The jobs picture in West Virginia continues to look bleak. This is especially true for males. The male 2010 1st quarter unemployment rate was 11.6% compared to a strong 4.0% in the last quarter of 2007. While the female unemployment rate increased 2 percentage points since the start of the Great Recession, the male unemployment…
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Over at Coal Tattoo, Ken Ward has a must read piece on why state politicians and the media avoid having a balanced discussion regarding the impact of the coal industry. One of the central reasons why our state is unable to have a rational discussion is the propaganda and inflammatory rhetoric coming from the coal…
As the extended special session drags on, with no agreement on a tax bill yet, the House has made adjustments to the governor's budget plan submitted at the beginning of the special session. To recap, after vetoing the budget passed during the regular session, which was balanced by taking $90 million from the Rainy Day…
The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the latest Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was introduced in the U.S. Senate on June 22, 2017, and is awaiting a vote. In its current form, the bill would eliminate most of the provisions of the ACA, including its tax provisions, and drastically cut…
The House and the Senate have advanced two similar tax bills that make substantial changes to the state's personal income and sales tax, which account for over 75 percent of state general revenue fund collections. Both of these bills will shift the tax load from the wealthy onto working families. It is unclear how either…
Last Wednesday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 409 that makes sweeping changes to the state's tax system that decrease personal income and severance taxes while increasing sales taxes. Similar to previous Senate tax proposals, SB 409 shifts the tax load onto working families to pay for tax cuts for wealthier West Virginians. On top of…
Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee passed an amended tax bill (HB 107) aimed at addressing the state's budget shortfall, which was pegged at $497 million (or about 12 percent of the base budget) at the beginning of the year. Unlike the version of the bill passed by House, the Senate version creates net revenue losses…
As we discussed in a previous post, coal mining employment has risen over the last three years. Today, Workforce WV released job figures for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the annual average of 2011. Included in this release is coal mining employment. The two charts below use this new data to update our previous…
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Tax filing can be a costly and complicated process for families and small businesses. The reason the system is so complicated is because for years, paid tax preparation corporations have profited by charging families to fulfill their legal obligation to file taxes each year. These companies, including Intuit and H&R Block, have conducted massive lobbying efforts…