We at the WVCBP are closely monitoring the evolving federal budget process and its potential impact on critical programs like Medicaid and SNAP. House leadership recently delayed key committee markups on the budget package, including in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. These markups are now expected next week, the week of May 12. That…
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A weak September for General Revenue collections underscored the heavy price of 2023’s tax cuts on the state’s budget and should serve as a warning against Governor Justice and lawmakers moving ahead with even deeper cuts to revenue. Weak September Numbers September General Revenue collections totaled $567.7 million, which is $104.4 million below September 2023’s collections, marking…
On Saturday, August 3, 2024, a Harrison County sheriff’s deputy arrested Marissa Crim in downtown Clarksburg. In a criminal complaint filed that day, the deputy wrote that he saw Ms. Crim make an improper turn in a car with a registration that had expired in June. After stopping her car, the deputy learned Ms. Crim’s…
As the date rolls closer for the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act and in the same week that the U.S. House of Representatives voted for the thirty-odd time to repeal the law, the Wheeling Intelligencer reported on a doctor forced to close his doors due to Obamacare. The reason given is that the…
As the Gazette reported on Wednesday, the WV Department of Highways is pushing a bill to study the feasibility of replacing or supplementing the motor fuel tax with a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax to help address the declining State Road Fund revenue which is partly due to more fuel efficient vehicles. The VMT tax…
Yesterday, Governor Jim Justice unveiled his long-awaited proposal to reduce the state personal income tax. As currently structured, it would raise West Virginia’s sales tax to 7.9 percent, making it the highest state sales tax in the country, and effectively making our combined state and local sales tax rate 8.4 percent, higher than that of any of our surrounding…
Several years ago, West Virginia enacted a series of large business tax cuts with the belief that they would help grow the state’s economy. Today policymakers are promoting that same theory, even though the previous tax cuts have largely failed to put West Virginia on a path to prosperity, with the state losing thousands of…
HB 2014, Governor Morrisey’s “Certified Microgrid Program” legislation, remains under consideration by the West Virginia Legislature. The bill would take local control from counties and municipalities to enforce their own ordinances while diverting millions in property tax dollars generated from High Imact Data Centers. Instead of staying in the community to fund schools, public safety, and other local public…
We are currently in a mental health crisis both nationally and in West Virginia. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, youth across the country were experiencing mental health challenges, but during the pandemic there were steep increases in the number of youth experiencing anxiety and depression. The pandemic led to new stressors for youth, including school closures,…
Some lawmakers are claiming West Virginia’s prevailing wage overpays construction workers and inflates the costs of public construction projects, but the evidence does not support these claims. Ending the state’s prevailing wage is likely to have no impact on public construction costs but could hurt the living standards of construction workers and the competitiveness of…