Charleston Gazette-Mail – In West Virginia and across the country, families are facing an affordability crisis, one where the costs of life’s necessities are rising faster than wages. This is impacting many households’ ability to create a better, or even similar, life to the one their parents had.
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There are many ways policymakers could meaningfully address these challenges — raise wages, invest in child care assistance, better fund schools, strengthen food and energy assistance — but in West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey is turning yet again to the same tired playbook: Trickle-down economics.
Earlier this week, Morrisey previewed his tax plan for 2026, including deeper cuts to the personal income tax, revenue from which makes up more than one-third of the state budget. This was surprising after multiple years of declining revenues drove state lawmakers to work from “flat” budgets that have repeatedly failed to meet the needs of our people.
