Just a month into peak flu season, the CDC has already declared a national epidemic due to the flu's widespread activity and the deadly nature of this year's virus. West Virginia is no exception. The outbreak is considered widespread across our state, as you can see from the the map below. While preventing the spread of the…
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Earlier, I showed how it's nearly impossible for the prevailing wage to add 25% to the cost of public construction projects, like opponents to the law claim, even if you assume that the prevailing wage is nearly 50% higher than average wages in the construction sector. But let's take a closer look at that 50% claim.…
Yesterday, Governor Tomblin announced that the business franchise tax will be fully eliminated beginning tomorrow (Jan 1). While the governor says the elimination of the business franchise tax and the reduction in the corporate net income tax has helped to "secure additional investments" and that the state has benefited from these changes, there is no…
As Ted pointed out after the election, changes to West Virginia's prevailing wage law are likely going to be one of the priorities of the legislature's new Republican majority. New Senate President Bill Cole was a lead sponsor of a bill to repeal the state's prevailing wage law, and the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce is…
As the legislature considers repealing the state's prevailing wage for public construction projects, it is important to recognize that it could further depress wages. This is especially true for male workers, who typically hold over 90 percent of construction jobs. Since the late 1970s, male hourly wages have declined by more than $3 in West…
In the last post, we looked at how West Virginia - especially southern West Virginia - is being out-competed by other coal regions because of the decline in coal mining productivity that makes it cheaper to produce coal in places like Illinois and Wyoming. Not only do West Virginia coal producers face stiff competition from…
Last week, to many people's surprise, West Virginia's legislature flipped from blue to red with the GOP picking up 18 seats in the House of Delegates and eight seats in the State Senate. It appears that Mercer County State Senator and car dealership owner Bill Cole will become the new Senate President and that current…
Earlier this week, the state's monthly revenue report was released, which keeps track of the various taxes that make up the state's General Revenue Fund. For October, the General Revenue Fund was up $5 million over the estimate, a pretty good month. This was largely due to severance taxes, which came in at $38.1 million…
In the last post, I looked at the rapid decline in coal mining productivity in West Virginia. This post will show how the decline in productivity has played out over the last few years and how it is has resulted in West Virginia losing coal market share with other coal producing regions. #3 West Virginia…
The 2015 edition of the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index came out earlier this week. West Virginia ranked 21st this year, showing improvement improvement over the past several years. And while some in the state put a lot of stock in our rank, we should know by now that the index is nothing more than a…