The secret of my success (that was irony)

 West Virginia's legislative session began this week and I already wish it was over. My annual prayer has been for the state to finally hit bottom politically, but were heading down like the family in the late great John Prine's song The Bottomless Lake.

The session officially kicked off with Governor Jim Justice's state of the state address. Justice was once the state's only billionaire, but recent news reports have placed him a bit below that level but still way ahead of the rest of us. He was elected as a Democrat in 2016 but switched parties the following year. He was reelected in 2020 and seems set on running against Senator Joe Manchin if the latter runs again in 2024. 

He is perhaps best known for the prominent display of his English bull dog universally known here as Babydog. Usually these displays are of her frontal regions, although there has been at least one major exception to that.

If I had to describe him politically, I'd say he's kind of random. Compared to many state legislative leaders today, he looks pretty moderate. His address blended some good proposals, such as raises for teachers and public employees, investing money in the state's tottering Public Employees Insurance Agency, help to food banks and such with some in the not so much category. One of the worst is cutting the state income tax, WV's only progressive tax, by 50 percent over three years.

The rationale is that WV is running a budget surplus and doesn't need the money, but that's due to low budget estimates, years of flat budgets, federal COVID money and a spike in severance tax revenues that are extremely volatile. In other words, it's a sugar high, although most people here don't feel it.

That would mean an annual loss of revenue of around $1.2 billion per year when fully implemented, coming after several years of a state budget that didn't keep up with inflation. This would mean cuts to all kinds of programs from child care to K-12 to early childhood to higher ed to human services at a time of great and unmet needs. I was please to work on a press conference about this and other issues (see here and here) yesterday.

But the event made me think of a self-esteem saving way of always declaring victory when you try to pull something like that together that I cooked up with a friend years ago. It goes like this:

*if you plan to rally the masses and generate media coverage and the masses don't show up but the media does, pretend you just planned a press conference all along;

*if you plan to rally the masses and generate media coverage and the only people who show up are your cronies, pretend you just planned a meeting all along;

*if you plan to rally the masses and generate media coverage and not even your cronies show up, pretend you're just looking around and that was what you meant to do all along.

The main thing is to declare victory, even if it has to be drastically redefined.

So there.

A big win for public education in West Virginia

 In what was a clear case of people power versus money power, West Virginia voters overwhelmingly rejected two state constitutional measures on the ballot this election day that would have (further) threatened public education in West Virginia.

Amendment 2 would have given the legislature the power to eliminate business equipment taxes, most of which go to local governments to support public education, emergency service, public libraries, senior centers, parks, etc. It was a power grab that would have taken away control from local voters and governments and given it to politicians in Charleston to give tax breaks to their supporters. Needless to say, business interest groups and dark money supported the amendments.

Amendment 2 was defeated by a nearly 2 to 1 margin.

Amendment 4 was equally bad because it would have taken control of public school curriculums away from boards of educations and given it to the same politicians, opening the way to censorship, book banning, stifling of education, and bogus culture wars. 

Amendment 4 was shot down by a margin of approximately 60 to 40.

Credit for this was due to mobilization from many quarters, including boards of education, county commissions, unions, parents, educators and school support workers, firefighters, grassroots advocacy groups and many others. Lots of people I know (myself included) hit the road and threw hearts and souls into stopping 2 and 4.

For once anyway  people power won over money power.

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.)

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.)

Another bad idea

 Some of West Virginia’s political leaders want to abolish the state income tax. One has even said doing so would help bring 400,000 new people to live in West Virginia.

If memory serves, some of the same people predicted that abolishing the state’s prevailing wage for workers on public building projects would save the state $200 million to $300 million a year.

That didn’t happen. In fact, a study released in 2019, albeit from a pro-labor source, found it lowered wages for construction workers, worsened workplace safety and substantially reduced the number of young people in apprentice programs that would set them on a path to lifetime economic security. There wasn’t evidence of savings for the state either.

I think the latest prophecy might meet a similar fate.

