No rollbacks on child labor

  

(This column by Lida Shepherd was published today in the Charleston Gazette-Mail)

Welch, WV, September 1908 

A quick peak into the National Archives you can find photographs by Lewis Hine when he was hired by the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) in the early 1900s to take photos of children working.  Hine’s photos were a part of a national campaign at the time to advance laws regulating child labor, which eventually paved the way for labor laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act.  

Prior to FLSA, injuries and deaths of children were common.  Many of the children photographed by Hine were working to help support their families living in extreme poverty.  Some of these young kids in the photos worked in places like coal mines in Welch and the glass factory in Grafton.

A 1920 NCLC poster features Hine’s photos and reads: “Work that Deadens: These Children Are Working so that Their Employer May Make Money.” 

The famed labor rights attorney Clarence Darrow said, “History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history.”  To his point, the West Virginia legislature has been advancing House Bill 4005 which would weaken child labor laws that many fought so hard over a century ago to enact.   

HB 4005 would eliminate state rules that enumerate which jobs are too dangerous for minors.  Under current state law industries cannot employ children under 18 in jobs like ore reduction works, logging and saw milling occupations, occupations involving exposure to radioactive substances, power-driven hoisting apparatus occupations, and mining, to name a few.   The bill would also remove requirements for direct supervision when children work with hazardous machinery.

Proponents for legislation to roll back longstanding state-level child labor protections say that this is to better align with federal standards.   As the word “standards” implies, federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act is the floor not the ceiling.  For example, federal child labor standards do not include time and hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds, establish rest or meal break requirements, or require work permits for youth to be employed.

Proponents also try to paint this bill as expanding apprenticeship programs, however our state’s Youth Apprenticeship Programs already allow 16 and 17-year-olds to safely obtain on-the-job experience.  And while we are on the subject of apprenticeship programs, I have to say that using the apprenticeship program argument for HB 4005 is pretty rich.  

Many of those supporting this bill also pushed to repeal our state’s prevailing wage law in 2016.  Since then, according to a report by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute, the number of active registered apprentices has fallen by 28 percent in West Virginia, relative to neighboring states with prevailing wage laws. 

So who are the proponents of HB 4005?  I’m really glad you asked.  HB 4005 and other bills like it are a part of a coordinated national effort led by billionaire-backed groups like the Foundation for Government Accountability, to undermine worker rights and weaken government's role of protecting public safety and the most vulnerable. 

Bills like HB 4005 are straight from the authoritarian playbook of Project 2025 where one of their policy objectives is to “amend its hazard-order regulations to permit teenage workers access to work in regulated jobs with proper training and parental consent.”  In simple terms, changing “hazard-order regulations” means letting kids as young as 16 to work in hazardous jobs.  

Project 2025 cynically suggests, “Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs. Current rules forbid many young people from working in such jobs. This results in worker shortages in dangerous fields and often discourages otherwise interested young workers from trying the more dangerous job.”

The narrative suggesting that young people everywhere will now have the “opportunity” to gain important job experience could not be farther from the truth when you consider who is impacted by the deregulation of child labor.   Since rollbacks around the country, more and more kids are being mangled or killed.  A 16-year-old boy in Wisconsin died working in a sawmill after he became entangled in a machine, a teenage boy in Pennsylvania died after getting pulled into a woodchipper, and another teenage boy was maimed at a Perdue slaughterhouse in rural Virginia.   

These are a few tragic examples among many, and each one of them underscores the fact that the children most subject to dangerous conditions are not looking for “opportunity” but they are looking to merely survive.  Deregulating child labor laws allows industries unfettered access to a more exploitable workforce. 

According to the Economic Policy Institute, at least sixteen states have now introduced cookie cutter legislation nearly identical to HB 4005.  But take heart.  West Virginia lawmakers have the power to stand up to these efforts to allow corporations to profit on the backs of our kids, even in the most dangerous jobs.   They don’t have to put West Virginia on the race to the bottom where the laws privilege profit over protections for our kids and their families.   

They can be clear-eyed enough to see that HB 4005 is as the Economic Policy Institute says is part of “a massive and generational project to remake the economy into one that gives corporations license to extract exorbitant profits from increasingly unregulated and dangerous child labor.”

Lewis Hine wrote in 1908 about his experience taking photos of children working, "There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers.”

If our legislators truly prioritize the safety and well-being of our kids, they’ll find the political will to leave our child labor laws alone, and prevent history from repeating itself.

Punching down

 Things are about to get rough for West Virginia families facing food insecurity, defined by the USDA as “the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”

Some hits are coming from federal changes in COVID programs and some from state legislation. But the unkindest cut of all could come from a mean-spirited bill recently introduced in the legislature if it crosses the finish line.

All of these involve the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, which provides basic food aid to around 167,000 households here.

As of March 1, pandemic-related emergency allotment increases for SNAP will cease. The average household here will receive a monthly reduction of $195 in benefits. The individual will see a reduction of $102, a net loss of $33 million in income to state businesses.

Then there’s this: when the federal Public Health Emergency ends in May, the suspension of work reporting requirements will end for able-bodied adults without dependents will end.

This means that a law passed in 2018 will go back into effect on July 1, imposing reporting requirements and hurdles for non-custodial low-income adults. As many as 24,000 could be pushed off if they can’t satisfy reporting requirements for work activities.

The 2018 bill was touted to promote workforce participation. In fact, it doubled down on a failed 2016 policy piloted in nine counties. A later DHHR report found that “Our best data does not indicate that [limiting benefits] has had a significant impact on employment figures.” People were just cut off and local businesses lost out.

Those are bad enough, but potentially much worse is House Bill 3484. It would add so many reporting, documenting and other bureaucratic restrictions for so many people as to make it unworkable both for people receiving help with food and for the beleaguered state agency that would have to administer the bill if it passes.

At a recent legislative committee meeting, a state agency representative testified that implementing the proposed legislation would actually cost state taxpayers millions of dollars while the additional requirements would reduce number of low-income people receiving food assistance. And that research has indicated that additional requirements reduce food assistance without increasing employment.

A representative of retail businesses testified that the loss of federal SNAP dollars would hurt local business and jobs, especially in rural counties.

Caitlin Cook, director of advocacy and public policy at Mountaineer Food Bank, which serves 48 of 55 counties, pointed out that the state food charity system is already overstretched and couldn’t make up for the loss of federal food aid. According to Cook, “For every one meal the food bank provides, SNAP provides nine, while simultaneously putting additional money into our local communities.”

Despite all the expert testimony, the bill passed out of committee and was reported to the floor of the House. At this writing its fate is unclear.

Aside from hungry people and local businesses, HB 3484 would also mean a loss for West Virginia farmers and farmers’ markets, which now offer SNAP Stretch, a program that allows people to double their purchasing power for fresh and locally grown food.

The bill goes against the grain of actions taken by political leaders in recent times. In 2021, for example, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, announced the creation of a Food Insecurity Workgroup “dedicated to utilizing every tool at West Virginia’s disposal to help reduce hunger throughout the state.”

