Beckley Register-Herald – Pick up a dart, throw it from your West Virginia front porch and we guarantee you will hit a societal problem that has been long ignored by a Republican-controlled state Legislature that could not care less. Our elected state officials have proven to be most interested in providing income tax cuts to the overwhelming benefit of the well-to-do and maintaining a flat budget which assures, especially during inflationary times, that state services will be a piddling of what they were and but a drop in the bucket of what they need to be to make a difference.
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What those legislators are doing, in essence, is trying to strangle the state budget of any appropriations for social welfare programs, removing as many expenses as they can without concern for how vulnerable populations are being affected. By way of example, to deliver that 2% personal income tax cut, legislators moved $20-$25 million from the state program that tends to foster care children.
Yes, amid a crisis in foster care – the state is in custody of more than 6,000 children who need a safe, stable and loving family – the Legislature is cutting back its support so that ultra-wealthy people like Gov. Jim Justice can get a larger refund from the state.
