West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy

This week, Governor Justice announced a special session to be held at the end of September to override tax cut triggers enacted as part of the 2023 tax law and slash taxes by an additional $114 million. As we have previously highlighted, the proposal ignores realities and defies fiscal responsibility. While policymakers are still learning the full impact of recently enacted tax cuts, we already know they have contributed to deep revenue declines not seen in 25 years.

With slowing revenues, more tax cuts on the way, and a host of spending needs after years of austerity, lawmakers should reject the governor’s efforts and focus on the sustainability of programs that help families and businesses and grow our economy.

Learn more in our new blog post:

Income Tax Cuts Driving Historic Revenue Decline - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy This week, Governor Justice announced a special session to be held at the end of September to override tax cut triggers enacted as part of the 2023 tax law and slash taxes by an additional $114 million. As we highlighted recently, the proposal ignores realities and defies fiscal responsibility. Whil...

Despite all the unmet needs facing our communities, Governor Justice is demanding lawmakers come in for a special session at the end of the month to enact even more tax breaks benefiting mostly the wealthy.

Please take a moment to tell your lawmakers AND the Governor 'no thank you.'

West Virginia needs Care, not further cuts that erode our ability to invest in the things that communities and working families need.

Take action here:

Tell Your State Lawmakers West Virginia Needs Care Not Cuts! Already this year, communities across West Virginia have seen child care centers close, facilities supporting our disabled neighbors shutter their doors, schools experiencing teacher shortages, and multiple communities struggle to get prompt...

For over a decade, WVCBP has worked diligently to provide research and analysis to advance the well-being of West Virginia communities.
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West Virginia’s per capita state spending on child care lags behind all our neighboring states. This has contributed to low wages and high turnover in the child care industry, as well as making the state the 4th largest child care desert in the country.

Tax filing can be a costly and complicated process for families and small businesses. The reason the system is so complicated is because for years, paid tax preparation corporations have profited by charging families to fulfill their legal obligation to file taxes each year. These companies, including Intuit and H&R Block, have conducted massive lobbying efforts to protect their profits and keep the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from offering a free, public tax filing option for families. A free and easy option without a profit motive would simplify the process, eliminate filing fees, and ensure families successfully receive tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit which they are entitled to by law.

The good news is that this free and easy option is now available! For the first time in US history, the IRS has a free, simplified, public online tax filing tool: Direct File. In 2024, a Direct File pilot launched in 12 states and was so effective and popular that all US states have been invited to join the Direct File program. With more states announcing plans to opt in each month, West Virginia should follow suit. By adopting Direct File in West Virginia, state taxpayers—and by extension, the economy—will see over $100 million in annual benefits.

Despite these incredible potential benefits for West Virginia taxpayers, state leaders have thus far failed to start the process of adopting and integrating Free File for the 2025 tax season.

If you want to see West Virginia join the growing number of states participating in IRS Free File, contact Governor Justice at 304-558-2000 and tell him to join for the 2025 tax filing season. Experts urge that states must start the process right away to be on board for the next filing season.

Learn more in our new blog post:

West Virginia Should Adopt Free File for 2025 Tax Season - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy Tax filing can be a costly and complicated process for families and small businesses. The reason the system is so complicated is because for years, paid tax preparation corporations have profited by charging families to fulfill their legal obligation to file taxes each year. These companies, includi...

WVCBP researches and advances proactive policy to help everyone in West Virginia’s communities thrive.

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This , we want to shout out labor unions for fighting for rights for all workers! 📣

This week in Budget Beat:
- WV DCR Making Policies Publicly Available is Step in Right Direction, But More Accessibility Needed
- WVCBP 2023 Annual Report
- Black Policy Day Webinar Series
- Clarity Required on Child Care Funding
- Gov. Justice Seeking to Further Cut the Personal Income Tax, Doing So Fiscally Reckless
- Urge Governor Jim Justice to Fund Enrollment-based Reimbursements for Child Care Providers

Read the full newsletter:

WV DCR Making Policies Publicly Available is Step in Right Direction, But More Accessibility Needed - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy In April 2024, the WVCBP called on the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) to make their policies and procedures public. Like most government agencies, DCR has the authority to create its own policies and procedures. This administrative law covers every facet of an agency....

"According to data provided by both the pro-business West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the pro-labor West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy, the state was already facing a significant childcare shortage due to low reimbursement rates and staffing shortages. Both have called for making enrollment-based funding permanent and to consider increasing subsidies.