The group met regularly to hear from experts in the field and made positive recommendations about increasing CARES Act funding to combat hunger. In December 2021, Governor Justice agreed, providing $7.25 million for food insecurity partners across the state. Reportedly, Speaker Hanshaw may reactivate the group.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jim Justice in his 2023 state of the state speech said that “We need to try with all in us to say, by God we’re not going to have hungry people in West Virginia today.”

The governor released a proclamation declaring Jan. 26 to be Hunger Free West Virginia Day, acknowledging that 217,690 people here, including 63,070 children are food insecure; one in six children experiences hunger regularly; and that many seniors have to chose between lifesaving medications and a healthy diet.

It had strong language, such as “it is essential to provide appropriate, healthy nutrition to all residents of West Virginia suffering from food insecurity;” “Charitable programs are unable to fully support those facing hunger. A combination of charity and government assistance programs is necessary to help bridge the meal gap;” and “food is a human right.”

The senate also weighed in last month with a resolution that stated “The West Virginia Senate recognizes food insecurity is prevalent in our communities, with 1-in-7 West Virginians not knowing where their next meal will come from…”

Things are challenging enough in West Virginia already, whether we’re talking low-income adults, kids, and seniors or people in local businesses, farmers, agencies, and charities. We don’t need a bad law to make a tough situation worse.

It’s sad but some people seem to derive gratification from harming people with less power than themselves, especially if they don’t think their targets can retaliate. Poor people are a convenient target for those who enjoy this kind of thing.

That’s what this is. That’s all this is.

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

Time to step up for child care

 Politicians in West Virginia talk a lot about the state’s low workforce participation rate and the need to increase it. There’s one easy and proven thing that can make that happen: support for child care for working families. 

The numbers tell the story.

First there’s the issue of unmet need. According to Mountain State Spotlight, there are around 68,000 West Virginia children under age 6 with two working parents, not to mention plenty over that age who still need a safe place to be while parents work. But there are only around 40,000 child care slots.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 12.5% of West Virginia workers missed work in 2021 for reasons related to child care. 

Then there’s the question of availability. More than 60% of West Virginians live in child care “deserts,” where the nearest provider is over 50 miles away.

There’s also the problem of costs. Numbers vary, but according to one recent estimate, the average cost of child care in West Virginia is $845 per month or $10,140 per year. That’s more than twice the cost for full time undergraduate tuition and fees from my alma mater of Marshall University. That contrast is telling because families often have more economic stability as children approach adulthood than when they’re just getting started.

Federal COVID relief funding helped many families cope with child care costs, to the tune of $330 million over the last few years, but that funding is winding down. In November, 7,288 children from 4,596 families with essential workers earning more than 85% of state median income lost this support. No doubt some of these parents will have little choice but to leave the workforce.

The situation is likely to get a lot worse when federal child care stabilization payments to qualified providers dry up at the end of September.

All of these challenges make it hard for quality child care providers stay open. We shouldn’t forget that in addition to helping parents go to work, these centers also provide jobs themselves, although they may not pay enough for their own workers to afford, you guessed it, child care.

Obviously, there are a lot of issues at work here, ranging from changes in the economy and family life to stagnant wages to inadequate investment in early childhood.

However, there is one relatively simple measure that would help to keep child care providers open and families going to work. It involves paying child care providers based on enrollment rather than attendance. In an era of pandemics, new variations on old illnesses, extreme weather events and the general weirdness of our time, attendance at school or child care varies widely.

Anyone with kids in school or child care knows that classrooms can empty out quickly when a new bug makes the rounds. Basing child care reimbursement on who happens to be there on any given day is no way to run this proverbial railroad. It provides no stability of care for parents who need to work and no stability of income for those who make that possible.

Enrollment-based reimbursement will help keep existing providers open, encourage new ones and help retain employees by providing a measure of stability and predictability of funding.

Child care has been called “the industry that supports all other industries,” but it’s more than that. We know from studies of human development that the period from birth to age 5 is the time of the brain’s most rapid development and that positive or adverse experience in early childhood can have lifelong implications.

West Virginia’s children and working parents deserve affordable and high-quality child care and those who provide that care themselves deserve a living wage.

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

The Walking Dead: WV legislature version

 I had to stop watching “The Walking Dead” television show a few years ago. It reminded me too much of real life.

I’m not saying that dead and decomposing people are literally shuffling around eating the living and turning those who get bitten by them into fellow flesh-eating walkers. Not yet anyway, although not much surprises me lately.

But it is the case that harmful policies and ideas that should long ago have been decently buried are shuffling around with considerable alacrity in the Legislature. And they do bite.

One such walker is Senate Bill 59, which would cut down on unemployment insurance for workers who lose their jobs from no fault of their own. A similar bill was defeated and buried last year, but it’s returned from the crypt. As was the case last year, the bill passed the Senate. Last year, fortunately, it died in the House of Delegates. This year, its fate is up for grabs.

The short version is that the bill would increase the number of hoops that people who have lost their jobs or been laid off need to jump through to get a fraction of their usual earnings, possibly threatening their ability to access this lifeline for their families.

If that weren’t bad enough, it also reduces the eligibility period for receiving unemployment insurance from 26 weeks to as little as 12, depending on the state unemployment average.

That’s another problem. West Virginia is a very economically diverse state, with unemployment, poverty and other measures of economic well-being (or the lack of it) varying widely from county to county. A statewide index would basically shackle the majority of rural counties to employment conditions that prevail in more urban and prosperous areas.

Not to pick on Monongalia County, but it’s in a different economic universe than counties like McDowell, Mingo, Logan, Wyoming, Calhoun, Clay, Wirt, etc. Mon and other counties with more economic options shouldn’t set the pace for the entire state.

Further, people laid off from well-paying jobs, such as mining or manufacturing, often take longer to find comparable work with their skill set because of local market conditions.

Let’s play it out a little further. Imagine a machinist or electrician laid off with a reduced term of eligibility. They might well take a job paying much less than a living wage that doesn’t take advantage of their knowledge or skills, while knocking someone else out of a job at the lower end of the market. When employment conditions improve, they’ll drop the old job like a hot potato, simply creating more churning and turnover for their new employer.

The ultimate effect would be to drive down wages for all workers, not to mention cause an economic loss to local economies. Unemployment benefits get spent really quickly on the basics.

These benefits also help ward off other social problems. Research on child well-being shows that economic supports in hard times increase the “protective factors” for kids and families. Every additional $1,000 spent by states on benefits is associated with a reduction in child maltreatment reports, less substantiated child maltreatment and fewer kids in foster care.

A recent study published in Demography, Duke University’s research journal, even found that “the harmful effects of job loss on opioid overdose mortality decline with increasing state unemployment insurance benefit levels. These findings suggest that social policy in the form of income transfers played a crucial role in disrupting the link between job loss and opioid overdose mortality.”

