Why WV needs immigrants

For pretty much every year since 2008, I've worked with the WV Center on Budget and Policy on a report called The State of Working West Virginia. Each year, there's a different focus. This time around the spotlight was on the state of West Virginia's immigrant population, which is tiny in comparison to most states but contributes greatly to our economy and culture.

We released the report last week as part of an event launching Many Roads Home, a new social media effort that highlights the stories and contributions of the state's immigrants.

We have a working agreement on the division of labor for these projects: the folks from the policy center, such as this year's co-author Sean O'Leary, do the hard parts with numbers and graphs. I do the easy parts.

It was pretty easy to point out why WV needs immigrants. Here's an excerpt with the punch line:

In 1950, the US population was over 1,50 million. West Virginia’s population that year reached its all-time high of slightly over 2 million.

Fast forward to 2019. The US population has more than doubled from the 1950 level to over 329 million. West Virginia’s population has declined by around 200,000 over the same period. A 2002 analysis by the West Virginia Health Statistics Center found that, if nobody had either moved into, nor out of, West Virginia for the 50 years between 1950 and 2000, the normal rate of population increase would have resulted in a state with 2,605,345 residents. That number would have been much higher today. 

The state and its communities are facing some serious demographic problems:

*West Virginia is among the oldest states in terms of median age.

*It has the lowest workforce participation rate, which hovers around 50 percent of its eligible population. The national average is around 63 percent.

*As of Dec. 2017, 73,879 West Virginians of all ages received Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) for a disability.

*By 2018, 26.3 percent of West Virginians, or 475,744 individuals, received Social Security or Social Security Disability Insurance.

*Between 2010 and 2018, there were 19,000 more deaths than births.

*According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, West Virginia has the highest age adjusted death rate from opioid overdoses.

*Between July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018, the state lost 11,216 people, a rate of over 30 people per day.

*Public school enrollment declined by 4,122 students in the last year.

These trends indicate a serious downward spiral. If not reversed, they could spell a more or less slow death to West Virginia’s communities. To thrive—or even to survive—West Virginia needs to be, and be seen as, a welcoming place for new arrivals from around the world. West Virginians have done this before under tough conditions in the days of industrialization, bridging differences and forging bonds of solidarity in ways that enriched our culture and contributed to the world at large. We need to build on that tradition.

All that matters

Christian charity keeps me from referring to the big business friendly Tax Foundation as a racket for the rich. So I won't. But it kind of is. The group rates states on their "tax climate" (translation: good for a few) as if that was a measure of well-being.

Today, conservative commentator Hoppy Kercheval celebrated West Virginia's improved ranking of 19, ahead of our surrounding states. Most of the "improvement" in ranking comes from tax cuts initiated 10 years ago and phased in over time.

My friend Sean O'Leary at the WV Center on Budget and Policy summed it all up in a great tweet:

And all it cost us was an ongoing budget crisis, credit downgrades, a depleted rainy day fund, and major cuts to higher education.

Oh yeah, and we have fewer jobs now than then. And we've lost population. And things have gone so dark that we lead the nation in drug overdose deaths. And schools are laying off teachers and support staff. And we cut taxes by more than enough to pay free in-state tuition and fees to all WV students in a state that desperately needs to raise its educational attainment rates.

But, hey, the Tax Foundation is happy. That's all that matters, right?

More work to do

In recent years, WV has made progress in juvenile justice reform. We've take a few steps away from locking up kids at $100,000 or more per year for truancy...but there's still more to go. The missing piece is the mental health angle.

We as in AFSC  and the WV Center on Budget and Policy recently released a report on where things are and where we need to go. Here's a link to the full report.

And here's a summary of the key findings. We hope to work with folks in the coming year to move things along:



Every year in West Virginia, around 4,000 juveniles will appear before a judge. Pending the judge’s decision, a juvenile may be given an improvement period to address the behavior, put on probation, referred to a special court, or committed to some form of out-of-home placement. However, the state’s juvenile justice system can be confusing and data is often difficult or impossible to obtain.

This report provides an overview of West Virginia’s juvenile justice system, including historical background, recent reforms, and recommendations for improvements. It also suggests looking at the system through a mental health lens could lead to more constructive solutions and positive outcomes for the state’s youth offenders.

“When West Virginia confines a young person for a minor, non-violent offense, too often it puts him or her at risk of being drawn more deeply into the criminal justice system,” said Sean O’Leary, West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy Interim Executive Director. “While the state has recently embarked on the path of juvenile justice reform, there is still more work to be done. A greater focus on juvenile mental health would help West Virginia build on its recent progress.”

Key Findings

*West Virginia bucks the national trend with its high confinement rates. It was one of only five states where the rate of detention increased, despite a drop in both crime and population.

*In 2013, West Virginia confined juveniles at a rate of 510 per 10,000. By contrast, Massachusetts, with nearly four times the population of West Virginia, had just 393 youth in confinement.

*African American youth were nearly three times as likely to be confined as their white counterparts. West Virginia’s youth confinement rate for African Americans was 1.5 times higher than the national average.