The state’s income tax brings in almost $2 billion per year, or over 40% of West Virginia’s basic budget. Most of that goes to K-12 education; health and human services for seniors, children, and working families; post-secondary education; and things like public safety, libraries, parks, natural resources and other public goods.

It’s also the only progressive tax in the state, meaning that those with higher earnings pay a somewhat higher rate. Otherwise, West Virginia’s tax system is already upside down, with lower income residents paying a higher share of their income in taxes than the very wealthy due to regressive sales and excise taxes.

The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy has calculated that the 20% of West Virginians with the lowest income ($15,900 a year or less) pay 9.4% of their income in taxes. The wealthiest 1% (with earnings of $401,600 or more) pay 7.4%.

Adam Smith would not approve. In his justly famous “The Wealth of Nations” (1776), widely regarded as a classic celebration of capitalism, he wrote, “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.”

If the income tax is phased out, it will be made up for either by increasing regressive taxes that will hit lower income people the hardest or by cutting the services they rely on.

Generally speaking, families and businesses want to locate in places with good schools, a good quality of life and a well-trained workforce.

I’d be surprised if 400,000 new people will want to rush into a state with defunded education and training, a crumbling infrastructure, a degraded environment, a lack of the public goods that make a place desirable and an unhealthy workforce.

I think it’s far more likely eliminating the income tax would only speed up our ongoing exodus.

Corporate tax cuts or kids and colleges?

Back in 2007, the West Virginia Legislature dramatically changed the state’s tax system, reducing business taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The package included phasing out the business franchise tax and reducing the corporate net income tax from 9 percent to 6.5 percent. Other cuts and credits would follow.

The annual dollar amount of the cuts, at least $250 million, would have been more than enough to cover the costs of undergraduate tuition for every West Virginian enrolled in state universities, which could have really been a game changer for the state.

Talk about a road not taken.

It was argued at the time that these tax cuts would “pay for themselves,” a scenario about as probable as the belief that if you take gasoline out of your car you can drive it farther. What we did get in that department was an almost annual budget shortfall, including a gap of $27 million this year that had to be made up by one-time transfers from the state Treasurer’s Office.

Usually, budget shortfalls translate into budget cuts.

And the governor’s annual budget report to the Legislature anticipates that the next several years will be even leaner.

This loss of funding has hit higher education particularly hard and raised tuition rates for students. The state spent less per student on higher education in 2018 than it did in 2008.

According to a 2017 report by the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, “Since 2008, state spending in higher education has declined by $130 million, adjusting for inflation.” Tuition rates have doubled since the early 2000s, in a state that trails the nation in educational attainment, with all that that implies in terms of lost income and lower workforce participation.

We were also promised at the time that these tax cuts would create jobs, which didn’t happen. According to the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages, in the 10 years between 2007 and 2017, employment in all industries of all sizes fell from 706,172 to 683,807. The most recent data suggests that, at best, we’re back where we started over 12 years ago.

All of which is to say that the first 10 years of tax cuts brought the state a whole lot of nothing in the way of benefits.

Fast forward to 2020. The Legislature is once again pondering another major round of corporate tax cuts, which leads me to conclude that some people really do want it all.

The latest proposed cuts specifically involve the elimination of the business personal property tax, which covers things like machinery and equipment, tools, fixtures and inventory. There will no doubt be promises that these cuts will pay for themselves and create jobs. Déjà vu all over again.

I’m reminded of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoons.

This alleged “job killing” tax amounts to less than 1 percent of what businesses pay for materials, according to Census data. When you factor in other costs of doing business, such as payroll, energy and capital expenditures, we’re talking about something less than a rounding error. And one peer-reviewed study suggests that eliminating the machinery tax could have the unintended consequence of reducing employment by encouraging automation.

Eliminating this tax would affect state and local governments and particularly hit funding for public schools.

If enacted, these cuts will either mean our schoolchildren and public services take a hit or the lost revenue would be made up by increasing regressive taxes on working families.

It makes a whole lot more sense to invest in our children, workforce and communities.

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

Because we must please our overlords

During the legislative session, HB 3142 made it through both houses. The bill calls for slashing coal severance taxes by $64 million. Here's some coverage of the debate at the time.  And here's an op-ed by my friend Sean O'Leary about why this is a bad idea.

