At his State of the State address last week, Governor Justice announced a proposal he called a “tsunami” to reduce the personal income tax by 50 percent. As we’ve previously highlighted, personal income tax cuts by nature overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest households. In this case, one out of every six dollars in tax cuts would go to the richest one percent of West Virginia households.[1] While wealthy households would see the majority of the tax benefits, every West Virginian would pay the price via a decimated state budget. Governor Justice’s plan costs $1.5 billion once fully phased in d ..read more

Governor Justice has once again touted the state’s so-called “surplus” as reason to pursue more tax cuts favoring the wealthy. But make no mistake, the state’s surplus isn’t a sign of uncharacteristically strong revenue growth, or a sign that the state’s needs are all being met. Instead, the surplus has been largely manufactured by artificially low revenue estimates, unexpectedly high energy prices, and a flat budget that is ignoring state needs. Further, there are indications that revenue growth is starting to slow, which should be a strong sign to any tax-cut-hungry lawmakers to pursue those ..read more

For Father’s Day this year, Terrick found himself having to choose between his children. Incarcerated at Mount Olive Correctional Complex in Fayette County, it had been three years since he last spent a Father’s Day in the presence of his children. Two years earlier in March 2020, Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in response to COVID-19, and in-person visits at West Virginia prisons abruptly came to an end. Just before Christmas 2020, two of Terrick’s daughters lost their mother to a car accident. Since then, he said, he’s been “trying to parent through a tablet” (on restrict ..read more

West Virginia’s Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) provides health care coverage to state and local government employees and their families, with total enrollment of about 75,000 active members. Providing adequate funding for PEIA has been an ongoing issue for the state, one that has only worsened in recent years. After four years of prioritizing flat budgets over state needs, crises have emerged across state programs and agencies due to underfunding – and PEIA is no exception. Repeated flat budgets have meant that the state budget cannot keep up with the impacts of inflation on state co ..read more

Once again, West Virginia’s budget “surplus” is being used to justify a push to reduce or eliminate the state’s personal income tax. However, the state’s current surplus isn’t a sign that West Virginia’s economy is uncharacteristically strong or that tax revenues are greater than is needed for the state budget; rather, it has been driven by a combination of temporarily high energy prices, artificially low revenue estimates, and years of “flat” budgets that have left state needs unaddressed. Majority of Surplus Due to Temporarily High Energy Prices Through the first five months of FY 2023, West ..read more

“I pay taxes, I follow all the rules. The law affects my life way more than the average person. There are a lot more stipulations that govern my life and I have no say.”[1] Taylor works at a West Virginia nonprofit and is serving a multi-year probation sentence. Under West Virginia law, she and others convicted of felony offenses are not eligible to vote until after they have completed their sentence or parole supervision. As a result, one out of every 100 West Virginians is disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. This second-class citizenship disproportionately impacts Black West Virginia ..read more

With early voting underway, West Virginians are beginning to weigh in on Amendment 2, the so-called Property Tax Modernization Amendment. If passed, Amendment 2 could undermine funding and services that voters have already chosen to prioritize via the passage of excess levies and bonds in their communities. If the tax exemptions in Amendment 2 are enacted, local governments statewide could see an estimated $205 million in revenue from excess and bond levies wiped out—undermining both the will of the voters and the programs and services those excess bonds and levies promised to provide. Excess ..read more

Open enrollment for 2023 Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace coverage begins today, November 1. The Marketplace has been a critical feature of our health care system since its introduction in 2014. It provides quality health coverage for families who are not eligible for employer-sponsored coverage, Medicare, or Medicaid. The ongoing public health emergency triggered by COVID-19 has made the program more important than ever. 2022 was a record-breaking year, with over 14.5 million people enrolling nationally—including over 23,000 West Virginians. The American Rescue Plan Act allowed several f ..read more

When economic times get tough and state revenues decline in West Virginia, higher education funding is often the first thing to be cut in the state budget. This is counterintuitive for a state looking to grow and diversify its economy. Investments in higher education lower tuition costs for students, reduce student debt origination, lead to more collegiate and post-collegiate attainment, and increase economic outcomes like credit score and home ownership. Still, over the past decade state general revenue funding for higher education has declined in both nominal dollars and as a share of the st ..read more

While it has been nearly two and a half years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, women have still yet to return to their pre-pandemic employment levels, down 900,000 jobs in June 2022 compared with February 2020. Over the same period, men have reached and now exceeded their pre-pandemic employment levels. Women also saw larger total job losses than men at the peak of the pandemic. While the deeper and longer-lasting job loss impacts of the pandemic on women are likely due to a number of factors – most importantly the disproportionate share of caregiving that women shoulder – there will li ..read more