*West Virginia was second only to Wyoming to confining young females. With a rate of 175 per 100,000, the Mountain State far exceeded the national rate of 47.

*Incarceration or other forms of detainment early in life are a major life disruption in the ordinary life course, which can have ripple effects into the future. Prior incarceration was a greater predictor of recidivism than carrying a weapon, gang membership, or poor parental relationships.

*In 2013, only one out of every eight committed youth in West Virginia was locked up based on a violent crime, such as homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, or sexual assault.

*Community-based programs were more cost-efficient and effective with recidivism rates than DJS facilities.

*In 2014, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin convened the West Virginia Intergovernmental Task Force on Juvenile Justice, which brought together legislative and judicial leaders as well as system experts to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the state’s system and to produce policy recommendations.
West Virginia’s juvenile justice system has made real progress, however, it continues to face significant problems, particularly in the area of juvenile mental health.

*Looking at the system through a mental health lens could lead to more constructive solutions and positive outcomes for youth offenders. Some next steps include: creating a task force to address juvenile mental health; build the infrastructure to help public schools address mental health issues before a student is suspended or sent to court; and a long-term goal should to build an infrastructure which would ensure that students in danger of entering the system are assessed and referred to appropriate community-based programs whenever possible and appropriate.

West Virginia’s communities, families, and youth will benefit if the only young people who are confined or detained in out-of-home facilities are those who constitute a threat to the public or themselves.

Bare bones

Well, West Virginia finally has a state budget, assuming the governor doesn't veto it, which I doubt will happen. It's pretty bare bones.

Most disturbing is the $16 million cut in higher education in a state that desperately needs to raise its educational attainment level, which will raise costs for students. After spending half a mill on the special session.

Here are some facts about higher ed and the state budget from the WV Center on Budget and Policy:

*Average tuition at West Virginia’s public colleges and universities has increased by $4,200 since 2002, a 147 percent increase, and far outpacing inflation.

*Tuition increases, in large part, have been fueled by falling public support for higher education. Since 2008, state spending in higher education has declined by $130 million, adjusting for inflation.

*As tuitions have increased, so has student debt. The average debt of a college graduate in West Virginia has increased by 70 percent since 2005. West Virginia also has the second highest student loan default rate in the country.

*Tuition increases have eroded the value of the state’s financial aid programs. The share of tuition covered by the PROMISE scholarship has fallen from 100 percent to 70 percent.

This was the second year in a row the state skated to the edge of a government shutdown. Back in what I didn't realize were the good old days, the legislative session was 60 days with maybe a  mostly drama-free week right after to nail down the budget. I'm hoping this doesn't turn into Groundhog Day.

On the bright side, the budget doesn't include tax changes that would make the bottom 80 percent pay more while giving a big break to the wealthy, a measure that would have also cost the state hundreds of millions in lost revenue in future years. One bad year is betting than signing up for a bunch of them.

Here are two views on the budget process by two veteran reporters, Phil Kabler from the Gazette-Mail and Brad McElhenny from WV Metro-News.

A taxing question

The latest Front Porch program/podcast is about the proposal by the majority in the WV senate to replace the state's relatively progressive income tax with a regressive consumption tax. It's no surprise that I'm against it, for reasons mentioned on the podcast. I was pleased to learn, however, that my conservative counterpart on the program doesn't think it's a great idea either. You can get down in the weeds here.

Meanwhile, if you haven't already, click on Protect WV and sign up for alerts on the state's ongoing budget battles. Drastic cuts would adversely impact the quality of life for all West Virginians. We're talking jobs, roads, education and school services, higher ed, vocational training and workforce development, programs for kids and seniors, state parks, natural resources, and all the rest.

 Here's the action page. And, while we're at it, here's a budget calculator where you can come up with your own solution to balance the state budget.

This tax and budget stuff is a huge issue and one that could have as significant impact on our state as actions at the federal level.

A problem we don't need

Bo is all about health care.

According to the business website WalletHub, WV will be one of the states most impacted by the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Not in a good way. Lots of people, including the participants in this press conference yesterday (which my dog attended), are speaking up about the issue and urging that the ACA not be repealed without a replacement that does no harm to the millions who benefit from the law-including around 225,000 West Virginians.

For more on the adverse impact of ACA repeal on WV's people and economy, check out this new and detailed report from the WV Center on Budget and Policy. And howl about it. This is a problem we really don't need right now.

An idea that makes sense

Like it or not, natural gas production has taken off in WV over the last few years. The question now is, are we going to get anything out of it? My pals at the WV Center on Budget and Policy have an interesting idea: increase severance taxes on the production of natural gas liquids BUT create credits for companies that use the product for manufacturing purposes in West Virginia. You can read more here.

PREDICTABLY SAD: WV's congressional leaders on Pope Francis and climate change.

What's next?

As you may know, West Virginia went through a bit of a political earthquake recently. Here's one take on what may happen from my friend Ted Boettner, aka Debbie Downer, at the WV Center on Budget and Policy. The good news is that it looks like Medicaid expansion may be relatively safe here, for the time being anyway.