According to the authors, there is “a growing body of evidence that [unemployment insurance] may mitigate the harmful effects of job loss on physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes. They concluded that “cuts to social welfare benefits such as [unemployment insurance] have second-order effects on outcomes such as health that extend well beyond basic financial needs.”

All of which is to say that being poor and unemployed isn’t nearly as much fun as some rich people seem to think.

To be fair, sometimes well-meaning people confuse unemployed workers with those not in the labor force and think cutting unemployment insurance will boost labor force participation. They are actually two different populations. The labor force consists of all workers, including those who recently lost jobs through no fault of their own.

If the intent is to boost labor market participation, rather than just stick it to families that hit a rough spot, there are better ways to do that, some of which have been proposed as bills in this session. One obvious step in the right direction would be increasing state investments in child care, which can cost more than a college education and typically hit at a time when a family’s earning capacity hasn’t reached full bloom.

Another would be to support policies such as a Medicaid buy-in that would help lower wage workers keep health benefits if they have a chance to get a raise. Or West Virginia could join the number of states that offer refundable child tax credits or earned income tax credits.

Incredibly, while some state lawmakers support cutting assistance for the jobless, others have called for setting aside $500 million in American Rescue Plan money intended to help families and communities with the damage done by COVID to give away as corporate handouts to mostly out-of-state corporations.

It’s a question of priorities. Are we going to stand beside a coal miner’s daughter whose dad gets a layoff notice from the mine, or are we going to turn our back on them?

(This ran as a column/op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)

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.)

I wish I was surprised

 The United Health Foundation recently released it's 2021 report on American Health Rankings. And, well, it's kind of what you'd expect. West Virginia ranks at or near the bottom on several indicators, including:

*49th in occupation fatalities (the legislature tried and failed to gut the state mine safety agency this year, which may knock us out of 50);

*47th in economic hardship (who could have guessed that years of anti-labor legislation, automation and corporate driven-globalization might not have brought prosperity?);

*48th in per capita income (see above);

*47th in poverty (see above); 

*49th in unemployment (the legislature also tried to cut unemployment insurance eligibility from 26 to 12 weeks this session);

*49th in food insecurity (in 2018, the legislature passed a bill that made it harder for low income adults without children to access SNAP benefits);

*49th in social support and engagement;

*50th in drinking water violations (lowering water standards to benefit extractive industries being an annual legislative ritual);

*49th in nutrition and physical activity;

*50th in depression;

*50th in drug deaths (not surprising given how WV was bombed with opioids by pharmaceutical companies in recent years);

*48th in frequent mental distress;

*50th in premature deaths; and

*50th in asthma, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, COPD, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. I'm guessing that being a mineral extraction sacrifice zone didn't help here. Thank God and former governor Earl Ray Tomblin for expanding Medicaid--otherwise we'd be dropping like flies. No doubt the social determinants of health have a lot to do with this.

This is just a partial list. The rest is here. Meanwhile, instead of dealing with these issues, the legislature spent a lot of time this year going after what's left of public education; failing to pass caps on diabetes-related expenses; the bogey man of "critical race theory;" trying to make it harder for workers and their survivors injured or killed on the job to get compensation; trying to repeal the state income tax; and such.

It's nice to have good priorities. That's what I hear anyway

Some people really do want it all

 Lately I’ve concluded that some people really do want it all.

For evidence, we don’t have to look much farther than the legislature, where some bills under consideration would strip away some of the few remaining protections for working people, especially some of the working people that politicians pretend to care for: workers in mining, manufacturing, and construction. Those are the kind of jobs that promote stable families and communities.

Senate Bills 2 and 3 would harm workers and their families by reducing and radically restructuring the unemployment insurance (UI) system. SB 2 would cut eligibility for UI from 26 weeks to 12 in most cases. SB 3 would increase the amount of paperwork, bureaucracy and hoops unemployed people would have to jump through.

The overall effect would be to drive down wages for everyone by making it harder for people to find jobs that pay a living wage.

This is a classic case of a solution in search of a problem. The state unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.7 percent.

 In a January press release, Governor Justice, with the apparent approval of Babydog, said “When you think about what we’ve accomplished over the past three months with our unemployment rate, it’s unbelievable…We shattered the all-time record. Then we came back and did it again the next month. And now we’ve shattered it all over again this month.”

The state’s unemployment fund is as good as it’s ever been. As a result, premiums paid by employers into the fund have been reduced.

If the bills are passed that main outcome would be a further weakening the position of workers in the labor market in the interest of those who want to pay the lowest possible wage at a time when inequality is at record levels…which goes back to the some-people-want-it-all thing.

But those bills aren’t the only games in town. House Bill 4394 would make it harder for workers and/or their families who are injured or killed on the job from seeking compensation. Specifically, the bill deals with the issue of deliberate intent, which makes employers liable if they know of unsafe working conditions but take no action to correct them.

Nationwide, workplace hazards kill, injure, and/or disable more than 100,000 workers each year. In 2019, for example, 5,333 workers died on the job from traumatic injuries. Many more die from occupational diseases.

It’s hard for even a cynic like me to fathom how this could pass in West Virginia, where we can measure out our lives with industrial accidents and disasters. 

Without even trying to exercise my memory, which isn’t what it used to be, I can recall the Freedom Industries water crisis that affected around 300,000 people, the Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 miners, the Sago mine disaster that killed 12, the Aracoma mine fire in Logan County where two miners died, the Willow Island tower collapse in Pleasants County that killed 51 construction workers, the Pittston Coal Buffalo Creek disaster that killed 125, and the Farmington mine disaster that killed 78.

That doesn’t even cover the untold thousands here whose lives were shortened or made miserable by Black Lung and other work-related diseases and injuries.

I mean, really.

This gruesome record reminds me of a line from a labor song about just this issue: “If blood be the price of your cursed wealth, good God, we have paid it in full.”

On a less dramatic note, another bill that could hurt workers and their families is House Bill 4007, which would reduce and ultimately phase out the state income tax, which is the only tax in the state that doesn’t fall hardest on those with lower incomes. The biggest beneficiaries are the wealthiest. 

Even Adam Smith, author of the 1776 Wealth of Nations, a celebration of emerging capitalism, would not approve. In his classic, he wrote that “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

This would ultimately result in making our tax system even more regressive by increasing consumption taxes on poor and working people or else result in cuts to programs that invest in health, economic opportunities, education and training, public safety, etc. for communities, seniors, kids and families. Or some combination thereof.

So yes, some people really do want it all. 

The only question is, are they going to get it?

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

Calling the point

In another lifetime, I used to referee karate tournaments. Although they could get kind of rough, especially for higher-ranking adults, they weren’t like today’s full-contact mixed martial arts or submission matches. The idea was to give regular people of all ages and levels a chance to safely compete with peers.

A full point — or “ippon” in Japanese — was awarded for a controlled legitimate technique correctly applied to a legal target area.

Grappling wasn’t permitted, although some foot sweeps or takedowns were allowed, with points awarded if they were followed up immediately with a strike or kick to the downed opponent. (I guess you could say “don’t kick ’em when they’re down” didn’t apply here. It was more like don’t take ’em down unless you’re going to kick ’em — in a controlled way of course.)