Industry lobbyists claim it will pay for itself zillions of times over. Hmmm...where have we heard that kind of thing before? And how did it go?

It's unlikely that passing such a tax cut would have much of an effect on reversing the long term decline in coal jobs, but it's certain that it will take money away from other things. Reportedly, WV Governor Jim Justice is feeling conflicted about signing the bill into law.

WV people who want to do a good deed should consider calling his office 1-304-556-2000 and urging a veto. You can also contact his office online here. Throwing stuff out on social media wouldn't hurt either.

The Ominous Omnibus

Christmas tree” is a slang term for a piece of legislation that tries to do too much, as in you hang all kinds of things on it. A perfect example of this is the West Virginia Senate’s mammoth omnibus education bill.

Some people I know have already taken to calling it the “ominous bill,” which may be a better fit.

I wish I thought of that.

The proposed legislation could and should be broken up into any number of separate bills, each to be debated on its merits, which in some cases are nonexistent.

To be fair, some provisions are good, such as raising pay for teachers and school support workers and allowing retirees to convert unused sick days into PEIA coverage.

Other provisions, however, would clearly damage public education and move the state further down the road to privatization. These include charter schools, education savings accounts and other means for draining resources from public schools.

Incredibly, the bill actually raises the student/teacher ratio for elementary classes.

Still other provisions seem designed to punish teachers and school workers for their historic victory through a strike last year which improved conditions for thousands of West Virginia families, inspired similar successful efforts in other states and revitalized the movement of working people. These include provisions that make it more difficult for workers to pay dues to the organizations that represent their interests and punish work stoppages even if superintendents cancel schools.

This is what revenge looks like. It’s also a not-too-subtle warning to the peasants on the dangers of revolt.

West Virginia’s children and families deserve better. All of them.

For starters, we need adequate funding for education that includes infrastructure, personnel, equipment, textbooks and materials, including pay raises for teachers and support workers and sustainable funding for PEIA. We don’t need another round of corporate tax cuts that would make it harder for state and local governments to support schools.

When it comes to school reform, we need to say yes to innovation but no to privatization. Obviously, we need new and better ways to deal with trauma, promote STEM learning and encourage entrepreneurship. However, these steps can be taken through existing mechanisms such as community schools and innovation zones.

Gov. Jim Justice hit the nail on the head when he said, “I just believe that today as we strive to provide a better education for everyone, we don’t really need to cherry pick the privileged until we get our public education system in a really good way.”

We need to lower student/teacher ratios, not increase them."

We need a major effort to address mental health issues for students. These are tough times to come of age in West Virginia. We need mandated ratios of mental health professionals and nurses in schools. We also need a statewide task force to identify needs, gaps, best practices and come up with a plan to address the needs. This isn’t a luxury; it’s a matter of basic safety.

Another positive step would be to strengthen Local School Involvement Councils (LSICs), including the creation of a statewide LSIC advisory committee and the representation of students, mental health professionals and disadvantaged parents on local LSICs. We also need a virtual schools advisory council consisting of teachers, facilitators, administrators, parents and students to promote best practices in online education.

To really seal the deal for a better future, we should support an expansion of after school programs, including a transportation component; enhanced early childhood and in-home family education; and expanding debt-free post-secondary education.

Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

The real “school choice” facing West Virginia is one between progress and promise or privatization and punishment.

As the old Appalachian mining song goes, “Which side are you on?”

The empire strikes back

Well, I guess the leadership of the WV senate is out to avenge our teachers and school workers for last year's victory. Yesterday, they unveiled their plan, which includes penalties for work stoppages, messing with union dues, charter schools, and ore. Here's Ryan Quinn from the Gazette on the bill.

Before the bill came out, I wrote out some thoughts for supporters of public education about what a decent approach to education reform might be. Here goes:

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”—Nelson Mandela

Coming of age is never easy—and growing up in West Virginia has always had its challenges. But today children face an array of problems new and old, ranging from the opioid crisis to a changing economy to persistent poverty. 

