This week, reporter Steven Allen Adams of Ogden newspapers confirmed what many had been hearing in recent days: Gov. Patrick Morrisey inexplicably wants to call the Legislature into a special session mere weeks before the regular session to muscle through a deeply regressive tax and budget plan. The tradeoff, reportedly, is even deeper cuts to a state budget already hemorrhaging from years of disinvestment and underfunding, in many ways fueling the affordability crisis many West Virginians are now facing.
More cuts are unthinkable after years of state budget austerity have already resulted in unprecedented public school closures and program cuts, the failure to make new investments in affordable child care, crumbling water and road infrastructure in rural communities, and low pay and skyrocketing insurance costs for state and local workers.
Morrisey’s proposal is reportedly to move West Virginia from a progressive, graduated income tax (in line with the majority of states) to a flat tax of 3.88%. To be clear, this proposal would not lead to lower taxes for everyone. In fact, it would raise income tax rates for at least one-third of West Virginia households (the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy is crunching the numbers and will have more specific details soon). The biggest beneficiaries by far would be high-income households, who have already seen significant state and federal tax cuts in recent years and, as a result, already pay less in state and local taxes as a share of their incomes than low- and middle-income households in West Virginia. A flat tax would make our already upside-down tax system even more regressive, with Morrisey’s plan requiring low-income households to pay more to give yet another tax break to higher-income earners.
But that isn’t the only cost. Adams also reported that Morrisey has instructed state agencies to plan for budget cuts in the upcoming year. Instead of talking about another flat budget (which by definition, is shrinking by failing to keep up with inflation), we are looking at an even smaller budget next year, meaning low- and moderate- income households will be asked to pay more and get less back in public services.
Since 2019, the state’s budget has shrunk by nearly $500 million (or about 8%t) after adjusting for inflation. The state is spending less than it did just a few years ago on school aid funding to local districts, Medicaid, child care assistance and the Public Employees Insurance Agency. The only areas of the budget that have seen state funding increases are jails and prisons, foster care and adoption, and the Hope Scholarship.
The budget cuts agencies are reportedly being asked to make would slash programs further and mean no much-needed investments in modernizing our school funding formula to help neighborhood schools stay afloat and districts hire and retain well-qualified teachers; no new investments in child care affordability; no clearing of the Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities waiver wait list; no solution for PEIA; and nothing for rural community infrastructure or economic development.
One major question that remains unanswered is whether Morrisey would allow the Hope Scholarship’s expansion to move ahead, meaning the program’s budget would increase by more than 100% while every other program in the state is forced to make cuts. This is yet another area where leaders are prioritizing higher earning households over low- and middle-income ones.
Treasurer Larry Pack, whose agency administers the Hope Scholarship, has already said 85-90% of current Hope Scholarship enrollees are families who would have used private schools without the voucher program, and 100% of those who would benefit from the program’s expansion are already in private schools — meaning they are already able to afford it. Can policymakers seriously consider giving shrinking public taxpayer dollars to families who can already afford private school while refusing to invest in an outdated public school funding plan, or worse, making public school funding cuts?
Let me be perfectly clear: The only winners in Morrisey’s tax plan are high-income households who’ve already received windfalls in state and federal tax cuts and the Hope Scholarship over the last several years. It is everyday West Virginians who would bear the consequences of the “tough choices” that Morrisey promised as tradeoffs — many seeing their taxes increase and most harmed by more budget cuts to pay for another round of tax cuts that help the wealthy pay less. For West Virginia lawmakers to contemplate giving our richest even more — paid for by outright cuts to our public schools, our rural communities, and our children’s futures — is unconscionable.
Read Kelly’s full op-ed.
This month, West Virginia residents, charitable organizations, small businesses, and the state government joined together in an effort to stem widespread hunger during the first delay in SNAP benefit distribution in history. The state’s 211 helpline saw a staggering 1,680 percent increase in calls of people needing help—largely with accessing food—compared to the same period last year. Grocery stores and restaurants donated meals. Neighbors filled blessings boxes, volunteered at food drives, and took meals to one another.
But despite their best efforts, many West Virginians still reported going hungry—some had no transportation to get to a food pantry, needed specific foods for a special diet or allergy that were not donated, or simply couldn’t find food.
The entire situation served as an important reminder: charity cannot replace the safety net. And as SNAP and health care provisions from Congress’ One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) begin to roll out, state government and charity will increasingly be called on to fill in the gaps left by Congress’ historically deep cuts (to the limited extent they can).
More SNAP Changes Rolling Out Now
West Virginia’s SNAP agency announced earlier this month it was implementing the OBBB’s expanded SNAP time limits and work reporting requirements as of November 1, putting 36,000 West Virginians at risk of losing their food assistance if they are unable to meet onerous new reporting requirements. These new rules mean that parents with children over age 13, older adults between ages 55 and 64, veterans, former foster youth, and people experiencing homelessness will only be eligible for SNAP for three months every three years unless they report adequate work hours or successfully qualify for an exemption from the requirements.