Although, after visiting karate’s birthplace in Okinawa, I came to doubt whether it should ever have become a sport, I took something valuable from that experience. No matter what I thought of a competitor, their teacher, fighting style or uniform, I tried to set aside stylistic rivalry, which was rampant, watch every match as closely as possible and call the point if I saw it.

In these days of polarization and political tribalism, I think we’d be better off as a state and nation if people made a habit of “calling the point” or recognizing positive ideas and actions of people across our divides when we see them, even if we must struggle over others.

Not that I expect anyone to care, but, in that spirit, I’d have to award two points to actions recently taken by the West Virginia Legislature. Really.

The first was passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 202, a resolution calling on the federal government to release $8 billion to the state for job-creating mine reclamation projects. In addition, the resolution calls on Congress to pass the RECLAIM Act, which also would make funds available to deal with mine-related damage and to reauthorize the Abandoned Mine Lands program, which is to expire in September.

Although it passed with the support of Republican supermajorities, it also was supported by Democrats, community organizations and environmental groups. The United Mine Workers union has supported similar measures for years.

This realistic, solutions-oriented approach is a major step forward from the theatrical hissy fits of previous years. And it could actually happen, bringing huge benefits to coalfield communities and the state’s economy and environment.

Ippon.

The second point goes to House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, who recently announced the creation of a bipartisan Food Insecurity Work Group consisting of six Republican and six Democrat delegates. It’s dedicated to “utilizing every tool at West Virginia’s disposal to help reduce hunger throughout the state.”

The group is chaired by Delegates Larry Pack, R-Kanawha, and Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell, both of whom take the group’s mission seriously.

In a House news release, Pack was quoted as saying, “We have plenty of evidence that shows us how deeply connected hunger is to other issues, such as overall health, mental health, academic achievement and economic prosperity. ... We are committed to putting in the time and energy to truly understand not only what specific roadblocks are out there hurting our West Virginia families, but also what solutions we can implement in the near future.”

For that matter, the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution in the 2021 regular session requesting a study on summer and nonschool-day food programs by county boards of education, something hunger advocates have been calling for since 2019.

This could be another big deal for West Virginia, where it’s been estimated that one in seven residents and one in five children are facing food insecurity, a problem that was highlighted by the school closings and economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m hopeful that the work group and community partners can come up with some real solutions.

It’s good to remember in times like these that people can sometimes set aside differences to confront real problems in a practical way.

6 ways to fight hunger in WV

Note: in an earlier post I mentioned the creation of a legislative hunger working group, which was a really positive step. This article by Amelia Ferrell Knisely of Mountain State Spotlight, a statewide nonprofit  news service, highlights some ideas for addressing the problem.

Hunger in West Virginia — a complex problem tied to shuttered grocery stores, infrastructure issues and generational poverty — has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem is one that advocates say requires state-level policy and funding to supplement the nonprofits and faith-based organizations that are trying to reach those in need. 

“There are some people who are suffering out here,” said Richard Brett, who runs a food pantry in Princeton. His faith-based charity Tender Mercies Ministries, which relies on a steady stream of volunteers to feed its community members, registers at least one to two individuals or families every day for food giveaways and he saw even more during the pandemic. The lack of jobs in the area and emergency food assistance programs that fall short often push people to reach out for help, Brett said. 

Yet, lawmakers devoted little attention to hunger during this year’s regular legislative session. Last week, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, announced a bipartisan legislative workgroup will start studying the issue to outline anti-hunger priorities ahead of bill drafting this winter. 

The workgroup will be led by Delegate Larry Pack, R-Kanawha, and Delegate Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell. Lovejoy in particular has been a vocal advocate for anti-hunger legislation since he was elected in 2016; he says the bipartisan buy-in to the anti-hunger workgroup “sends a message that it’s a priority.” 

But he notes it’s a complicated issue, which will require lawmakers to create practical yet effective policies. Here are six initiatives the new workgroup could take on to reduce hunger and support food charities, according to West Virginia researchers, policy analysts, charitable food network employees and anti-hunger advocates: 

1. Creating a state-level office to address hunger — The Legislature needs to immediately create a state-level office focused on coordinating county feeding efforts, according to Josh Lohnes, food policy research director at West Virginia University. Hunger needs and feeding programs vary from county to county, and a state office would coordinate between state agencies addressing hunger (like the Department of Health and Human Resources and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture) and private organizations (food banks, local charities, local school nutrition offices, etc.) “This office would employ local community food security coordinators in each county to create some connective tissue around responses at the local level that are frankly often uncoordinated,” said Lohnes, who has spent years researching and writing about the state’s charitable food system and hunger. The coordinators would be focused on improving outcomes of state-backed nutrition programs, he said. Lohnes estimated the program could cost the state around $3.5 million per year, which includes salaries for community food security coordinators and state-level oversight staff.

2. Listening to West Virginians before spending federal relief funds — West Virginia has already received half of the $1.36 billion it’s getting through the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March. The federal dollars — the state will get the remaining $677 million later this year — can be used to support COVID-19 response efforts, public health improvements (including hunger) and more. Lawmakers will have input on how Gov. Jim Justice spends the federal money after they passed HB 2014, which requires the Legislature to approve the governor’s use of any federal emergency money that is more than $150 million. Seth DiStefano, policy outreach director at the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy, said it is imperative that lawmakers use this time to gather information from West Virginians about what they’ve experienced with food insecurity during the pandemic. He’d like to see the workgroup hold town halls around the state to hear feedback, then lawmakers should “turn that feedback into tangible policy results,” he said.

3. Transporting food to students in need — Feeding America estimates that 19% of West Virginia kids might experience hunger this year because of the pandemic, and hunger experts in the state agree lawmakers need to address feeding gaps for students during the summer and other unexpected breaks from school. Mountain State Spotlight reported on the ongoing gaps in summer feeding and for remote learners during the pandemic due to families’ lack of transportation and schools’ inability to deliver food. While many feeding programs have resumed due to reduced COVID-19 restrictions, student feeding gaps persist. Additionally, transporting food to students could help cut down on school food waste by putting food in the hands of students or other local feeding programs who need food. “If the school and county would stop to study the root of the problem, which we know is transportation, and figure out strategies to make those deliveries happen, they most likely would cut the waste down drastically,” said Jenny Anderson, director of Families Leading Change, a statewide advocacy group focused on improving schools. One plan from anti-hunger advocates that could be resurrected is one to pay bus drivers to deliver summer food; groups had asked Justice to use CARES Act money during the summer of 2020 to address student hunger in this way.

