SUGGESTIONS FOR THE WV STATE LEGISLATURE TO FIX OUR BUDGET WOES.

     West Virginia's state budget is in trouble, again. Last year, in the state legislatures normal session, they worked on raw milk legislation, the religious freedom act, passed right to work, and repealed prevailing wage, Voter ID, common core, they restricted a woman's right to choose, discussed drug testing welfare recipients, allowed permit less carry of concealed weapons, voted to CUT taxes on natural gas and coal, worked on allowing Uber to operate in our state (good job), worked on a brunch bill (good job), they talked about reducing the sales tax, a lawsuit was threatened over having floor votes on Sunday, they approved WVU Tech to move to Beckley (good job) and worked on broadband access to rural WV (good job). This is not an entire list, check out http://wvpublic.org/term/2016-legislative-session for more. Point is, they didn't finish a budget, and had to come back for a special session to work out the budget, which cost the state six hundred thousand dollars.

     In the special session, the legislature decided to raise taxes on cigarettes to one dollar and twenty cents a pack, which make a 98 million dollar dent in the deficit. That sounds good right? Except that the cigarette tax just about paid for the tax break given to coal and gas companies mentioned earlier (110 million dollars). The rainy day fund was also used to the tune of 70 million dollars, along with the cuts amounting to 120 million dollars. Add to that, Governor Tomblin has ordered for a mid year 2 percent cut to all state agencies as of 11/15/16.

     Now, I know what you are thinking, there was an election 11/8/16, there is no way we allowed these jokers back in office, right? Surely the legislature will swing back to the Democrats after the dismal performance by WV Republicans. Nope, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats in the state house of delegates was plus one to the Democrats, and a wider margin for the Republicans in the Senate. This makes me want to pull my hair out, as I'm sure it does others. However, the election is over now, and we need to move forward. The state is again facing a budget crisis, Its looking to be about 300 million dollars. It is evident though, that the Legislature needs help, and perhaps they don't know what they're doing. So, here's some ideas that may help:

     1. THE STATE BUDGET HAS TO BE THE PRIORITY! No more raw milk, tax cuts, drug testing, concealed weapons or lawsuits until you have fixed the budget, that's got to be first. I thought this would be self evident, but apparently not.

     2. Explore new ideas on how to create revenue: A. Open up hunting on Sundays on both public and private land. A representative from the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation told lawmakers in September that if Sunday hunting was legal on both public and private land statewide, roughly 2,600 jobs and $155 million in economic activity per year would be created. 

     Boogie Ambler the Republican Delegate from my district in here in Greenbrier county, has put forward a bill to make it legal to hunt on Sundays on private land. You got it half right anyway Boogie, thanks for trying.

          B. Allow alcohol to be sold like any other day on Sunday, this will help our tourism and hospitality industry, I don't know the numbers on that, it just seems like common sense. 

          C. Raise the sales tax one percent, which will net an additional 225 million dollars for the state. 

     3. The Republicans and Democrats must work together and compromise, for the greater good.

     Those are just three things, which I think won't hurt the public so much (I hate raising taxes, but one percent isn't that bad) and will raise revenue. There are other things we could talk about, like legalizing marijuana, and repealing tax breaks for natural gas, but in politics, post election cycles, we talk about the ideas that could actually happen. I agree with both those things, FYI.

     Heres a letter you can copy and paste in an email to your state delegate/senator. There is a link on the right hand column for the WV state Legislature. Just use it to find the appropriate politicians and their email.

To the honorable ________,

    I live in your district and I have some concerns I would like to share with you regarding our great states future. West Virginias state budget is in trouble and has already had many cuts over the years. Please make the state budget your focus, while attempting to avoid further cuts. A few ideas you could consider to help revenue: 1. Make it legal to hunt on Sundays on private and public land. This will raise an estimated 155 million dollars. 2. Allow stores and restuarants to sell alcoholic beverages as they would any other day on Sunday. This would help the tourism and hospitality industries.
3. Consider raising the sales tax by 1 percent, this will raise an estimated 225 million dollars.

Thank you for your time,

________ (your name here)

   

     So thats my letter with suggestions to our state legislature. Thanks again to all the great media outlets, in this case the Beckley Register-herald, the Charleston Gazette, WV metro news, the mountain messenger and WV public broadcasting. Keep up the great work. Also, these are just my opinions, I'm not an expert of any kind.

P.S.
     I have received my first response back from one of our state Senators, Ronald Miller from my state Senate district, district 10 comprising Greenbrier, Monroe, Summers, Fayette counties. To paraphrase, he states that he is very focused on the budget, as he has been. He has had his tax plan publised in the Beckley Newspapers, and supports the Earned Income Tax Credit, which would give money back to low income familys. For example, a single mother of one, working full-time at $9 per hour, would earn $18,720 a year before taxes, and would owe about $489 in state income taxes, according to the report. 

A 15 percent EITC would allow her to keep $474, reducing her tax burden to $15, the report continued. 

That sounds fair to me, like the Governor Elect Jim Justice says, we need to grow our way out of the current budget/economic crisis. Senator Millers tax plan included the 1 percent sales tax increase, and included a telecommunications tax. It also included a tax cut to small buisness and the middle class, as well as the EITC. All of which he states, would have met the state budget gap of 271 million dollars. For more information regarding Senator Miller's tax plan, go to http://mountainmessenger.com/senator-ron-miller-creates-tax-plan/.  Thank you Senator Miller for responding to my email, I wish you luck in the upcoming legislative session. 

http://www.register-herald.com/news/balanced-budget-may-mean-more-out-of-rainy-day-fund/article_8b85dfeb-017f-52bc-af5f-009b07b25316.html

http://wvpublic.org/term/2016-legislative-session

http://wvpublic.org/post/bill-would-cut-both-coal-and-natural-gas-severance-tax-rates

http://wvpublic.org/post/senator-drops-lawsuit-over-sunday-session

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20160702/statehouse-beat-budget-special-session-cost-600000

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20160614/wv-lawmakers-end-special-session-with-budget-peia-bills

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-business/20161112/after-sunday-hunting-approvals-supporters-look-for-economic-benefits

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20161115/tomblin-orders-mid-year-2-wv-budget-cuts-

http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/Bills_history.cfm?input=4170&year=2016&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill

http://wvmetronews.com/2013/04/03/no-go-for-sunday-alcohol-bill/

http://www.register-herald.com/news/tax-reform-a-real-possibility-in-west-virginia/article_9ca542f8-929a-54f6-8bfb-74c81871fc8b.html

http://www.register-herald.com/news/eitc-would-put-more-money-into-the-economy/article_04c0ed95-5386-58f7-bfac-df1ca2d04712.html

http://mountainmessenger.com/senator-ron-miller-creates-tax-plan/