Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
May 20
Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail on tax reform committee:
In its second meeting in as many weeks Monday, the Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform did what it did the first time: it listened.
That’s still what it should be doing as it gathers information about how it can restructure West Virginia’s complicated, regressive and antiquated tax code. No one is promoting a certain tax proposal yet — the group is simply gathering information from people who know taxes and state operations.
Several tax experts spoke to the committee.
Joseph Henchman and Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation talked about West Virginia’s tax structure and its tax rates.
While many of the experts spoke on how the state’s tax system compares to its surrounding states, the Daily Mail’s Joel Ebert reported that Henchman warned officials to also consider taxes in a national and even global context.
“A tax system has to reflect the strengths and the weaknesses of a state,” he said, noting that New York’s tax system would not work in a state like South Dakota.
Both Henchman and Walczak suggested some solutions, including phasing out the state’s business and occupation tax and removing the business personal property from the tax base.
The committee will continue listening when it next meets June 9 to hear representatives of the state’s cities and counties.
Kudos to the tax reform committee for spending their first few meetings listening and taking in the views of experts across the country.
Kudos to legislative leaders for seriously considering tax reform. As they continue to listen, one thing to keep in mind is West Virgina’s current state of affairs.
West Virginia is losing population. Flat, easily developable land is hard to come by. West Virginia trails other states in workforce preparedness (although many are working hard to change that). Many from outside of the area have a negative view of the state. Settling for having an OK tax structure and rates won’t be good enough.
West Virginia needs to give itself every advantage it can. To grow the state economically, the tax structure and tax rates need to be among the most attractive in the nation.
Online:
https://www.charlestondailymail.com
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May 17
The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia, on working mothers:
West Virginia sitting near the bottom of a national ranking? Ho-hum, you say. SSDD - same stuff, different day. That’s the general reaction to such news stories.
But this time it’s different. A new survey by WalletHub says West Virginia is 44th in the tally of states that are the worst for working mothers. We are 47th in gender gap pay and 37th in child care, the survey found.
That’s appalling.
Affordable child care is one of the most important aspects a woman considers as she contemplates taking a job. After the day care bill is paid, will any of her paycheck be left to make it all worthwhile?
West Virginia is one of the leaders in the Universal Pre-K System, with 70 percent of its 4-year-olds enrolled.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said about that program, “By focusing our attention on meeting the educational needs of our youngest children, we establish a strong foundation for academic success before their first day of kindergarten.”
Shouldn’t the same theory hold true for younger children who need a safe place to stay while their parents are working? Is it not possible for the state to use some of the same concepts to devise a day care program that will help families who have no solution to their child care issues at an affordable price?
The wage gender gap will be a tougher nut to crack. After all, we have been trying for more than 50 years now, since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed by President Kennedy.
Even when researchers allow for all factors known to affect pay - including occupation, industry, hours worked, workplace flexibility, experience, educational attainment, age, race/ethnicity, region, marital status and motherhood - women still are paid almost 7 percent less than men just one year after college, and the gap grows from there.
Because so many women occupy overall low-paying positions, the problem is exacerbated.
All of these factors combine to make life difficult, not just for the women themselves, but for thousands of West Virginia families.
Nationwide research has found that 40 percent of households with children include a mother who is either the sole or primary earner for her family. In West Virginia, that figure equates to 50 percent of the state’s children living in poverty.
That is beyond appalling. In 2015, a gender pay gap should not be such a serious issue.
Pay equity is the key to families making ends meet and moving working families into the middle class, says a report from the American Association of University Women, a staunch advocate of equal pay.
Pay discrimination also limits women’s life choices and has real short- and long-term consequences. It impairs the ability of women and families to buy homes and pay for college educations, and it limits their total lifetime earnings, savings and benefits, which makes women much more vulnerable to poverty in retirement, the AAUW report says.
President Obama signed executive orders last year to push equal pay along, and at least two pieces of legislation to help close the gap further are before Congress. The latter could use your help in pushing them along.
Contact your representatives and senators and tell them you don’t want to see families suffer any longer, or see so many children in West Virginia languishing in poverty.
Online:
https://www.register-herald.com
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May 18
Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, West Virginia on low voter turnout:
The 2014 midterm elections will be remembered for creating a new balance of power in Washington.
But they also will be remembered as a new benchmark on America’s continuing slide in voter participation. About 36 percent of the nation’s registered voters turned out the worst showing since World War II.
Without a presidential race, mid-term elections have traditionally had lower turnout, but with so much at stake having just a little more than a third of registered adults vote is discouraging. The presidential election turnout also has declined over the past decades, with a few notable exceptions such as the 63 percent turnout in 2008 for the Obama-McCain race.
But the picture is looking even bleaker for local elections, especially those not tied to a national election.
Last week, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes predicted only about 10 percent of registered voters are expected to cast ballots in the state’s Democratic and Republican primaries on Tuesday, even though it features a wide-open governor’s race.
Incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear cannot seek re-election because of term limits, and Attorney General Jack Conway is considered a strong front-runner in the Democratic primary. Meanwhile, Republicans Matt Bevin, James Comer, Hal Heiner and Will T. Scott are all vying for the Republican nomination. The ballot also includes contested races for other statewide offices, including treasurer, attorney general and agricultural commissioner.
Only about 70 percent of Kentucky’s voting age population is registered, so you can figure that an important part of the future of state politics will be determined by about 7 percent of the people who could potentially vote, based on Grimes’ prediction. Sadly, the turnout in some of West Virginia’s recent gubernatorial primaries and special elections was not much better.
Many states have made it easier than ever to vote, with 20 states now offering online registration and most all offering some form of early voting. But so far, those procedural changes have not reversed the trend.
Many would argue that is because the core problem is voter engagement, and there seems to be a host of reasons that Americans have tuned out to the political process from growing distrust of institutions to an overall decline in civic literacy and responsibility.
But the one thing that has dramatically increased as turnout has dramatically declined is negative advertising. Despite mounting evidence that all the mean-spirited attacks just turn off voters, court decisions have opened up the floodgates to even more of it.
The foundation of democracy is robust participation by an informed public. Otherwise, the power gradually flows into the hands of a few.
From the looks of the forecast for the Kentucky primaries, we are just about there.
Online:
https://www.herald-dispatch.com
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