4. Increasing state-backed funding for food charities — More than 300,000 West Virginians relied on the state’s 333 food pantries for food back in 2016, according to research from the Food Justice Lab at West Virginia. Those pantries, on average, operated on a budget of less than $1,300 a month to pay for food, deliveries and more. Justice has for the last two years included $1 million for the state’s two food banks in his budget. But more state funding is needed as the problem has grown. “In the last month, I’ve applied for a million dollars in grants,” said Cyndi Kirkhart, who runs Facing Hunger Food Bank out of Cabell County. The food bank feeds more than 116,000 people each year. Kirkhart said her biggest need is funding as she is working on expanding the food bank’s options to include “medically indicated food boxes” with lean and no-salt added options for people with diabetes — West Virginians die from diabetes at the highest rate in the country — and cancer patients. 

5. Examining barriers to food assistance programs — Anti-hunger advocates want the workgroup to evaluate any barriers that keep West Virginians from applying for or receiving emergency food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). One of those barriers: a bill lawmakers signed off on this past session that continues a program that requires TANF applicants be screened for drugs. DHHR has drug-screened TANF applicants since 2017, when the department launched the pilot project after the Legislature mandated it; from October 2019 to September 2020, DHHR reported that out of 2,067 completed drug use screening questionnaires, only seven people tested positive for drugs. Child welfare advocates opposed the bill, saying that the program was likely to cut off West Virginia children, who make up the majority of the state’s TANF recipients, from necessary food.

6. Guaranteeing free food for students — Last month, California became the first state to offer free food to students without questions asked or required forms.The state set aside $650 million for its universal school meal program starting in 2022, according to NBC Los Angeles. In West Virginia, 47 of the state’s 55 counties are already qualified and elected to serve free meals for all students, pandemic relief aside, according to the West Virginia Department of Education. Rick Wilson, program director for the American Friends Service Committee and long-time West Virginia child nutrition advocate, said lawmakers should prioritize implementing a universal free meal program in West Virginia that would continue beyond the pandemic. 

Whatever policy decisions lawmakers make, the problem is large and growing: Feeding America estimates hunger now affects one in seven West Virginians, as well as one in five of the state’s children. State support is needed to supplement other anti-hunger efforts, said Caitlin Cook, director of advocacy and public policy for Mountaineer Food Bank. The food bank, based in Gassaway, provides food to 450 feeding programs across 48 counties.

“Nonprofits are not a sole solution to hunger, nor any social issue. Non-profits, for-profits and the government sectors all play a role in building food security,” Cook said. “Without commonality and those sectors working together, there’s pushing and pulling in opposite directions without concrete solutions.”

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, announced the formation of the workgroup June 30. Other members of the workgroup are: Delegates Brent Boggs, D-Braxton; Ed Evans, D-McDowell; Joshua Higginbotham, R-Putnam; John Paul Hott, R-Grant; Riley Keaton, R-Roane; Kayla Kessinger, R-Fayette; Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia; Evan Worrell, R-Cabell; Kayla Young, D-Kanawha; and Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall.

If you’re a West Virginia resident in need of food, please contact West Virginia 211 by dialing 211 or visiting www.WV211.org for assistance.

Going big on hunger?

 This is really weird, but for the second time in a week or so, the WV legislature, which one of my favorite delegates refers to as "the bad idea factory," did something good. I mean real good.

First a little background: at least since 2013, with the passage of the WV Feed to Achieve Act, a lot of my friends and comrades, now known as the WV Food for All Coalition, have worked on hunger and  food security issues, from school meals to SNAP benefits to responding to food needs during the pandemic.

For the last several years, some of us have urged the passage of what has been know as the Summer Feeding for All Act, which would have required school boards to come up with food plans when school is not is session, whether for summer vacations or other disasters.

It was particularly ironic in 2020 to watch the bill die in the waning days of the legislative session just as the first wave of a global pandemic hit that would result in the end of in-person classes for months...and then to watch as schools scrambled to do what they could to make sure kids didn't miss out on food while at home. 

Maybe our theory was correct.

Anyhow, a lot of us who work on these issues were pleasantly surprised to learn that House Speaker Roger Hanshaw announced the formation of a bipartisan working group "dedicated to utilizing every tool at West Virginia’s disposal to help reduce hunger throughout the state."

Here's the rest of the news release:

Delegate Larry Pack, R-Kanawha, and Delegate Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell, will lead the bipartisan workgroup, which will focus on improving food insecurity, which Feeding America estimates affects one in seven West Virginians as well as one in five West Virginia children.

“We have plenty of evidence that shows us how deeply connected hunger is to other issues, such as overall health, mental health, academic achievement and economic prosperity,” Pack said. “We are committed to putting in the time and energy to truly understand not only what specific roadblocks are out there hurting our West Virginia families, but also what solutions we can implement in the near future.”

Pack and Lovejoy both pushed this year to establish the Summer Feeding for All initiative, and while that did not happen during the regular legislative session, Lovejoy said this new workgroup is a big step forward.

“This is an exciting announcement recognizing that food insecurity is a priority in West Virginia policymaking,” Lovejoy said. “I’m grateful to our Speaker, who has actively participated in the bipartisan House Hunger Caucus since its inception, and now organizes a formal group of committed representatives to tackle this problem head-on.”

Other members of the workgroup are Delegates:

Brent Boggs, D-Braxton      

Ed Evans, D-McDowell

Joshua Higginbotham, R-Putnam

John Paul Hott, R-Grant

Riley Keaton, R-Roane

Kayla Kessinger, R-Fayette

Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia

Evan Worrell, R-Cabell

Kayla Young, D-Kanawha

Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall

 This is a big advance and a major victory for WV's food fighters. You can bet that some of us have some ideas we can't wait to share. Meanwhile, thanks to the legislative champions, advocates and impacted people who have worked for years to raise this issue.

Moving from propaganda to problem solving?

 In terms of using cynical political strategies to promote bad agendas, the "war on coal" narrative that emerged in the Obama era worked as well in West Virginia (not in a good way) as the famous Republican national  "southern strategy" that rode white resentment to power in the wake of the civil rights movement.

(Both had a more or less subtle racial dog whistle component.)

The war on coal narrative basically blamed the ills of the coal industry and coal communities--mostly the results of market forces and automation-- on the policies of the Obama administration and similar targets.

 Meanwhile, people who were serious about dealing with coalfield problems, which are very real, pushed for policies promoting what's been called a "just transition," which the Climate Justice Alliance defines as " a vision-led, unifying and place-based set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy." As in solutions over propaganda and scapegoating.

There is actually some low hanging fruit here, along the lines laid out in the stalled RECLAIM Act, which among other things would reallocate Abandoned Mine Lands (not to be confused with abandoned land mines) funding to undo some of the damage caused by mining and create jobs. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the WV legislature yesterday, Republican supermajorities and all, approved a resolution calling on the federal government to allocate $8 billion to the state for more job-creating reclamation projects, which is something the Biden administration also supports.

At the risk of sounding like a certain US senator from WV, the measure enjoyed broad bipartisan support--for real--and was also hailed by environmentalists. I'm not sure how far this will go, but this kind of thing doesn't happen very often. Special shoutout to Delegate Evan Hansen (D-Monongalia County), who has taken a leading role in promoting economic transition ideas and addressing climate change. 

