’ll argue that renewable energy depends on child labor in Congolese cobalt…
Mountain State Spotlight, Beckley Register-Herald - Six weeks after Gov. Jim Justice began his daily pandemic press briefings, Marion County resident Romelia Hodges was frustrated. Read the full article. It was a month to-the-day after West Virginia had lost its first resident to the virus: 88-year-old Viola York Horton, a Black woman from Fairmont who loved to…
West Virginia MetroNews - If one income tax proposal wasn’t enough to figure out, now West Virginians have two. Read the full article. Gov. Jim Justice introduced a 60 percent cut in the personal income tax a few weeks ago, offsetting the reduction by increasing and expanding sales taxes. The House Finance Committee this week…
The Dominion Post, Yahoo News - Wednesday was National Equal Pay Day and a group of legislators and other equal pay advocates held a virtual meeting to promote four bills aimed at ensuring fair pay for women and minorities in West Virginia. Read the full article. Three of the bills are called the Katherine Johnson…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - West Virginia consistently has one of the worst rates of drug overdose deaths in the nation, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that toll has only been increasing in recent years. The West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy released a report on the economic toll of drug-related deaths and…
West Virginia MetroNews - The House Finance chairman says an income tax proposal that rolled out of committee this week has “wow factor.” Read the full article. “Real money, real dollars, citizens getting tax relief every year, that’s the wow factor,” House Finance Chairman Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, said today on MetroNews’ “Talkline.” The bill passed…
Parkersburg News and Sentinel - If the human toll is not enough reason for some elected and bureaucratic officials to take seriously the fight against substance abuse and addiction in our state, here is one that might come closer to speaking their language: According to the Center on Budget and Policy, treating and addressing substance…
WCHS - Two bills have been introduced to address West Virginia’s income tax debate. Both eventually eliminate the state's income tax, which counts for $2.1 billion of the state’s budget, but do it in very different ways. Read the full article. First, Governor Jim Justice's plan: Lower the state income tax but 60% the first year,…
WCHSTV - A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy said treating and addressing drug addiction cost West Virginia an estimated $11.3 billion in one year. Read the full article. The report was written by economist Jill Kriesky. The Herald-Dispatch reported it said the state spent that much in 2019 on issues that…