The 2020 Budget Breakfast is right around the corner on January 15! The early bird discount expires on December 31. Register today to take advantage of the savings!
Would you like to sponsor this year’s event? Each sponsorship level comes with tickets. Learn more here.
Our keynote speaker is Sian Mughan, assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. Her research interests include local government finance, fiscal federalism, criminal justice policy, and institutions. Some of her research has shown how tax and budgetary structures impact equity outcomes, while other papers focus on how fiscal stress in local governments leads to revenue seeking behavior by actors in state criminal justice systems.
Sian will discuss the business personal property tax and her study, “Estimating the Manufacturing Employment Impact of Eliminating the Tangible Personal Property Tax: Evidence from Ohio”, to help us understand how proposed cut to West Virginia’s tax could harmfully impact our budget and how we fund our school systems (see more below).
With the 2020 legislative session looming, now is as good a time as any to check in on one of the legislature’s favorite proposals, eliminating the business personal property tax. Once again, the elimination of the tax is at the top of legislative priorities. And with state revenues stalling and budget cuts likely, the nearly $400 million price tag for eliminating the tax spells almost certain painful budget cuts or shifting the tax load onto West Virginia’s low and middle-income residents.
And while according to Senate President Mitch Carmichael, “The personal property tax on business inventory and equipment is the single biggest job killing tax in our state,” the evidence does not support that statement. Studies examining state-level inventory and other personal property taxes concluded they rarely impact business location decisions or have a significant impact on employment levels in manufacturing, wholesale, or retail industries. In fact, in recent years, more manufacturing jobs have been added in states with the “job-killing” business inventory and equipment tax than in states without it.
Read more in Sean’s blog post. Watch Seth on WOWK this week.
On Monday, the Joint Judiciary Committee of the WV Legislature heard testimony from experts on the costs and benefits of implementing a paid family and medical leave program in West Virginia.
Dr. Jeff Hayes, program director for job quality and income security at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, presented a cost-benefit analysis of SB 306, Senator Richard Lindsay’s comprehensive paid leave bill that was introduced during the 2019 Legislative Session.
Kelly shared polling data with lawmakers, including that 84 percent of voters and 64 percent of small business owners support comprehensive paid leave. She also introduced two small business owners in attendance who support the policy.
If you’d like to get involved in our paid leave coalition, contact Kelly.
This is the last Budget Beat of 2019. See you next year!
