In executive orders issued on Saturday, August 8th, the President announced plans to address the eviction crisis, expired unemployment insurance benefits, student loan relief, and a payroll tax cut. President Trump's executive actions are far too meager, ineffective, and legally dubious to address the crisis that families in West Virginia and across the nation are…
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At October's Lunch and Learn at the West Virginia Covenant House, Rick Wilson (Executive Director of the American Friends Service Committee's West Virginia Economic Justice Project) and Sean O'Leary (Senior Policy Analyst with the WVCBP) discussed the history of West Virginia's chronically high poverty rate. This presentation is a preview of the 2015 State of Working…
This presentation by West Virginians for Affordable Health Care explains the importance of West Virginia's Medicaid program and recommendations for funding it into the future. Download PDF of presentation here.
On January 27th 2020, at the WVU College of Law, Senior Policy Analyst Sean O'Leary presented findings from the 2016 State of Working West Virginia: Why is West Virginia so Poor? Download the presentation here.
The Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways has begun its series of public hearings on how to close the state''s funding gap for state roads and highways, after releasing a report earlier this year that said West Virginia needs an additional $600 million to $1.23 billion in new funding for its highway system. With that in mind,…
Overview Read the full fact sheet here. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is the most powerful anti-hunger tool in the United States. It is highly responsive to economic downturns, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, where unemployment peaked at over 15 percent in West Virginia.[1] SNAP already…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lida Shepherd at lshepherd@afsc.org or (304) 356-8428 Download PDF here. Charleston, WV – With a full blown outbreak of COVID-19 looming in the state’s regional jails, advocates reiterate the call to magistrates, circuit court judges, and prosecutors to use the full force of the new bail law to slow the spread of…
Over the last year and a half, the public has learned what people behind bars have known for years: that the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitations (DCR) consistently fails to keep people in its custody safe. Since the beginning of 2020, 217 people have died in a West Virginia jail or prison. This…
Proposals to force people who do not report a set number of hours worked per month would cause thousands of West Virginians to lose their Medicaid health coverage. The vast majority would become uninsured. This would lead to poorer health outcomes, more financial insecurity for low-income people, and reduced revenues for hospitals while raising health…
Throughout the next couple of months, WVCBP staff will talk to dozens of organizations across the state about West Virginia's fiscal condition: specifically how the state can fix its upcoming budget gap, estimated to be at least $300 million next year. Who pays taxes in West Virginia? What makes up our tax base? To help…