West Virginia Employment Is Languishing Our unemployment rate of 4.9% is going down, but it’s still higher than our Appalachian neighbors. Our labor force participation rate is growing, but it’s still the lowest in the nation. While we’ve put in the hard work to achieve education reform and tax reform, there’s more we can do…

Keep Your Paycheck Every year, shortly after January 1st, you go into work. After a week or two, you receive that year’s first paycheck. Much to your dismay, the list of taxes begin to pile up: federal, state, payroll. Each eating away at the money you earned. Each eating away at the things you’d otherwise…

What is a certificate of need? Certificate of Need (CON) laws are regulatory impediments instituted in thirty-five states requiring many health care providers to receive authorization from the state's health regulatory board in order to open a new, or expand, an existing health facility. CON is unlike some health regulations which ensure facilities meet quality…

West Virginia Tax Plan Includes Elimination of the Marriage Penalty The new income tax cut plan unveiled and then quickly passed by the West Virginia State Senate involves a number of changes to the state’s tax code. One change that was highly touted in the senate press conference was addressing what’s known as the “marriage…

West Virginia Should Reinstate the Standard Deduction Did you know that West Virginia’s tax filings don’t have a standard deduction? Reinstating it as part of West Virginia’s income taxes could be a step in the right direction to provide for smart, simplified tax policy for Mountaineers. What is the standard deduction? A standard deduction is…

Keep the Receipt for Tax Rebates Ballot Measures Defeated in West Virginia On November 8, 2022, West Virginia’s voters headed to the ballot to vote. Before them were many voting options, not only on many of the state’s elected leaders, but, in unusual fashion for West Virginia, on several ballot initiatives. These initiatives covered everything…

Top Five Education Bills to Watch in the 2023 West Virginia Legislative Session The 86th Session of the West Virginia Legislature convened on January 11, 2023. At the time of writing this blog post, 1,875 bills have been introduced this session. From these, there are five pieces of legislation that deal with K-12 education I…

Possible SALT Deduction Workaround A new state income tax workaround may find itself welcome in the Mountain State during the 2023 Legislative Session. This new workaround would bypass the $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions at the federal level. The cap on SALT deductions are a provision implemented by the 2017 Tax…

Interviewing OpenAI’s ChatGPT About Certificate of Need Laws Technology is growing incredibly fast, so I wanted to see what AI thinks of current health care regulations. I recently sat down with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and was briefly able to discuss Certificate of Need (CON) laws with it. Here is how that discussion went:   Interview: What…

The Legislature has approved the Hope Scholarship Rules, so what? Since the West Virginia Supreme Court lifted the injunction in October, the Hope Scholarship program has been moving ahead with implementation. One of the most crucial elements of implementation has been the establishment of the program’s rules through the rulemaking process outlined in West Virginia…