Available research, including here in West Virginia, shows that SNAP work reporting requirements fail to meaningfully increase employment but do result in increased food insecurity and economic instability, pushing more people to utilize already strained charitable food networks. When prior populations became subject to these requirements, food pantries in Cabell and Mingo counties saw demand increase dramatically.
For those who think they may be newly impacted by SNAP work reporting requirements, see the graphic below for a few steps you can take to better prepare.
Sweeping Health Care Changes Coming
The OBBB also made significant changes to our health care system, which will have impacts on both individuals and health systems.
Unless Congress acts quickly, more than 60,000 West Virginians will see their health care premiums on the ACA Marketplace skyrocket, with West Virginia residents seeing among the steepest cost increases of any state. Between one-fourth and one-half of those impacted are expected to forgo health coverage in 2026 altogether as the monthly cost becomes unaffordable, creating increased need for safety net health care. Meanwhile, others will be forced to make difficult budgetary choices in order to afford the increased premium costs, likely increasing housing and food insecurity and pushing more people who choose to stay insured to charitable networks.
This month’s federal government shutdown was a powerful reminder of how important a tool SNAP is in addressing hunger and economic insecurity in West Virginia—one that operates in partnership with charitable networks. As more provisions from the OBBB roll out early next year, residents, charitable networks, and the state government will be asked to step in to fill the void created by federal funding cutbacks. And once again, despite their heroic efforts, many West Virginians will fall through the cracks unless Congress rolls back their cuts.
Read Kelly’s full blog post.
Read Kelly’s recent op-ed on the ongoing fallout from the OBBB.
Marketplace open enrollment is now open, and time is running out for the tens of thousands of West Virginians who rely on expiring enhanced premium tax credits to afford their health coverage.
Congress must act now. If they fail to do so, millions across the country will face unaffordable premiums and coverage loss. You can send a letter to your Senators and Representatives asking them to make the enhanced premium tax credits permanent, reverse health care cuts, and lower health care costs here.
Are you impacted and wondering what this means for you? Use the APTC savings calculator to see how much more you might have to pay if Congress fails to extend these credits. Access the calculator here.
The enactment of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (HR 1) cements the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, putting rural hospitals at risk of closure. A provision was included in the legislation to help address this concern, but the funds available to be potentially allotted to the state are insufficient to make up for the Medicaid funding losses. A recent article, including insight from WVCBP health and safety net policy analyst, Rhonda Rogombe, provides further details. Excerpt below:
Earlier this month, West Virginia submitted its application for the federal Rural Health Transformation Fund, with Gov. Patrick Morrisey touting the program as an unprecedented opportunity to revitalize the state’s healthcare system.
The fund, created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in July, makes West Virginia eligible to receive over $100 million annually over the next five years.
West Virginia’s proposal focuses on expanding telehealth access, addressing transportation barriers to medical care, healthcare workforce recruitment and retention and funding wellness and prevention programs.
Analysis from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy indicates the transformation fund represents only a fraction of federal healthcare dollars the state stands to lose from the same legislation that created it.
Rhonda Rogombe, health and safety net policy analyst at WVCBP, said West Virginia will lose approximately $1 billion annually in federal healthcare funding due to Medicaid cuts and other provisions in the reconciliation bill–far exceeding what the state could receive from the rural health program.
“The Rural Health Transformation Fund was kind of the concession that proponents of this bill made in order to assuage their colleagues that this bill wouldn’t be an entirely disastrous thing for state healthcare infrastructures and for hospitals in particular,” Rogombe said. “But when you look at just the numbers of our projected analysis, you can see that there is really no way to make up these funds via this mechanism.”
Rogombe emphasized a critical timing issue: The Rural Health Transformation Fund provides temporary support while the healthcare cuts are permanent.
“That funding is temporary. It’s five years,” she said. “So for the next five years, we can anticipate some level of this money coming into the state. But these cuts as of right now are permanent.”
KFF analysis shows the reconciliation bill cuts approximately $137 billion in federal Medicaid spending to rural areas nationally over the next decade–nearly three times the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund allocated for all 50 states combined.
Beyond the funding shortfall, Rogombe questioned whether the transformation program’s initiatives will be accessible to West Virginians who lose health insurance coverage due to Medicaid cuts in the same legislation.
West Virginia currently has nearly 500,000 Medicaid enrollees.
