The U.S. Senate has released their version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While the bill has some differences from the version released by the House, its overall affect is largely the same, with the benefits heavily favoring the wealthy. The Senate's tax bill would raise taxes on some families while giving large tax cuts…
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Child care is a critical support for families, supporting working parents while their children are able to learn and be safe in a quality environment. In West Virginia, child care costs as much or more than college tuition and household family housing costs. The American Families Plan outlines three major improvements to our child care system to…
When lawmakers reconvene this spring to address the state’s looming budget crisis, it is clear that West Virginia should take a balanced approach that includes additional revenue, rather than a cuts-only approach that threatens our state’s struggling economy. Our state’s worsening revenue situation isn’t due entirely to plunging energy prices. Rather, that situation exacerbates the…
On Sunday, Gazette gossip columnist Phil Kabler pointed out that John Raese - a West Virginia Republican politician and owner of Greer Industries in Morgantown - "was No. 2 among the top 100 purchase card vendors in the state, making $12,998,945 off the state in 2012." The fact that Mr. Raese receives so much money from…
Charleston Daily Mail - The Legislature is looking to end free bargaining in West Virginia by adopting a so-called “right-to-work” law.The result would be cutting wages and benefits for the state’s working families. West Virginia already has the highest share of low-wage jobs in the country.The principle aim of right-to-work laws is to diminish the…
On Saturday afternoon of day 46 of the West Virginia legislative session, 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…
Charleston Gazette - A major acquisition in the burgeoning field of discount stores may not have much effect for local residents. ReadOn Monday, Dollar Tree agreed to buy Family Dollar Stores for $8.5 billion. The move will see the merger of two of the nation's biggest discount retail stores, although Dollar Tree officials said they…
Charleston Daily Mail - A group of retirement savings advocates is asking the Legislature to spend the next year studying a way for the state to expand options for people to save for retirement, even if their employer does not currently offer a plan. ReadThe newly formed West Virginia Coalition for Retirement Options made a…
Want to be healthier and live longer? Then you might want to move to Aspen, Colorado, home of the healthiest county in the U.S. You'll also want to avoid our own McDowell County, one of the least healthy counties in the country. Every year, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at…
Today's Daily Mail reports on a study from the Marshall University Center for Business and Economic Research, warning that West Virginia's high tax burden on the natural gas industry could hurt the development of the natural gas industry. Reading carefully, one may notice a lot of "maybes" "mights" and "coulds" in the report's conclusions. Let's take a closer look,…