Big stakes for schools riding on November ballot

 Those of us of a certain age who remember a certain debacle in the Middle East, might also remember when then secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld said in a justification for the war on Iraq:

“As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

I was reminded of this famous “known unknowns” soundbite recently after hearing the concerns raised by the Raleigh County commission regarding Amendment 2, the property tax amendment that the state legislature voted to put on the ballot in the upcoming November election.

A county commissioner said that “the unknowns are what scares everybody,” and because of this uncertainty, Raleigh County is among fifteen county commissions to date that publicly oppose Amendment 2. 

The commissioner is spot on, there are many scary unknowns as to how counties could make up for the potential loss of $515 million in revenue if Amendment 2 passes muster with West Virginia voters.  

There are also some known knowns, the first of which is who is behind this effort to strip local county governments of the power to set business and manufacturing property tax rates, and give that authority over to the state legislature.  Just follow the money.  

Of the estimated $515 million in revenue generated by these taxes for the counties, over seventy per cent is paid for by large businesses, the majority of which are wealthy, out-of-state corporations who want nothing more than another tax break.  

To be sure, these moneyed interests have been lobbying our legislature for years to eliminate this tax.  Putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot is their latest attempt.  

Another known known is who stands to lose if Amendment 2 were to pass, and the list is long. Nearly all of these business property taxes fund local services including public schools, libraries, EMTs, firefighters, among many other public goods and services.  Amendment 2 would permanently eliminate local control over one of the biggest funding sources for these critical public services.   

And lest we forget that it’s these public services that businesses one way or another rely on, to educate future employees, keep their employees and their families safe in emergencies, and create a thriving community where businesses would want to locate. 

In the “known unknown” category is what will future legislators do.  A common defense of Amendment 2 is that it doesn’t mean the legislature will cut these business and manufacturing taxes, it simply means they can.  

But the truth is that current politicians cannot say that future legislatures will ensure counties have adequate revenue.  Because of the inherent unpredictability of power at the state legislature, assurances made for revenue replacement can be nothing more than empty promises. 

Speaking of promises, after Labor Day West Virginians will be inundated with fancy ads on TV, in print, and on the radio tying a vote for Amendment 2 to a break on their car tax.  Gee I wonder who will be paying for all that expensive advertising.    

Fortunately a known known is that West Virginians have a keen eye for a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  The sheep will be the “car tax promise” and the wolf is a $515 million power grab away from local governments.  As the saying goes, remember in November! 

(This op-ed was published in the Charleston Gazette Mail by my co-worker Lida Shepherd.)

Good news on health care

 It’s not obvious from the title, but the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the biggest federal health care legislation in a dozen years, one that will directly benefit over one in four West Virginians.

For starters, the law permanently extends the Black Lung Excise Tax, which provides benefits for over 4,400 West Virginia families impacted by that terrible disease caused by breathing coal dust. Nationwide nearly 26,000 families will benefit, including over 18,000 primary beneficiaries and around 7,000 dependents. According to the Brookings Institution, Black Lung is most prevalent in central Appalachia, with 20.6 percent of miners affected. 

In the late 1960s, a historic grassroots movement spearheaded by West Virginia coal miners and supporters brought the issue to national attention and won federal legislation to establish the benefit, although its funding was in jeopardy in recent years until the bill was passed.

The IRA also extends Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace subsidies for three years for people who purchase insurance plans on the exchange, which will help around 23,000 West Virginians and over 14 million people nationwide.  

People who buy care through the ACA marketplace have traditionally been the hardest group to find health care since they aren’t covered by employer-based insurance and don’t qualify for public programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Tri-Care, or VA benefits. Thanks largely to ACA subsidies and Medicaid expansion, the number of uninsured Americans reached an all time low of eight percent this summer: still too high but a big improvement.

The biggest impact of the bill will be on people receiving Medicare, which covers over 440,000 West Virginians and around 64 million Americans, although these changes will be rolled out over time. 

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2023 insulin will be capped at $35 a month on the Medicare Part D prescription drug program; drug companies have to offer rebates if prices increase above inflation; and cost sharing for adult vaccines under Part D and Medicaid will be eliminated.

The Medicare diabetes cap is a big deal, although a ruling by the senate parliamentarian blocked its application to private insurance. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, which supported several IRA medical provisions, “More than 37 million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated one-quarter of people with diabetes in the United States ration their insulin due to costs. In 2021, U.S. diabetes deaths exceeded 100,000 for the second consecutive year.” The WV Department of Health and Human Resources estimates that 240,626 West Virginians have that disease with undiagnosed cases 65,210.

In 2024, the IRA caps Medicare premium increases to six percent a year through 2030; eliminates a part D co-pay for catastrophic coverage; and expands eligibility for the low-income Part D subsidy to 150 percent of the federal poverty level. In 2025, it caps drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000 per year. And between 2026 and 2029, it will negotiate costs for an increasing number of expensive medicines each year.

While health care is only part of the IRA, which also addresses climate change and tax fairness, those are significant steps in the right direction and Senator Manchin was instrumental in sealing the deal. Of course, no legislation is perfect. Lots of West Virginians, myself included, worked hard on what would become the IRA for the last year or so. We didn’t get all we wanted and got some of what we didn’t, but there are still things to celebrate.

(This ran as an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette Mail last week.)