"Amy Jo Hutchison, the West Virginia campaign director for MomsRising, said the childcare issue goes beyond just workforce issues. Access to childcare means fewer reports of abuse and neglect for children, more support for foster children and support for parents in active substance use disorder recovery. Most importantly, Hutchison said childcare is the backbone of the working class."

Providers and advocates: More clarity needed on childcare subsidy funding CHARLESTON ­— Providers and advocates for childcare in West Virginia are pleased funding has been found to hold off a looming shortfall in childcare subsidy funding until the end of the year, but they’re not pleased with how this was communicated. Several childcare advocacy groups rallied Sunda...

Like most government agencies, WV DCR has the authority to create its own policies and procedures. This administrative law covers every facet of an agency that houses tens of thousands of people every year.

Until recently, none of DCR’s 200+ policies and procedures appeared on the DCR website – or any other website. The WVCBP and allies from the ACLU of West Virginia and Mountain State Justice used the Freedom of Information Act to request the 200+ policies that are supposed to govern West Virginia jails and prisons. In April 2024, the WVCBP published all the available policies to its own website with a call for DCR to follow suit.

It worked. In June 2024, DCR published the policies on its own website for the first time in its history. This was a step in the right direction, but DCR must do more, as those confined in DCR’s facilities cannot freely browse the internet and are therefore unable to access DCR’s policies webpage.

Fortunately, there is an easy fix. Every person incarcerated in West Virginia is supposed to receive a tablet. These tablets are a lifeline to the outside in numerous ways. However, they do not provide a copy of DCR’s policies and procedures.

Rules should not be hidden from the people to whom they are applied. We hope DCR does what is necessary and makes these policies and procedures available–for free–on tablets, with paper copies available to those without tablet access.

WV DCR Making Policies Publicly Available is Step in Right Direction, But More Accessibility Needed - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy In April 2024, the WVCBP called on the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) to make their policies and procedures public. Like most government agencies, DCR has the authority to create its own policies and procedures. This administrative law covers every facet of an agency....

"You may recall that the governor used those excess dollars to provide a cut to personal income taxes that disproportionately favored those like himself, the ultra wealthy. All along, those excess dollars could have been supporting social service agencies for salaries, staffing and care as well as myriad other collective efforts like, say, education..."

Big Jim’s numbers are not adding up Gov. Jim Justice, as he does, was acting like he did us all a big favor on Thursday when he announced that the state would increase funding for state programs

The past year was one of growth and change at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. We welcomed new staff, moved to a new office space, and ratified a refreshed mission and vision that better reflects our organizational evolution in recent years.

As we share our 2023 Annual Report, which includes more information about our efforts last year, a financial statement, and a list of recent funders, we also invite you to consider making a donation to the WVCBP to help us keep up our fight.

Your support allows us to continue working to advance public policies that increase opportunity and eliminate inequities through credible and accessible research and community-rooted advocacy. It allows us to make a difference in the lives of West Virginians too often left unconsidered by state policies, and we do not take it for granted.

You can access our full 2023 Annual Report here:https://wvpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/WVCBP-Annual-Report-2023.pdf

You can make a donation to the WVCBP online here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=FMN3TNPGGTXNS

If donating via check, please mail to: WV Center on Budget and Policy, 1610 Washington St. E., Suite 200, Charleston, WV 25311

On behalf of the staff and board of the WVCBP, our sincerest gratitude for your ongoing support!

"Even if lawmakers, set for a special session timed to coincide with interim meetings Aug. 25-27, passed both the governor’s child care tax credit and rescued the subsidy program, it is unlikely to be nearly enough to provide West Virginians the child care help they really need, according to a new analysis and position paper from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

"Across the state, there are over 60,000 children under the age of six with working parents, but only 39,000 licensed child care slots available. That leaves an estimated 20,000 children, who may be in need of care, without it.

"Millions of dollars more in various types of state assistance are needed, for families and for child care providers, to ensure West Virginia workers can contribute to the state economy while their kids are taken care of during the work day, according to the center’s report."

"As the special session approaches, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy last week published a new paper outlining holes in the state’s child care system and advocating for more funding assistance.

"The group recommends that the state either provide additional subsidies, raise reimbursement rates, or allocate more funds toward enrollment-based reimbursements. The three suggestions together would amount to an up to $100 million investment by the state."

Thousands of West Virginia families could lose child care access as a key deadline approaches Gov. Jim Justice wants child tax credits. A subsidy program needs funding. But experts say neither will solve West Virginia’s child care crisis.

"The West Virginia Center On Budget and Policy has urged caution on further tax cuts, saying the personal income tax is the state’s largest source of revenue and that years of flat budgets have meant education and childcare needs have gone unmet."

