The Cardinal's Nest

How Education Bills Fared During Legislative Session The 86th Session of the West Virginia State Legislature adjourned Sine Die at 11:49 pm EST  on March 11, 2023. This session was historic for a variety of reasons, especially… Read More

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 refo… Read More

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… Read More

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 i… Read More

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… Read More

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… Read More

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… Read More

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… Read More

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 pro… Read More

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… Read More