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of legislators formed an informal working group to address coalfield revitalization. It would be nice if this means a real shift in focus towards problem-solving over politics.

One of a kind (I hope)

 The WV legislative session ended on April 10, a 60 day stretch that felt like an eternity. I had to take a week off to lick my wounds. For a nice recap of how awful it was, here's a column by Gazette-Mail statehouse reporter Phil Kabler.

There were many defeats and a few wins, some proactive and some defensive. I haven't got around to making a full list. There were so many bad bills flying around so fast that it felt like we were running in circles, albeit mostly remotely due to COVID.

Working on legislative issues here was never easy, but this session makes all the others seem like a cakewalk. These days a glorious victory often consists of working to make an awful bill a little less bad; killing a bad bill is worthy of an epic like the Iliad; and a proactive win is like winning a lottery or being dealt a royal flush.

A friend reminded me of something I posted here four years ago after the 2017 session ended (at the time I thought that was a rough one. I'd forgotten about it, but I think it still holds:

Mulling over that and other limited victories has led me to formulate a maxim which I plan to copyright:

"Those who minimize hard won but limited victories for social justice tend not to be the people who worked their ass off to win them."

And you can quote me on that.

Good Friday in West Virginia

 It's Good Friday in West Virginia. On the day that the suffering and death of Jesus are commemorated, the state legislature is planning cutting taxes on the richest residents and/or raising them to the poorer or slashing the programs and services they need. And proposing a budget that cuts higher education, recovery programs, public broadcasting and all kinds of stuff.

This would be the day after a house of delegates committee voted to support drug testing for TANF residents--because apparently it's fun to impose rituals of degradation on poor people--and gutted harm reduction programs in a state devastated by the opioid epidemic.

All this is after taking millions away from public schools to support the privatization of education, increasing penalties and punishment, slamming transgender youth, supporting resolutions to rewrite the US constitution (what could possibly go wrong?) and other ill stuff I can't even remember at this point.

Tomorrow, Holy Saturday, commemorates the story of Jesus' descent into hell to free captive spirits. In WV, the hell part applies, but I don't see a lot of liberation going on here. Sunday celebrates Easter, but I don't see a resurrection for this state coming any time soon.

On the other hand, it seems that miraculous resurrections, if and when they happen, aren't predictable. I guess I'll hold onto that.

One big prison yard?

 Last year, the Legislature passed a bill creating a sentencing commission to jump start reforms in the criminal justice system.

There was a consensus that West Virginia’s penalties were out of sync and, often, more severe than those of neighboring states, at great expense to the public and without making anyone any safer.

As then chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Shott, R-Mercer, said: “Among the many challenges facing our state, the reform of our criminal justice system is one of the least publicized. To keep this in context, we have a system in which we are 20 to 25% over capacity, and our prisons, our regional jails are overflowing.”

And that was before COVID-19 hit, which makes the issue of reform even more urgent.

The pandemic slowed the work of the commission, but things are starting to move.

Unfortunately, even before the commission gets down to the heavy lifting, proposed legislation in the House of Delegates would drastically rewrite the state’s criminal code before the process has a chance to work.

The measure in question, House Bill 2017, is truly gargantuan. The introduced version was no less than 391 pages. At present, it’s up to 411 pages. It was sprung on the House far too late in the session for members to digest the implications of what they’re going to vote on.

While the bill is no doubt well intentioned, it was crafted without consulting with prosecutors, public defenders, judges, others who work in the system or advocates — much less those directly affected.

If enacted, the bill would increase prison sentences for many offenses (with some exceptions), while also delaying parole eligibility. In particular, it changes many sentences from an indeterminate system, which provides some flexibility, to a determinate system that often would increase the minimum and maximum sentences.

This also would have the effect of reducing the incentives for people in prisons to participate in rehabilitation, education and/or recovery programs, since they would have to serve longer before being eligible for parole.

One provision of the bill that seems especially harsh would increase fines for many offenses and even require some inmates to pay the cost of their incarceration. Since people with low incomes are more likely to get caught in the system to start with, this would increase debt of those families and contribute to the criminalization of poverty.

According to the American Action Forum, which describes itself as center-right, “Adults in poverty are three times more likely to be arrested than those who aren’t, and people earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level are 15 times more likely to be charged with a felony — which, by definition, carries a longer sentence — than people earning above that threshold.”

The Prison Policy Initiative reports: “Poverty is not only a predictor of involvement with the justice system: Too often, it is also the outcome. Criminal punishment subjects people to countless fines, fees and other costs (often enriching private companies in the process). A criminal record, meanwhile, does lasting collateral damage.”

Rather than gallop to a premature decision, a wiser step would be to refer the ideas contained in HB 2017 to the sentencing commission so that its provisions, along with the ideas of others familiar with all aspects of the system, can be evaluated in consultation with all stakeholders.

In the meantime, lawmakers might do better to focus on reforms to reduce mass incarceration and its cost to individuals, communities, families and taxpayers.

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

Frying pan to fire with latest tax plan

This week, the West Virginia House of Delegates will vote on House Bill 3300, its version of repealing the state income tax. It’s quite a bit different from Gov. Jim Justice’s proposal.

While I have serious concerns about Justice’s plan, as I’ve written here more than once, I think the House version would do even more damage over the long run. The governor’s plan would at least try to balance some of the cuts with some revenue increases, even if some of these are regressive and unpopular, in an effort to preserve some programs and services.

The House version is all cuts, all the time. Basically, it would cut personal income taxes by $150 million per year over several years until it’s gone, with no effort to make up lost revenue.

This would come on top of untold millions of dollars taken from the K-12 education budget to pay for new legislation defunding public schools to pay for education savings accounts.

In 2021, the state’s base budget, made up of general revenue and lottery funds, is about $5 billion. Of that, more than $2 billion, or about 43%, comes from income taxes. Seven years out, and we’d be out over $1 billion. It gets worse from there.

The income tax is West Virginia’s only progressive tax, meaning that those with higher incomes pay a somewhat higher rate. If eliminated, more than 60% of the benefits would go to the richest 20% of residents. The pain would go to everyone else, from young children to students to workers to retirees.

This becomes clear when we consider where our tax dollars go as things stand now. Over 40% goes to public education. Nearly 25% goes to health and human resources, which provides health care and other benefits to hundreds of thousands of West Virginians, including many seniors, children and people with disabilities. About 10% goes to higher education.

What’s left covers everything from public safety to parks and natural resources to outdoor recreation/wildlife management to environmental protection to economic development to courts.

House leaders recognized, in a memo circulated to delegates earlier in the session, that an income tax repeal would have painful consequences. Specifically, the memo noted: “Such a plan will require measures that are not politically popular standing alone.”

Among the possibilities listed in the memo were across-the-board cuts to “public ed, higher ed, DHHR. This would necessarily involve a real reduction in at least some services;” “Reduction in Higher Education funding including funding to specific schools;” eliminating “all state appropriations to WVU and Marshall;” and “reduction or elimination of promise scholarship.”