It’s been calculated that from birth to the time a child reaches 18 years of age, he or she will spend only around 13 percent of time in a school setting, yet school personnel deal with 100 percent of the child’s issues every day.

When it comes to helping kids cope with the present and prepare for the future, West Virginia’s public school teachers and service workers are in the front lines. Our children need a strong system of public education more now than ever.

To protect and strengthen West Virginia’s system of public education, we support the following principles:

Adequate funding for public education, including infrastructure, personnel, equipment, textbooks and materials. We support pay increases for teachers and school support workers, including sustainable funding of the Public Employees Insurance Agency. We oppose tax cut policies that would reduce the ability of state and local governments to support education, such as eliminating the business machinery property tax.

Innovation yes, privatization no. We recognize the need for education experimentation and innovation, such as community schools, new ways to promote STEM and /or entrepreneurship, and more informed approaches to dealing with trauma. We believe these can be achieved through existing mechanisms such as innovation zones and without further legislation.

We oppose diverting public funding to privatization efforts such as charter schools or voucher programs. We agree with Governor Jim Justice, who said “I just believe that today as we strive to provide a better education for everyone, we don’t really need to cherry pick the privileged until we get our public education system in a really good way,” he said.

We support lowering teacher/student ratios to ensure that students receive adequate personal attention from teachers., including a student ratio 1:15 for elementary, 1:18 middle school, and 1:20 high school.

We support efforts to address mental health issues for students, including increasing mental health professionals in schools so that students can be assessed and referred to appropriate treatments as necessary; creating a statewide mental health task force to identify strengths, gaps and best practices and create a strategic plan to address the issues; and train teachers and school support workers to better deal with trauma.

Specifically, we recommend a ratio of 1:250 social 1:250 social workers and counselors and a 1:1000 ratio psychologists as well as complete wraparound services including full time in school-based nurses in every school.

We propose the strengthening of Local School Involvement Councils (LSICs), including the creation of a statewide LSIC advisory committee and the representation of students, mental health professionals and disadvantaged parents on local LSICs.

We support after school expansion providing all schools with funding for after school programs including a transportation component.

We support the creation of a virtual schools advisory council to consist of teachers, classroom facilitators, administrators, parents and students in order to promote best practices in online education.

We support expanding early childhood education, including pre-K and in-home family education. We support universal access to voluntary home visiting programs for expecting parents and families with infants and toddlers.

We support efforts to provide free post-secondary education at the vocational and community college level. As a long-term goal, we propose debt-free higher education at public colleges and universities for all students.

We believe that the strengthening of our public schools is vital for the future of our democracy. In the words of Horace Mann, a pioneer in American education, “Education then beyond all other devices of human origin is the great equalizer of the conditions of men the balance wheel of the social machinery.”

Groaning with anticipation

The WV legislature's regular session starts tomorrow and I can't say that I'm dancing with joy, although there seems to be a decent chance that a few good bills may pass. One that doesn't meet that criteria is a proposal to cut business property taxes by around $140 million per year, which would most likely mean a major hit for public education.

While business property taxes have frequently been described as "job killers" by the current majority, the evidence isn't convincing. In fact, a study of similar cuts in Ohio points the other way, with an estimated loss of over 19,000 jobs. That doesn't reflect any damage done to public sector investment or employment.

This is one of those zombie policy ideas that keeps shuffling around after repeatedly being killed in years past. We could do a lot more with that $140 million than pour it down another tax cut rat hole.

How could this be?

I am shocked--shocked--to learn that the bulk of the Trump tax cuts for the rich and corporations did not get immediately passed on to workers as promised. Instead, it apparently many companies used the cuts to buy back their own stock.

Golly, I mean after all, didn't Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders say that "More than 70 percent of this will be returned to workers"? It must be true then, right?

Gotta be fake news. SAD.

#Red4Ed

It all started here in WV.

It's been great to see the huge masses of teachers and their allies filling the streets in Raleigh, North Carolina today. I hope the ball that started rolling in West Virginia keeps moving on. And that the victories keep coming.