“I wonder how people are going to be able to access those options and those services if they don’t have health insurance, whether it is because Medicaid has become inaccessible for many people or the ACA marketplace is out of reach,” Rogombe said. “Without options for getting people enrolled in health care, it’s hard to promote telehealth and seeing doctors and all of these different things that are in our state’s proposal. And so that’s really where my main concern lies.”
West Virginia’s application, developed through consultation with over 40 healthcare organizations and input from a tele-town hall with more than 17,000 residents, proposes seven major initiatives:
West Virginia’s application now awaits Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approval, with awardees to be announced by Dec. 31.
Read the full article.
The recent government shutdown resulted in disruption to SNAP benefit distribution for the first time in history, resulting in millions across the country needlessly going without their critical food assistance. Now that the shutdown has ended, many are experiencing relief that benefit distribution has resumed. However, millions are set to lose their SNAP benefits permanently as a result of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed earlier this year. A recent article provides further details. Excerpt below:
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins directed USDA staff during the record-setting 43-day shutdown to continue ushering states toward compliance with Republicans’ signature tax and spending law, which is projected to kick millions out of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program in the next few months.
Those changes, combined with other provisions in the new law, will represent the most significant cuts to the social safety net in decades. And it all comes as low-income families are confronting stagnating wages that aren’t keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living — an issue that some Republicans blamed for their losses in off-year elections this month.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides an average of $6 per day for nearly 42 million people, roughly 40 percent of whom are children. Under the new law, parents and older Americans will be required to meet stricter work requirements, and states eventually will have to share in the cost of SNAP benefits, which could force further program cuts, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Tens of thousands of legal immigrants will also lose access to the program under the law.
The loss of SNAP “was really stark during the shutdown,” said Dottie Rosenbaum, director of federal SNAP policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “But [the One Big Beautiful Bill Act] is the largest cut in the program’s history. That is also going to be really deeply felt.”
States have started notifying participants they will be subject to new, tighter work requirements, setting up a three-month countdown for people to comply or lose benefits entirely.
Some states, like New York and California, have waivers that lift work requirements in places with high unemployment rates, which are expected to slow the full impact. But certain lawfully present immigrants, including refugees, are being notified that they are no longer eligible for SNAP, effective immediately.
“While we are concerned about any person in this country going hungry needlessly, there is something spectacularly cruel about ripping out the safety net of people who came to this country who need just a little bit of time to get back on their feet and to begin to be able to contribute economically to this country,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of policy and advocacy at HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that assists refugees and asylum seekers.
HIAS estimates that the SNAP changes will cut benefits for roughly 250,000 refugees and other humanitarian visa holders.
Rollins has also indicated that she may press for current SNAP participants to reapply, despite existing requirements that participants regularly certify their incomes and other factors that determine eligibility. The new plan could add red tape that will make it more difficult to get benefits.
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service issued new guidance in October and November during the shutdown on how to comply with tightened work requirements and follow other changes in the law, but some states are still struggling to interpret it. In California, where more than 5 million people use SNAP, California Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Troia said in a recent webinar that the state is still working through the new guidance.
Millions of low-income families will also lose access to Medicaid in the next few years, when stricter work requirements and other changes for that program kick in. Republicans’ tax and spending law has made certain legal immigrants, including refugees, ineligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies. And the Trump administration is working on a new public charge regulation that could deter millions of lawfully present immigrants from participating in federal safety net programs.
As low-income people struggle to pay utility bills and make rent, many fall back on the charitable food network to help pay for groceries. But food banks and pantries are still scrambling to recover from nearly $1 billion in federal funding cuts earlier this year — and from the chaos resulting from the pause in SNAP benefits during the shutdown.
During the week of Oct. 27, food banks purchased 325 percent more food through Feeding America’s Grocery Purchase Program than during the same time last year, according to the nonprofit.
Matt Jozwiak, who runs Rethink Food, a charity meal organization in New York City, said his organization increased the number of meals it provided from between 40,000 to 50,000 per week to 120,000 during the shutdown.
“It could not be worse,” Jozwiak said. “This is just like what’s to come. This is bad, but [OBBA is] permanent.”
With hundreds of thousands of refugees and other immigrants bracing to be kicked off SNAP, some refugee resettlement organizations are offering more emergency food options to help fill the hole.
“We have a truck, we have a warehouse, and it made sense,” said Laura Thompson Osuri, executive director of Homes Not Borders, a Washington-area nonprofit that assists newly-arriving refugees. Her group is now focused on food security.
She says the OBBA changes will affect roughly 20,000 refugees in the Washington area.
Still, private-sector and nonprofit contributions won’t be enough when the SNAP changes go into full effect. According to Feeding America, SNAP provides nine meals for every one provided by food banks.
Cyndi Kirkhart, who runs Facing Hunger Food Bank in West Virginia, is worried about her organization’s ability to keep up.