West Virginia's personal income tax to drop by 4% next year, Gov. Justice says West Virginians will see their personal income taxes drop by 4% in the new year. Gov. Jim Justice announced Thursday that state revenues had met the threshold to trigger the reduction.

"According to a report from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, in 2013, West Virginia confined youth at a rate of 510 per 100,000, and Black kids were nearly three times more likely to be confined than white kids.

"Between 2006 and 2011, the lawsuit states, West Virginia’s rate of youth incarceration increased 5%, despite a national drop of 35%."

NAACP files lawsuit against WV agencies, alleges failure to collect data • West Virginia Watch The NAACP has filed a lawsuit against three state departments, alleging they failed to collect data to improve the juvenile justice system.

This week in Budget Beat:
- Solving Child Care Requires Strong Public Investment
- Calls For More Tax Cuts Conflict With Slowing Revenues, Growing Unmet Needs
- Hope Scholarship Expansion Will Harm Public School System
- Formerly Incarcerated People Can Help Fill Workforce Gaps
- Urge Governor Jim Justice to Fund Enrollment-based Reimbursements for Child Care Providers

Read the full newsletter:

Solving Child Care Requires Strong Public Investment - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy In recent years, much attention in West Virginia and around the country has focused on the need for quality, affordable care for families with young children. As advocates have long emphasized, child care (and care work more broadly) makes all other work possible. As such, public investments in chil...

In recent years, much attention in West Virginia and around the country has focused on the need for quality, affordable care for families with young children. As advocates have long emphasized, child care (and care work more broadly) makes all other work possible.

The United States has long underinvested in its child care system compared to other affluent countries; however, pandemic-era federal dollars helped stabilize the industry by providing additional funding that families used to help afford the cost of care and child care centers used to increase worker wages and benefits and improve facilities. As these federal dollars expire, West Virginia faces a child care cliff, with centers closing and families at risk of losing their child care subsidies if the state does not increase its investment. Broadly, policymakers agree that child care provides economic and child development benefits but have not been able to get additional funding across the finish line.

One question that repeatedly arises is why the free market hasn’t “solved” the child care crisis. Our new issue brief dives into the child care landscape in West Virginia, as well as the market failures and challenges that impact the industry:

Solving Child Care Requires Strong Public Investment - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy Overview In recent years, much attention in West Virginia and around the country has focused on the need for quality, affordable care for families with young children. As advocates have long emphasized, child care (and care work more broadly) makes all other work possible. As such, public investment...

West Virginia lawmakers are under pressure from Governor Justice to override the tax cut triggering mechanism created as part of the 2023 state income tax law and enact additional tax cuts. But state revenue and budget pressures-including slowing revenues, costly enacted legislation, and a myriad of unmet needs-come into direct conflict with rushing to push through more tax cuts that mostly benefit the state’s wealthiest households.

Continuing to chip away at the personal income tax would naturally make the state budget more reliant on regressive, declining, and volatile sources of revenue.

Learn more about why the proposed additional income tax cuts should be rejected in our new blog post:

Calls For More Tax Cuts Conflict With Slowing Revenues, Growing Unmet Needs - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy West Virginia lawmakers are under pressure from Governor Justice to override the tax cut triggering mechanism created as part of the 2023 state income tax law and enact additional cuts on his way out the door. But state revenue and budget pressures, including slowing revenues, costly enacted legisla...

"Kelly Allen of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy argues that the Hope Scholarship draws funding away from public schools, only aids a small subset of West Virginians, and has questionable education outcomes.

"'Voucher programs like the Hope Scholarship don’t lead to better educational outcomes for the students who participate,' Allen said. 'They go to families who are already in private school or who could already afford the cost of private school, and they really have a cost on our public schools where more than 90% of West Virginia students receive their education.'

"A brief written by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, however, raises concerns about the educational outcome of students under the Hope Scholarship. The brief says that students who have enrolled in similar programs to the Hope Scholarship in other states perform worse than students in public school. The brief criticizes that money from the Hope Scholarship can wind up in unaccredited schools as $1.7 million has so far."

https://www.wboy.com/news/west-virginia/west-virginia-politics/hope-scholarship-set-to-reshape-west-virginia-education/

Read our full brief detailing how the Hope Scholarship reduces resources for West Virginia public schools while lacking necessary oversight here here:https://wvpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/hope-scholarship-brief.pdf

Hope Scholarship set to reshape West Virginia education With millions of dollars on the line as well as the future landscape of West Virginia education, the Hope Scholarship is likely to continue to be the subject of debate.

