The polls are open both for early voting in West Virginia’s primary and for the Our Children Our Future issue ballot. Have you voted?
Choose from a selection of topics in three pillars. Your vote is important! It will be shared with legislators so they know your legislative priorities!
Here are two WVCBP priorities we hope you will support:
#1: Fair Workplace – Legislation that repeals Right to Work, restores Prevailing Wage, enforces paid leave, and ensures equal pay for equal work.
#21: Tobacco Free WV – Banning tobacco use in public parks and creating a new cigarette tax which would pay for expanded tobacco cessation programs in WV.
#23: Encouraging Work in West Virginia – Encouraging Work and EITC: Create a state-level Earned Income Tax Credit would lift families out of poverty and incentivize work.
#25: Gas Up WV – Expanding the natural gas severance tax in WV
VOTE HERE – Voting closes on May 9
Your vote doesn’t matter, you say? Here’s some interesting info on why that just isn’t so and how state advocacy rocks.
A problem searching for a solution is the West Virginia budget gap. April numbers are in with even more bad news with income tax and severance tax revenues all lower than projected. Here’s more in the Beckley Register-Herald.
Both the WVCBP and our Senior Policy Analyst Sean O’Leary were quoted in the Charleston Gazette-Mail this past weekend which called for leadership in solving the state’s budget woes.
The first-ever Summer Policy Institute is just around the corner. Students will receive their acceptance letters next week and plans are being finalized. The first of its kind in West Virginia, this year’s inaugural event will be a weekend immersion in policy issues for West Virginia’s young people.
The program will involve presentations, panels, and workshops on a broad range of critical issues facing West Virginia, including budget and taxes, health care, poverty, economic development, education, criminal justice, race and gender, and others. In addition to WVCBP staff, participants will hear from and interact with several dozen of the state’s top leaders from academia, politics, government, non-profits and business.
Will you be a sponsor? Donations to the Summer Policy Institute are tax deductible. Help us help a West Virginia student!
