Over the past 40 years, the mass incarceration of women in West Virginia has exploded, growing by a staggering 2,731 percent from 1978 to 2019."But the reasons more women are going to prison in WV have less to do with rising crime and more to do with social drivers (like poverty and substance abuse), and…
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Mountain State Spotlight, Beckley Register-Herald - To have even a chance of getting a cell signal, Tabitha Wyatt used to balance her phone on her porch banister or bathroom windowsill. Read the full article. She and her family live in Russellville, an unincorporated community in Fayette County. Wyatt now relies on her internet service to…
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…
This post is co-authored by Bryan Phillips, Summer Research Associate The slogan โdefund the police,โ acknowledges an emerging sentiment that state and local governments have spent and are currently spending too much on law enforcement and not enough on social services, mental health, housing, and education. Research suggests that spending on these and other upstream factors can lessen inequality within communities and reduce…
West Virginia University is currently facing a $45 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year, expected to balloon to $75 million annually by 2028. During this yearโs State of the University address, WVU President Gordon Gee pointed to several factors driving the shortfall including declining college-aged population, lower college-going rates, and rising financial costs. But one major factor was glaringly…
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…
Back in November, the Business Bureau of Economic Research at West Virginia University released a study by John Deskins that concluded that the adoption of a "Right-to-Work" (RTW) law in West Virginia would boost employment and GDP growth, have no discernible impact on wages, and reduce unionization rates.The problem with the WVU study - and…
The West Virginia Senate votes today on a bill to drug test welfare recipients. SB 6 would create a three-year pilot project to drug test TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Last year, a similar ย bill stalled in the Senate Finance Committee, never making it to the floor.The bill's sponsor, Senator Ryan Ferns, describes the…
350,000 low-income people in West Virginia will see their food assistance cut when a temporary boost to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) expires November 1, new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show. SNAP benefits will average only about $1.40 per person per meal after the cut.…
In Sunday's Gazette-Mail, John E. Pauley, the executive director of the West Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, wrote an op-ed making several dubious claims about the state of retirement security in West Virginia and about the proposed Voluntary Employee Retirement Accounts (VERA) program that is being supported by AARP.ย For…