West Virginia legislators are considering enacting voucher-like programs to transfer tax-payer money to private schools. This week they introduced a proposal to create Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) as part of the omnibus education reform bill, SB 451, which would set public money aside for educational services, including private school tuition, textbooks and curriculum materials, private…
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The development of the Marcellus Shale has led to a boom in West Virginia’s natural gas production. But aside from the increase in drilling activity and state and local tax revenue, the natural gas boom has not brought with it the jobs and economic growth that many predicted. While the state’s natural gas production has…
On the first day of the 2022 legislative session, the West Virginia Senate introduced bills that would make major changes to the state's unemployment insurance system, to the detriment of the state's workers. While Senate Bill 3 would add additional strict work search requirements for unemployed workers collecting unemployment insurance, Senate Bill 2 would reduce…
Earlier this month, the West Virginia Senate passed two bills that would drastically change the state's unemployment insurance system and will now be considered in the House of Delegates. SB 2 would reduce the number of weeks a worker can collect unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to as few as 12 weeks. SB 3 would…
For the second year in a row, Governor Jim Justice has proposed a “flat” budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, with only minor changes from the FY 2022 budget. While the state is currently enjoying large budget surpluses, those surpluses are the result of billions in federal aid, artificially low revenue estimates, and continued unpredictability…
Last weekend, the Senate Finance Committee unveiled and passed their second attempt at a tax cut without discussion or questions and then suspended rules to pass it out of the chamber. The legislation, HB 2526, looks very much like the plan they passed earlier this session (SB 424). Both versions overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, contain a workaround for the tax cuts rejected…
Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released 2017 data on state public school spending that shows West Virginia spends less per student than the national average and less than most of our neighboring states. If you subtract out federal revenue, WV collects less education revenue per student than 31 states (including DC) and nearly $2,000…
This blog post was authored by Teri Castle, our 2023 Criminal Legal Reform Summer Research Fellow. One year after Governor Justice declared a state of emergency in West Virginia’s Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR), state government took action to address the agency’s high staff vacancies. This week, lawmakers passed a series of bills (SB…
Time to Embrace 21st Century on Internet Sales Tax Each year West Virginia loses millions because it does not tax Internet sales. Like most states, West Virginia taxes the in-store sales of physical books, movies, software, and games, but when these products are delivered digitally over the Internet, sales tax does not apply. A new…
This afternoon, the Governor's Office sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) chief, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, regarding the Affordable Care Act in West Virginia. In the letter dated July 15, Governor Tomblin requests "prompt answers to several questions concerning implementation of the ." (See the letter here) The majority of…