In these Halloween Haunts, we share some frightening government waste of  taxpayer money that is truly scarier than any horror film!    The Untrackable $200 million Asset   State lawmakers finally created a centralized state vehicle inventory system in 2018 to help track as many as 12,000 government vehicles. With a 2018 estimated population of…

In these Halloween Haunts, we share some frightening government waste of  taxpayer money that is truly scarier than any horror film!    Superintendent’s Five-Finger Discount Yields Felony Charges A former superintendent and curriculum director for Logan County Public Schools, was charged with two counts of wire fraud, two counts of theft from a federal fund-receiving…

In these Halloween Haunts, we share some frightening government waste of taxpayer money that is truly scarier than any horror film!    Health and Human Resources Wastes $1 Million on Phantom Leases   The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) wasted nearly $1 million in taxpayer money between 2015 and 2018 by…

Is it time to relocate Washington, D.C.? Well, not in a literal geographical sense – that would be a feat that would make even Marvel supervillain, Ultron, blush. (Look up the plot for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.) More realistically, what about relocating the litany of federal agencies that currently sit in our nation’s capital?…

Government regulation of most industries is taken for granted. However, there are many fields where the free market could do a better job regulating quality and protecting consumers than the existing government apparatus. Government-imposed occupational licensing is often a burdensome requirement on people looking to get back to work, enter a new career field, or…

We interact with prices every day.   But, what is a price? What do these prices mean? What information do prices convey?   Take a moment to think about it.   If you’re like me - most of the time, those interactions take the form of their sum ballooning wildly out of control and rapidly…

Along with its partner, the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation at Saint Francis University, the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy released the final results from its study on the occupational licensing regime in West Virginia this week. In the study, we looked at West Virginia’s occupational licensing burdens compared to its…

More money, subsidies, and government – oh my! Earlier this month, Democratic Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg released his plan for rural economic development. And, as readers of this blog might expect, his plan is nothing new under the sun. Buttigieg calls for paid family leave, additional farming subsidies, and increased salaries for teachers, among other…

In debates about how to entice people to move to West Virginia’s respective cities, the claim is often made that we need to invest in more green spaces, more parks, more arts, and the like. It’s true, people enjoy these amenities. But these alone are not what draw people to the cities and towns where…

On a daily basis (seriously, it’s seven days a week), I have an inner discourse that orbits around some versions of the following questions: What should Cardinal be doing? What are we doing well? What can we do better? How can Cardinal become more effective by reaching more people? What does Cardinal’s next evolution look…