Two issues which the WVCBP has researched and provided analyses on in recent months are receiving some legislative attention as the session winds down. Worksharing (HB 2952) passed the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday during one of the committee’s marathon late-session meetings. It awaits action in the House Finance Committee.
Senator Jeff Kessler’s Future Fund bill (SB 167) has been read for a second time and is now before the Senate Finance Committee. Bills need to come out of committee by this Sunday, March 31 in order to have time to be read three times on the Senate/House floor.
Evidence Counts covered a wide range of issues this week. In response to the Senate passage of SB 187 that would require a jobs impact statement on legislation that impact the state’s economy, Ted’s blog post takes a look at the reality of such a change. With the reliability of fiscal notes already frequently called into question, it’s hard to fathom how an even more sophisticated analysis could be done. A more plausible solution would be creation of a state fiscal office similar to those in 40 other states.
Ted also blogged about an IHS Global Insight study which is projecting the economic impact of Marcellus Shale development to be just a fraction in West Virginia of what it will be in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
On Monday Ted spoke to the Kanawha County Democratic Women’s Caucus on chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) and he has blogged about how using the CPI to decide on how much or if to raise Social Security each year would harm the state’s senior citizens.
Two stories by Public News Service covered budget issues – one looked at how funding to West Virginia’s colleges and universities is being cut as enrollment increases. The other looked at how the recently passed Ryan budget would impact West Virginia, drastically cutting federal funding to programs over the next 10 years by billions. Low- and middle-income working families rely on many of the programs that would be impacted should this budget pass.
