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October 29, 2022 by
So Many Questions, So Few Answers Out of Legislature

Beckley Register-Herald - On November 8, voters will have several constitutional amendments on the ballot spanning a wide range of issues. Most of them are controversial, but Amendment 2 is particularly concerning to many groups and organizations. Read the full article. Amendment 2, dubbed the Property Tax Modernization Amendment, gives the Legislature power to eliminate…

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June 7, 2024 by
Special Session Leaves Critical Budget Questions Unanswered

Last month, state lawmakers met in Charleston for a special session mostly to allocate funding for budget needs that were shorted when they passed the state budget in March. Of 15 bills passed, 12 dealt with appropriations and state spending, with lawmakers continuing a troubling trend of using one-time surplus funds to pay for ongoing, base budget costs.…

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February 2, 2018 by
What’s More Expensive, Business Tax Cuts or Free Tuition?

West Virginia's free community college bill continues to move through the legislature. While the bill in its current form is fairly limited in who it applies to, it is worth revisiting the question of what it would take to provide free tuition to all of West Virginia's in-state college students, and how that cost compares…

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October 18, 2011 by
Marshall Gas Tax Study Proves Virtually Nothing

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,…

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October 10, 2012 by
Medicaid Expansion Would Provide Coverage to 130,000 West Virginians

Nearly 130,000 West Virginia parents and other adults could get health insurance through an expansion of Medicaid to allow more working families to participate, as outlined in the law. Expansion promises to lower costs for hospitals that treat large numbers of patients without insurance, costs which now add up to more than $700 million in…

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February 25, 2015 by
Sean O’Leary: Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Wasteful, Unnecessary

Charleston Gazette - West Virginia’s Legislature is moving forward with a costly and ineffective bill targeted at only the poorest West Virginians. ReadThe bill, SB 348, would create a three-county pilot program to begin drug-testing recipients of cash assistance. The costs of the drug screening would be deducted from the TANF recipients’ monthly check and…

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