"According to estimates, we're looking at an additional $200 million per year to extend the Hope Scholarship to families with children already in private school and who could already afford private school," executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy Kelly Allen said. "We've seen all over the country these programs largely do benefit higher income families who would've already chosen private school."

Allen also noted an income tax cut coupled with more spending on the Hope Scholarship might impact the public school system as it grapples with the loss of COVID funding and population decline.

"We see a lot of the same people who are advocating for expansion of the Hope Scholarship who are also advocating for eliminating or reducing the income tax further, which is our biggest source of public school funding in our state budget. I think there are really important questions to be answered as to how we can cut state revenues and drastically expand this program at the same time."

West Virginia Hope Scholarship expanding to more students in 2026-2027 school year Jessica Keyes is the mom of a seven-year-old boy who attends school in Mason County, but she says he will not be returning this school year."The decision came

It's August and we expect and hope that the Governor will call a special session. We need to remind him about priorities that matter to West Virginia families. Accessible, affordable and high quality childcare is a necessity for our families and workforce.

Call the Governor's office at 304.558.2000 and ask him to prioritize funding for Child CARE not Tax CUTS in the upcoming special session.
West Virginia Association for Young Children

This week, the US Senate will vote on the House-passed Child Tax Credit bill, which would benefit 16 million kids nationwide and lift about 500,000 children above the poverty line. We urge Senator Shelley Moore Capito and Senator Joe Manchin III to support this critical legislation which would expand the CTC to an additional 87,000 kids in West Virginia.

Learn more about how the CTC expansion would benefit low-income children here:

About 16 Million Children in Low-Income Families Would Gain in First Year of Bipartisan Child Tax Credit Expansion | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Half a million or more children would be lifted above the poverty line when the proposal is fully in effect in 2025.

ICMYI: More evidence that broad voucher programs like the Hope Scholarship are reducing resources for public schools, diverting taxpayer dollars to unaccountable and discriminatory private schools, and primarily benefiting wealthy families.

Read more:
https://cnn.it/4daeAOv

ICYMI: Black students in West Virginia are disproportionately impacted by punitive school disciplinary policies. Recent efforts to increase discipline would exacerbate those disparities while failing to address the root causes of issues facing students.

Learn more in our fact sheet here:

Education vs. Exclusion: A Closer Look at Discipline in West Virginia Schools - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy Overview West Virginia lawmakers have considered sweeping, punitive school discipline measures over the last two years in response to an increase in disruptive student behaviors. This issue is not unique to West Virginia—87 percent of public schools nationwide report that the pandemic has negative...

The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy utilizes research and advocacy to envision a more equitable, prosperous future for all in our state.

To continue this work, we rely on community support.

Donate to help us build a West Virginia where everyone can thrive. 👇

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The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy conducts research and analysis that serves West Virginia communities.

Our goal? Advancing proactive policy that helps everyone thrive.

Sign up for our Budget Beat newsletter and stay informed about everything we’re doing: https://wvpolicy.org/newsletter/

This week in Budget Beat:
- Education vs. Exclusion: A Closer Look at Discipline in WV Schools
- WV Matches Up Well With Neighbors on Tax Rates, Falls Short on Funding Schools and Child Care
- WV's Child Abuse and Neglect Referral System Undergoing Change
- Gov. Justice Pushing for Further Income Tax Cuts, Fiscal Impact Would Harm the State
- Lack of Affordable and Accessible Child Care Must be Addressed
- Urge Governor Jim Justice to Fund Enrollment-based Reimbursements for Child Care Providers

Read the full newsletter:

Education vs. Exclusion: A Closer Look at Discipline in West Virginia Schools - West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy West Virginia lawmakers have considered sweeping, punitive school discipline measures over the last two years in response to an increase in disruptive student behaviors. This issue is not unique to West Virginia—87 percent of public schools nationwide report that the pandemic has negatively impact...

The WVCBP is hosting a webinar tomorrow at 12pm that will bring together health experts, community leaders, and families to discuss the disparities in Black infant and maternal health outcomes in the Mountain State.

We invite you to be part of this important conversation as we seek solutions and support. You can register for free here: tinyurl.com/immh24

West Virginia’s personal income tax brings in over $2 billion per year— roughly our entire K-12 public education budget. Eliminating the tax, as some leaders want to do, would have a devastating impact on our schools and other public programs, undermining the economic growth lawmakers want to achieve.

Learn more:
https://bit.ly/3ygbxoY