“When I wrote my budget last year for this year, I sure didn’t put this crisis in it,” Kirkhart said, referencing November’s benefits lapse. “Now, I’m going to anticipate there’s going to be more crises, and I’ll just have to budget more and hope that the same kinds of help and support line up. But at some point, everyone is affected by crises. So at what point do folks go, ‘I can’t do any more,’ right?”
Read the full article.
Check out this recent interview for additional insight from WVCBP senior policy outreach director, Seth DiStefano, on changes to SNAP included in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Each year the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy releases our annual State of Working West Virginia report, which examines the Mountain State’s economy through the lens of its workers—the people who power our state and economy. While each year’s report has a slightly different focus, one consistent theme is the need to ask this simple question: How are the people who do the work faring?
This year’s edition, the 18th installment in our State of Working West Virginia series, gives an overall picture of the state’s workforce, with a deep dive into the state of the public sector workforce, made up of local, state, and federal government employees. We wanted to zero in public sector workers, given that they are under fire— at the federal level with DOGE cuts, funding freezes, and mass layoffs, and at the state and local levels amid the pressures of a shrinking state budget and a slowing economy. Despite all that, public sector workers are essential to the lives of West Virginians each day: teaching and caring for our children, building and maintaining our roads and infrastructure, responding to floods and fires, and helping families access programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
With 151,100 West Virginia workers employed by the public sector, including 26,600 federal employees, 46,700 state employees, and 77,800 local employees, the public sector is the largest of the state’s major employment sectors. While the public sector is a larger employer in West Virginia than in most other states, public sector employees face relatively low wages—particularly for college graduates and teachers—compared to workers in other states.
The public sector is a critical source of jobs at the county level. Local government jobs in particular are important in many counties, with county boards of education often among the largest employers in a given county.
Many of the demographics of the public sector are like those of the private sector in the state. One major difference between the public and private sectors pertains to gender. The public sector is an important source of jobs for women in West Virginia, with women making up over 58 percent of public sector jobs, compared to just 34 percent of private sector jobs.
Public sector employment has experienced different rates of growth in 2025 at the federal, state, and local levels. Public sector employment growth has lagged the overall state average, in part due to a shrinking state budget despite large revenue surpluses, as the state has prioritized income tax cuts over investments in state needs.
While this year’s edition of the report centers on West Virginia’s public sector workers, it also looks into the state’s economy as a whole, presenting a mixed picture. While a strong recovery post-pandemic saw jobs quickly return, that growth stagnated in 2024. Instead of building on this robust recovery, West Virginia saw its growth lag the rest of the country, with most of the state’s growth occurring within the health care sector. West Virginia ranked near the bottom in several important economic indicators in 2024, including job growth, wages, and labor force participation.
Policies that give workers more power, put more money in the pockets of working families, promote public health, and strengthen the public sector will benefit all West Virginians. Our report concludes with the following policy recommendations that address weaknesses in the state’s economy and can improve the lives of families and workers more broadly:
Read Sean’s full report.
Watch Sean’s video or this recent interview highlighting some of the report’s key findings.
Following 10 years of Summer Policy Institute, we’re excited to announce our inaugural Fall Policy Institute!
Join us for “Lunch and Learn” workshops happening between now and December and an in-person advocacy day at the State Capitol on December 7.
Workshop topics include:
You can register for any or all of the free virtual events here.
Nicholas County! Do you have questions about how federal funding changes will impact health care in your community?
Join the WVCBP for a community conversation where you can:
You can find details about date, time, and location for the two upcoming community conversations in Craigsville and Summersville in the flyers below. At each event, a presentation will be provided by WVCBP staff.
You can RSVP for the Craigsville event here and the Summersville event here.
For more info, please email our community engagement coordinator, Alex.
The WVCBP is excited to invite you to our annual Budget and Bites mixer and happy hour! Each year we gather to network, learn from each other, and share the Center’s analysis of the governor’s proposed budget.
It’s no secret that the state budget impacts every area of life. We want the West Virginia budget to work for West Virginians. We welcome you to join us and share in our vision for a more thriving Mountain State.
The event will be hosted at the WV School Service Personnel Association Conference Center on Wednesday, January 21, 2026 from 4:30-6:00pm.
At 5:00pm Kelly Allen, executive director, will introduce Sean O’Leary, senior policy analyst, who will provide a brief analysis of the governor’s proposed budget. Guests can enjoy an informal meet and greet with our team following the presentation. Appetizers and drinks will be provided.
You can purchase your ticket for the event here. Please note, RSVP is required.
Do you have questions about how recent federal funding changes will impact health care access and your community?
The WVCBP is here to help. We are offering to host community conversations for concerned community members to:
If you are interested, please fill out this form and we will be in contact with you about scheduling a community meeting near you!