Like the WV strike, the protests in North Carolina highlight the damage done by passing irresponsible and unproductive tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy at the expense of things like education, health and infrastructure.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that tax cuts enacted in NC since 2013, which haven't even gone into full effect yet, have included:

*Across-the-board cuts to personal income tax rates that disproportionately benefit the wealthy by replacing the state’s graduated system (with rates of 6, 7, and 7.75 percent) with a flat rate, currently 5.499 percent.

*A cut of more than half to the corporate income tax rate, which has fallen from 6.9 percent in 2013 to 3 percent today.

*An end to the state’s estate tax, which will only benefit heirs of estates worth over $5.25 million — under 1 percent of estates.

I guess you could say you get what you don't pay for.

In case you were thinking this is just a coincidence, which anyone reading this probably isn't, check out this piece on how billionaires and corporations have been pushing this kind of agenda for years.
It gets pretty specific.

Then there's this Bloomberg story on how tax cuts pushed the the Kochs and their ilk have driven teachers to the streets. I particularly like this line:

"The wave of strikes in the past three months is just the latest sign that Tea Party-style austerity is losing favor."

May it be so.

Condemned to repeat it?

Teachers don't strike often, but when they do they rip away the veil from West Virginia's open secret, which is hidden in plain sight. To wit, our colonial economy, the legacy of 100+ years of absentee corporate ownership and exploitation, which created private wealth for the overlords and public squalor for everyone else. 

Historian John Alexander Williams wrote that this colonial arrangement that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was characterized by

...a high degree of absentee ownership, which took on a new and increasingly controversial form as large corporations displaced the smaller firms and individuals who pioneered in industrial development; heavy dependence upon extractive industries oriented to distant markets; and a relative lack of those manufacturing industries that provided the greatest stimuli to material growth and welfare in the nation at large.

He also wrote that

 In its repetitive cycle of boom and bust, its savage exploitation of men and nature, in its seemingly endless series of disasters, the coal industry has brought grief and hardship to all but a small proportion of the people whose lives it touched.

All that is old news. But recent reporting by the Charleston Gazette-Mail's Ken Ward puts it into context for the new century in two recent ProPublica-supported pieces on the human costs of coal and whether we'll learn anything from it in the era of fracking. The jury's still out, but the home team isn't looking too lucky at the moment.

While I'm giving shoutouts to the Gazette, I second these words of political reporter Phil Kabler on the choices facing voters in the next election:

A fundamental question for voters in this election cycle and for the foreseeable future: Should state governments follow the Koch brothers/ALEC approach of shrinking funding for programs and services to the point of dysfunction in the pursuit of tax cuts that primarily benefit corporations and the wealthy, or should states impose a level of taxation that provides adequate funding for programs such as public education, higher education, transportation, infrastructure, public health, public safety, corrections and, yes, perhaps even the Human Rights Commission.

Two for the weekend

In case you missed it, and are really bored, here's the latest of our weekly Wonk's World Facebook Live episodes on what's going on at the WV legislature, complete with props. Topics include teacher pay vs. tax cuts for business and the "noodling" of catfish. Really.

Then there's the latest Front Porch podcast about the bankruptcy of the Gazette...and, yes, noodling catfish.

Rounding out the week

Hannah Arendt, 1906-1975.

I just came across this quote by Hannah Arendt. Somehow it doesn't give me a good feeling:

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction... and the distinction between true and false... no longer exist.”

SPEAKING OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN FACT AND FICTION, check out AFSC's weekly update on the WV legislature. We call it Wonk's World, as in Wayne's World for policy wonks. Our goal is to be silly but mostly truthful and snarky but not mean.  Here's this week's and here's the first one.  

 WHILE WE'RE AT IT, here's a great op-ed by my friend Dan Kurland on WV's version of the hunger games.

#TaxScam revisited

It looks like America’s ruling elite has decided to give itself a huge raise and the rest of us are going to pay for it in one way or another. The U.S. Senate’s “tax reform” bill is one that is likely to affect Americans for years. Even decades. Not in a good way.

Here are 10 things we need to know about the highly partisan version of the bill that’s been pushed through the Senate.