Those possibilities were listed about the governor’s plan, which replaced some lost revenue. Cuts under the House plan would be even more drastic.

Contrary to a common belief, tax cuts don’t “pay for themselves,” as West Virginia’s experience has shown with the hundreds of millions in corporate cuts from reforms enacted in 2007.

We’re not an outlier in that respect. A study of tax cuts for the wealthy by the London School of Economics of 18 countries over 50 years found that “such reforms do not have any significant effect on economic growth and unemployment.”

The main things they increase are inequality and the wealth of a few at the expense of the majority. And an abundance of public health research has found that growing inequality makes other social problems worse, whether we’re talking health, crime, social trust or the lack thereof, addiction and general well-being.

Low- or no-income taxes don’t count for much, if you’re living in a wasteland.

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

Guilty until proven wealthy

 It’s often said that, in the American legal tradition, a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, these days, it’s more like guilty until proven wealthy.

I’m talking specifically about the cash bail system. At any given time, as many as 700,000 Americans are locked up in jails. According to the Pretrial Justice Institute, most of these people haven’t been convicted of or even tried for the crimes for which they were arrested.

The reason most of them languish in overcrowded jails has no necessary connection to public safety. It’s because they can’t afford cash bail.

Now, that’s criminal. Specifically, it’s the criminalization of poverty.

As far back as 1964, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy observed that bail had become “a vehicle for systematic injustice.”

In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he wrote: “Bail has only one purpose — to insure that a person who is accused of a crime will appear in court for his trial. We presume a person to be innocent until he is proven guilty, and thus the purpose of bail is not punishment. It is not harassment. It is not to keep people in jail. It is simply to guarantee appearance in court.”

Things have gotten much worse over the years. The Vera Institute of Justice notes that pretrial detention increased by 433% between 1970 and 2015. It’s probably gotten worse over the past six years.

According to national data, the median bail set for a felony charge is around $10,000, in a country where 40% of the population would have trouble coming up with an unexpected $400. Even if the accused person or the family can raise that money with a bail bond agent, they will lose a percentage of what they coughed up. Many times, the accused will be found not guilty or the charges will be dropped.

The racial bias inherent in this system is glaring: While Black Americans make up 13.4% of the U.S. population, they account for about 40% of Americans in pretrial custody. In any case, we’re overwhelmingly talking about poor and working-class people.

What happens to people held in jail because they can’t afford bail isn’t pretty. It takes only a few days to put people at risk of losing jobs, homes or child custody. Family members — and especially children — can be traumatized. And a lot of bad things can happen in overcrowded jails. The effects can last for generations.

People who can’t afford bail also are more likely to be given harsher sentences or accept plea deals, just to get out at some point.

It’s also expensive to taxpayers. In a 2017 report, the Pretrial Justice Institute estimated that the United States spends about $14 billion “to detain people who are mostly low risk, including many whose charges will ultimately be dropped.”

Even though the Legislature overwhelmingly passed a bail reform bill last year, the jail numbers in West Virginia have increased. As reported on March 15, the population in West Virginia’s regional jails has jumped to 6,135. The actual capacity of those jails is 4,265. This means that regional jails are about 43% over their capacity. Of these, approximately the same percentage is being held for pretrial.

All this occurs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where risk of infections and community spread are high because of the constantly churning jail population. Many have pointed out that a stint in jail for a minor offense could be a death sentence.

It wasn’t always that way. As recently as April 16, 2020, the regional jail population was as low as 4,085 because of steps taken to reduce the jail population to slow the spread of the virus — and there was no spike in the crime rate. But the population rapidly increased again as things returned to “normal.”

Under the 2020 reform bill, judges or magistrates must hold a hearing within 72 hours for people who are incarcerated because they can’t afford bail. Incredibly, a new measure, House Bill 3106, would increase the period someone waits in pretrial for a hearing to 10 days, making a bad situation much worse.

Even aside from the impact on incarcerated people, their families and public health, this would have a huge cost on taxpayers. Counties owe $48.25 per day for each inmate in a regional jail, and at least 10 counties are behind in payments to the tune of millions of dollars. When counties fall behind, the state picks up the difference.

If we use the March 15 numbers reported by the state, there were 2,672 people in pretrial detention, at a cost to counties of $128,924 per day. At 10 days, we’re talking $1,289,240. And many people who can’t make bail are held for weeks and months.

Clearly, HB 3106 would be a step in the wrong direction for all concerned. Rather, West Virginia would do well to continue on the path to reform and ultimately abolish a system that bases personal liberty solely on the ability to pay.

(This appeared as an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)

Deja vu

I give Gov. Jim Justice credit for pointing out that some promised remedies for West Virginia’s ills didn’t pan out. In a televised town hall meeting, he told the audience:

“Really and truly, let’s just be brutally honest. We passed the right-to-work law in West Virginia. And we ran to the windows looking to see all the people that were going to come — and they didn’t come. We got rid of prevailing wage. We changed our corporate taxes and we’ve done a lot of different things. And we’ve run to the windows and they haven’t come.

“We’ve absolutely built the field in a lot of different places thinking build the field and they’ll come, and they didn’t come.”

It’s hard to argue with that. The promised benefits of West Virginia’s 2007 tax cuts under the leadership of one party never happened. And the state has lost about 60,000 people, more than the population of its capital city, since the push for anti-worker legislation began in 2015 under the leadership of another party.

The governor promises that things will be different this time around, with his plan to drastically cut or phase out the state income tax. I’m sure he has the best of intentions, but, for some reason, I keep thinking about Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown to kick, in the old Peanuts comic.

(In case that cultural reference is dated, it didn’t work out well for Charlie Brown.)

The state income tax provides more than 40% of revenue for the core state budget, to the tune of over $2 billion per year. Eliminating or drastically reducing it would involve shifting taxes to the least wealthy or eliminating state investments in people, infrastructure and health at all levels. Or, more likely, it will mean a bit of both.

West Virginia’s income tax is the only progressive tax in the state, meaning that those with more resources pay a somewhat higher rate. According to an analysis of the proposed legislation, 63% of the tax cuts will go to the top 15% of earners. Proposed rebates notwithstanding, overall taxes likely would go up on people in the lower 60%, who, by necessity, spend most of what they make on taxable goods and services.

Even if all the proposed new and/or increased taxes are enacted, it would still leave a budget gap of about $185 million. That means that more cuts to state programs and services would be required. And that’s assuming that the Legislature agrees to all aspects of the plan, which seems pretty iffy.

The plan includes an increase in the regressive consumer sales tax to 7.9%, increasing excise taxes on soft drinks, beer, wine, tobacco and such; taxes on “luxury goods;” and taxing some new services. All these are likely to arouse a great deal of opposition from retail and industry groups, which have a long history of getting pretty much whatever they want from compliant lawmakers.

We also can be sure of hearing a rousing round of protests from and about the economic impact on border counties, if West Virginians take their purchasing power elsewhere. About 30 counties are at or near the border of another state. More to the point, our colonial overlords extracting the state’s mineral wealth might not be happy about changes to severance taxes.

