For Immediate Release Contact Ted Boettner or Sean O'Leary, 304-720-8682 (Charleston, WV) – With the 2016 Legislative Session now in the rear view mirror, much work lies ahead in the search for solutions to solving the state's budget crisis. Legislators met for their traditional post-session budget negotiations but were not able to come together on…
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West Virginia’s Labor Force Statistics are Back to Normal. So Why are There Still Missing Workers?
Despite record-low unemployment rates and fully recovered employment and labor force participation rates, West Virginia is still down 24,300 jobs from its pre-pandemic level. The primary driving force behind this discrepancy is that West Virginia continues to experience population loss. While there is currently a higher percentage of West Virginians working than there was during the height…
As the United States Senate reconvenes to negotiate what may well be the final COVID-19 relief package, addressing food insecurity must be a top priority. The lasting negative impacts of hunger, especially for children, are widely known. Congress has not only the opportunity, but the duty to act to avoid those consequences and support families…
West Virginia lawmakers are under pressure from Governor Justice to override the tax cut triggering mechanism created as part of the 2023 state income tax law and enact additional cuts on his way out the door. But state revenue and budget pressures, including slowing revenues, costly enacted legislation, and a myriad of unmet needs come…
This legislative session at least four bills have been introduced that would abolish or privatize the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA). All seem to be rooted in one of two premises: (1) health insurance could be better and more affordable if privatized; (2) the state no longer wants the expense of self-insuring employees anymore. If…
At his State of the State address last week, Governor Justice announced a proposal he called a "tsunami" to reduce the personal income tax by 50 percent. As we’ve previously highlighted, personal income tax cuts by nature overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest households. In this case, one out of every six dollars in tax cuts would…
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…
The first quarter of FY 2024 ended with West Virginia collecting $109 million less than it collected in the first quarter of FY 2023, though the state did exceed the artificially low revenue estimates set by Governor Justice's administration. Most of the gap compared with last year was due to a collapse in severance tax…
The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy is partnering with the West Virginia Council of Churches on Strength in Stability, a digital project telling the stories of West Virginians who were empowered by the security they found by receiving benefits from programs like SNAP and Medicaid. We tell the success stories of those who…
Contact: Ted Boettner, 304-720-8682 or 304-590-3454 (cell), tboettner@wvpolicy.org Read report Report Also Explores Structure and Importance of Child Care Assistance –Every day in West Virginia, thousands of working families rely on public child care assistance so they can keep the jobs they need to support their families while also providing a safe and reliable environment…