1. President George W. Bush passed massive tax cuts and what we got was ... permanent prosperity? Oh, wait, it was the biggest crash since the Great Depression. I’m not saying the tax cuts were the main cause of the crash, although they did contribute to the financial bubbles that led to it. But it’s obvious that tax cuts don’t guarantee growth or prosperity or economic stability.

2. This is a Trojan horse. The massive transfer of wealth to those who already have it will eventually crowd out funding for things like Medicare, Medicaid, student aid, food security, housing, etc.

3. There are plenty of “starve the beast” ideologues who want that to happen. They hope a crisis will force cuts to domestic programs.

4. If that sounds paranoid, consider that President Donald Trump has promised to pursue welfare “reform” next, despite the fact that it was already drastically reformed over 20 years ago. This time around, the definition of welfare is going to be broadened to include any form of federal spending that goes to working people, seniors, kids or the poor.

5. Then there’s the whole thing about adding $1.5 trillion-plus to the deficit for no good reason.

6. Whatever cuts some middle class people will get is a sugar high. Those cuts are temporary, while cuts to corporations and the wealthy are permanent.


7. Due to the tilt of the programs towards the wealthy, people in 19 states, including West Virginia, will eventually pay more in 2027 than they do under current law.

8. Then there’s the consequences of repealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which will greatly increase the number of uninsured Americans and drive up costs for everyone else. Trump has also pledged to pursue the further dismantling of recent health care gains.

9. The whole thing is based on flaky economics. A University of Chicago poll of economists found that only 2 percent of those polled thought the “reform” package would boost the economy; 36 percent were uncertain, 33 percent disagreed and another 19 percent strongly disagreed. There was, however, pretty universal agreement that it would blow up the national debt.

10. Over the last few decades, the U.S. has moved dramatically away from democracy and towards oligarchy and plutocracy, defined as effective rule by a wealthy few. This is likely to seal the deal.

Given all that, golly, what could possibly go wrong?

(This item appeared in the Gazette-Mail this week. It may resemble an earlier blog post.)

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?

The two step budget shuffle

Congress just voted to engage in a grossly irresponsible two step maneuver which will cut taxes mostly for the rich in the short term and make everyone else pay for it long term. For a quick look at just how the tax cuts will hurt people who need housing, health care, food, and education, check out these posts by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

For a look at what the two step will do to people in West Virginia--and what would make much more sense--check out this report from the Coalition on Human Needs and the WV Center on Budget and Policy.

Whatever happened to gratitude?

You might think that President Trump, after receiving overwhelming support from West Virginia and much of Appalachia, would show the region a little love in his proposed federal budget.

That didn't happen. Instead, the president proposed massive cuts that would hit West Virginia and the Appalachian region harder than the rest of the country.

Among the programs on the chopping block are SNAP, which provides basic food security to over 340,000 West Virginians, about one in five. Many of those who receive these benefits are working people in low wage jobs - and these SNAP dollars are spent in local businesses, supporting thousands of jobs.

Then there's WIC, a nutrition assistance program that helps pregnant and nursing women as well as young children and over half of the nation's infants.

The highly successful Children's Health Insurance Program, which covers almost 35,000 West Virginia children, is also targeted. Thanks to CHIP, West Virginia has become a national leader in insuring children, with a coverage rate of around 97 percent. That could be undone.

There are also threats to low income energy assistance, disability benefits, Meals on Wheels for seniors, and temporary assistance to needy families.

One cut that seems particularly unsportsmanlike is the proposed elimination of the Appalachian Regional Commission, which has supported infrastructure and economic development projects in the region since its establishment in 1965.

You could almost view the other cuts as generic indifference to or contempt of disadvantaged people all over the nation, but the ARC hit seems like a deliberate and targeted slap in the face.

To his credit, Republican U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins came out strong against the Trump budget in May. In his statement he said:

"While I appreciate the president's aim to cut wasteful spending, this budget goes too far in critical areas for West Virginia. The proposed cuts to our safety net programs, including Medicaid and SNAP, would hurt too many of our state's most vulnerable citizens, and I cannot support this budget proposal.