If these groups get their way, the revenue hole to be made up would be even deeper and the overall package probably would include even more budget cuts.

Proponents claim that any impact will be more than compensated for by the hordes of new people flooding into the state. However, as a saying variously attributed to Yogi Berra, Mark Twain and many others goes: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

I will venture to make one, however: If West Virginia’s leaders cut investments in the things that make a place worth living in — good schools, higher ed and job training, child care, parks and natural resources, public libraries, good roads, broadband, access to health care, support for the elderly — nothing will stop the bleeding of our youngest, best and brightest.

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

What could possibly go wrong?

 One of my favorite WV delegates likes to call the legislature a "bad idea factory." I think it's more like a bad idea giant industrial combine with a global supply chain this year. If I summarizing the session so far, it would be something like "burn it down and lock em up."

As if dismantling the state of West Virginia wasn't enough, a house committee wants to pass a resolution calling for an Article 5 constitutional convention. Supposedly, the proposed convention would be limited to enacting term limits to congress, which I think is itself a bad idea, but there's nothing that guarantees any limits on other changes if they open it up. I mean, what could possibly go wrong by rewriting the US Constitution?

Anyhow, there was an online public hearing about the measure last Friday. Several people who spoke in support of the measure were from out of state groups. Here's what I had to say:

I am speaking today in opposition to this measure.

I’m no engineer, but I know engineers frequently try to reduce friction in designing various types of machines. The framers of our constitution deliberately took the opposite approach: they created a system that basically guaranteed friction in terms of the separation of powers and various forms of check and balances to limit that damage that could be done in the heat of the moment without such safeguards.

They created a system that made major changes to the constitution possible but not necessarily easy. Twenty seven amendments have been enacted in 244 years, which amounts to an average of one amendment for every nine years of our existence as a nation.

This system has served us well through those years in good times and bad and has withstood many crises. It is for this reason I oppose efforts to amend it by means of an Article 5 constitutional convention. Proponents of such a measure may claim that the purpose of any such convention could be limited to dealing with a small number of issues. However, Article 5 itself poses no such limits once the process has begun. The risks of such a measure are incalculable.

Some have argued that such a measure would be desirable so that term limits could be enacted on congressional representatives. In fact, voters have it within their power to limit the terms of elected officials at every election cycle. Elected officials can limit their own terms at any time. 

Constitutionally limiting such terms would run counter to good government. The intricacies of congressional procedures and public policies can take a long time to learn. We all know that it takes a while to get good at anything.  Term limits would be a barrier to that knowledge, leaving it to unelected officials. If one is concerned about a deep state, this should be an object of concern. 

Would anyone want to serve in an army, a fire department or a hospital entirely staffed by fresh and inexperienced recruits?

Finally, research in game theory has shown that the incentives to cooperation increase with the possibility of future interaction, which is one reason why historically the US senate with its longer terms has been described as more collegial than the house. In a time of extreme polarization, we need to do all we can to promote rational debate and policy making in the interests of the nation at large.

The bad and the ugly (good being in short supply): a WV legislative update

As you may have noticed, the WV legislature is in session and the intent seems to be to burn everything down and lock everybody up. My comrade Lida Shepherd recently prepared an exhaustive update on criminal law legislation that is or may soon be in play. It's probably more than you want to know--we wish we didn't know it too! Oh, yeah and probably more bad stuff has been introduced since...and this is only the bad criminal law stuff. Some of the other stuff is as bad or worse. Enjoy!

Criminal Justice Reform Legislative Update  - current as of Friday, March 5th  

Here are the bills we have our eye on… 

Positive bills we support

HB2094.            Ensures restorative justice can be used in any juvenile case when all parties agree    PASSED HOUSE! 

 Needed action: Please contact Senate Judiciary members and ask they support HB 2094 to help advance restorative justice practices in West Virginia.  HB 2094 recognizes the positive impact restorative justice can have for our kids and our communities. And while a lot of work remains to increase capacity to implement these programs, this bill ensures that a restorative justice process will be an option in any juvenile case if all parties agree to participate. 

Read and share “You cannot be tougher on crime than preventing it in the first place- Delegate Graves hopes restorative justice can help offenders” – Gazette-Mail, Feb. 27

 HB2552.            Removes the one-time limit on the expungement of certain criminal convictions

HB2553.            Reinstates the juvenile justice reform oversight committee

HB2305.            Creates a tax credit for hiring people with certain qualifying criminal convictions

HB 2864             Restores voting rights for people on probation or parole

Needed action: More sponsors! 

Other positive bills yet to be introduced but be on the lookout for:

·       “Ban the box” on state job applications

·       Reentry bill to allow for 180 day early release to community supervision and enhanced funding for transitional housing and reentry services

·       Ending felony murder rule for juveniles 

Bills that are THUMBS DOWN

The following we oppose because they either enhance criminal penalties or shift cost burdens of incarceration,  instead of reducing our reliance on incarceration and extended punishment.   

HB2257.            Subjects people convicted of most drug felony crimes with up to 10 years of extended supervision – PASSED HOUSE

Needed action: Contact Senate Judiciary committee members and ask them to not consider HB 2257 

Talking points: I am asking you to please NOT take up HB 2257 in Senate Judiciary, a bill that is NOT smart on crime.  This bill would add up to 10 years of extended supervision for people with drug offenses after they complete underlying sentence, including any period of parole. Violation of the supervision would result in additional incarceration of up to 10 years. HB 2257 is NO JOBS AND HOPE: instead of creating pathways to employment, stable housing, and drug treatment, this bill would subject people to more supervision, strap them with additional fees, and make it more likely that they return to prison. All of this will drive up recidivism, put more strain on families, and cost West Virginia taxpayers more money.  

Read and share “Major Step Backwards for Criminal Justice Reform” – WV Gazette-Mail, March 2nd 

HB2017.            Rewrites the Criminal Code

Read and share WV Criminal Law Reform Coalition blog HB 2017, a massive sentencing rewrite, enhances penalty for over 200 felonies and why we strongly oppose this bill as introduced

HB 2747             Transfers parole board to the Office of Administrative hearings – To Veteran Affairs committee

HB2184.            Increases the penalties for exposure of governmental representatives to fentanyl or any other harmful drug – PASSED HOUSE

HB2253.            Creates new penalty for to forgery and other crimes concerning lottery tickets – PASSED HOUSE

HB2563.            Requires certain municipalities to pay for the incarceration of inmates - To Political Subdivisions then Finance

HB2379.            Makes criminal invasion of privacy a felony  - To the Judiciary

HB2310.            Relates to death penalty for first degree murder  - To the Judiciary then Finance

HB2377.            Apply death penalty for first degree murder of law enforcement officer or first responder - To the Judiciary

HB2273.            Dividing pretrial detention jail costs between arresting authorities - To the Judiciary then Finance

Please also check out WV Criminal Justice Reform Facebook page for news and updates. 

Thanks for your interest!