Legislators solved last year's budget crisis primarily with one-time fixes like money from the Rainy Day Fund. While they did raise the tobacco tax, that was not enough to permanently fix the problem. With revenues continuing to come in below projections, it's likely to be a déjà vu budget situation during the 2017 Legislative Session.…
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95,000 low-income West Virginians are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage. Contact your delegates in the West Virginia House and ask them to oppose HB 3136, a bill that originated in the House Finance Committee this week, quickly making it to the House floor for first reading today. This risky and untested proposal to take…
On Monday, the WV Senate narrowly passed Senate Bill 528, which would make it easier for corporations in West Virginia to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. This bill, based on model legislation prepared by ALEC, is similar, but far more expansive, than a house bill that passed out of House Industry and Labor…
Making ends meet is a struggle for many West Virginians employed in lower-wage jobs. In fact, 23% of workers in West Virginia are employed in low-wage jobs and a quarter of those live in poverty. People working in their communities as daycare workers, restaurant servers, home health aides, administrative assistants, and many other lower-income jobs deserve to be able to…
The WVCBP is excited to welcome Krysta Rexrode Wolfe to the team as our new operations and event coordinator! Before joining the WVCBP staff, Krysta served the state by leading faith communities in Morgantown and Charleston. Krysta brings a decade of administrative experience and a passion for advocacy to her work. She holds a B.A.…
In March 2023, the Charleston City Council approved a $111.6 million budget for the 2024 fiscal year.[1] Once again, the city dedicated one-fifth of its budget ($23.0 million) to uniformed Charleston Police officers for wages, benefits, pensions, insurance, and equipment.[2] Of the $12.3 million budgeted for wages, $2.6 million was allocated for overtime pay.[3] Read…
Shout-Out to Evidence Counts, the WVCBP Blog As a Budget Beat reader, you are familiar with the WVCBP blog, Evidence Counts. We are proud to be one of the top blogs followed by West Virginia Focus as mentioned in its Sept/Oct issue! Our work on broadband access is also cited on page 24. Read the…
Several years ago, West Virginia enacted a series of large business tax cuts with the belief that they would help grow the state’s economy. Today policymakers are promoting that same theory, even though the previous tax cuts have largely failed to put West Virginia on a path to prosperity, with the state losing thousands of…
Sunday Gazette-Mail - The outbreak of enterovirus – a severe respiratory illness -- in West Virginia and the recent cases of Ebola in the United States have made one thing crystal clear: We need public health policies that prevent the spread of disease and infection. One great way to do that is to ensure that…
When the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the closing of public schools in March 2020, there was an immediate and robust community response to make sure that children who received their meals at school would still have enough to eat. As uplifting as the stories about volunteers and restaurants providing these food resources are, they also shone…