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Economy
Income Taxes, Kansas, and the Mountain State
State legislators are considering the elimination of the personal income tax in the upcoming Spring session. These discussions have sparked a conversation about taxation and why it is essential to a government’s functioning. Opponents to abolishing the income tax claim that West Virgini… Read More
More Contracts, More Problems
Some things in life simply require a second serving. Ice cream, Netflix episodes, and French fries all aren’t the same without just a little bit more. Unfortunately, our gluttonous state government has gone in for seconds- on an expensive and complex technology contract. As reported by Metro News, G… Read More
Staggers Rail Act 40th Anniversary
Though hard to believe, West Virginia has some interesting history when it comes to paradigm-shifting deregulatory acts. 40 years ago, on October 14, 1980, the Staggers Rail Act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter – freeing up the freight market from onerous regulation. Representing West V… Read More
The 95 Theses of Education
Education, as you likely know if you are reading this, is an important policy area for the Cardinal Institute. For this reason, like Alice, we can often find ourselves going down a rabbit hole while conducting research on the topic, and on the rare occasion, we find a shiny, beautiful… Read More
Border County Blues: Why Mountaineers are worse off than those across the state line
Some state vs state differences just make sense: Louisiana has more gator attacks than Texas, Florida gets more tourism than Alabama, and Maine catches more lobsters than Minnesota. One that makes no sense can be found at the edges of the great state of West Virginia. According to the bureau… Read More
Back to School
Schools reopened across the Mountain State this Tuesday, but despite additional measures taken by many schools to remain safe, nine counties were prohibited from conducting in-person classes this week. The West Virginia School Re-entry Metrics and Protocol Program, a color-coded map used to track co… Read More
What Could Have Been. . .
Teachers, parents, students, and everyone in between are gearing up for some kind of start to the 2020-21 school year. There’s no denying that uncertainty is the prevailing theme this school year. Will the year start in person or virtually? Can the spread of the coronavirus be contained? What… Read More
Instead of Forcing Schools to Reopen, Give Families Their Education Dollars
One of the most contentious debates currently raging across the country is whether schools should reopen in the Fall. The hashtag #schoolsreopening is even trending on Twitter! Everyone has an opinion about it, and every state and school district is coming up with a different plan on how to… Read More
Musings on the Costs and Benefits of Masks
Discussions about masks are all practically impossible to avoid these days. Although, perhaps, “discussion” is too generous a term for the level of conversation that seems to take place most often. Instead, in my experience, it has a tendency to devolve into a snarky exchange of quips amounting to l… Read More
Policy Ideas for a Post-Pandemic World
Many of our individual lives have changed in some way or another due to the coronavirus. Similarly, lawmakers have a wide range of public policy options worthy of consideration as they are tasked with facilitating smooth transitions into post-coronavirus life and recovery of the localities and econo… Read More