Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to cut funding to SNAP, the food stamp program, by $40 billion over the next two years, kicking nearly four million people off the program. This bill would have harsh impacts for West Virginia families since almost half of SNAP households in the state have children. Read more about who else would be affected in Sean’s blog post.
There was a lot of data released this week including numbers on who lacks health care in West Virginia. With full implementation of Obamacare just around the corner, 100,000 uninsured West Virginians are expected to gain access to coverage through the Marketplace. Since fewer employers are choosing to offer coverage to their employees (a downward trend since 2000), their employees will have somewhere to go to get coverage. Read more in Brandon’s blog post.
Who is uninsured in West Virginia? Two out of three of them worked part- or full-time in 2012 but at low wages, according to data released this week. Read more about who is most likely to lack health care coverage in West Virginia here and more about how Obamacare will greatly reduce their numbers by 2016.
One in five West Virginian’s relies on the SNAP program to put food on the table. Cuts to this program will be especially devastating to West Virginia’s families. Read more in this week’s Charleston Gazette article.
New census data released yesterday show that the poverty rate in West Virginia has barely budged since the end of the Great Recession. Not only is poverty staying high, wages are staying low. Read more in this week’s Charleston Gazette.
There was national coverage this week on Senate President Jeff Kessler’s push to bring a Future Fund to West Virginia. Read more about his efforts to look to the future and learn from missed opportunities here from ABC News.
History will be made next week at the first-of-its-kind Our Children, Our Future: 2013 Policy Symposium, Tuesday September 24-25. The WVCBP is a proud sponsor and will host three strategy sessions during the event: increasing the minimum wage, creating the State Earned Income Tax Credit, and establishing Future Fund.
Can’t make it? Our presentations will be posted on our website and we will provide a full recap in next week’s Budget Beat.