"The budget also proposes eliminating programs crucial to West Virginia's economic development and diversification - the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Economic Development Administration. We need to do more to attract new industries to our coalfields and invest in our infrastructure, and these two programs have a track record of success in West Virginia."

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the budget resolution passed by House Republicans does much of the same thing. The end result would be increasing hardship and poverty, growing inequality, weakened investments in our nation's future and a shift of costs to already hard-pressed states.

And the hidden agenda behind this kind of slash-and-burn approach to the federal budget is to provide yet more tax cuts for the rich, a zombie-like failed policy that keeps coming back from the dead.

The dangers of these disastrous cuts being fast-tracked through Congress are real. We need Congressman Jenkins and his colleagues to stay the course and continue to fight for a budget that reflects our needs and values.

(Note: this appeared as an op-ed in the Huntington Herald Dispatch on Sunday.)

Groundhog Day, WV style

In Bill Murray’s classic movie, “Groundhog Day,” the main character winds up having to live through the same day over and over.

West Virginia’s ongoing budget crisis and standoff is starting to remind me of that ... minus the personal growth, romance and happy ending.

The twisted path to our current mess goes back several years, beginning with hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts first enacted around 10 years ago. We were told that the business tax cuts “would pay for themselves,” something which has never happened anywhere.

They didn’t.

We were also told the cuts would lead to the creation of many new jobs.

They didn’t.

We have several thousand fewer private sector jobs in the state now than 10 years ago.

Take those ingredients, shake, and throw in market-driven declines in the coal and gas industries, and that’s the recipe for how we got here.

Over the past several years, around $600 million has been cut from the state budget, including higher-education spending, which has declined in absolute and relative terms. There’s not a lot of fat left to trim. Further cuts would likely harm kids, college students of all ages, seniors, veterans and working people, not to mention everyone else.

Many of the current crop of legislators are opposed to tax increases to make up the difference. Last year, the budget controversy nearly led to a partial state shutdown. And things aren’t all that rosy this year.

One idea for a resolution to this problem is a “compromise” proposal supported by the Senate and Gov. Jim Justice, all for the best of reasons.

On the positive side, the compromise would avoid the possibility of a partial shutdown and would provide a temporary increase in revenue.

On the downside, proposed cuts to the state income tax would cost the state more over time than any increases in revenue from consumption taxes.

This would mean an ongoing budget crisis every year, with more and more painful cuts to things we need, like schools, higher and vocation education, public safety, health care, etc.

That would be the bad “Groundhog Day” part.

On top of that, the kinds of taxes that would increase are regressive, meaning they would hit people with low incomes hardest. Those with higher incomes would get a big break, since income taxes are progressive, in that they are the only state tax actually based on ability to pay: The rate goes up a bit as income grows.

It’s been argued that this shift from income to consumption taxes would be the biggest tax cut for the rich in West Virginia history, which is saying something.

Think Robin Hood in reverse.

There is a better way. A number of citizen groups, as well as political leaders, have proposed a simple solution to the mess that would avoid cuts to education, public broadcasting, higher ed, the Promise Scholarship, health and human services, etc. It would avert a shutdown. It would not blow a huge hole into future state budgets. It would also avoid the “Groundhog Day” effect of repeated annual crises.

The proposal:

1. A modest increase in the sales tax from 6 percent to 6.5 percent.

2. Expand sales taxes to cover services and industries that have so far avoided taxation.

3. Enact a fair-share tax of 1 percent on incomes over $200,000.

4. Offset the impact of higher sales taxes on low income families by enacting a 5 percent Earned Income Tax Credit.

Taken together, these measures would provide around $270 million in revenue.

It’s not a silver bullet, but it could point the way to a fair solution, or at least shift the conversation to a more productive direction.

If we don’t come up with a better solution, on the order of this one, West Virginia is likely to share the fate of Kansas, where ill-advised tax cuts once again failed to deliver and left things in shambles.

In baseball, that would be called an unforced error.

You could also call it a series of really bad Groundhog Days.

(Note: this appeared in today's Charleston Gazette-Mail.)