Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
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The Herald-Dispatch on the state budget:
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle knew West Virginia’s 2017 legislative session would be difficult.
State government faces a $100 million budget deficit in the current year’s budget that will almost certainly require a healthy withdrawal from the state’s dwindling “rainy day fund.” Even more daunting is the $500 million deficit in next year’s budget.
Yet, several weeks into the session, the work on the budget seems to be moving at its typical pace - slow. Last week, Gov. Jim Justice installed a new “countdown clock” in the Capitol building and on his web page, as a not-so-subtle reminder to lawmakers about the urgency.
The new governor has outlined two plans, one that would implement a number of tax increases to fund next year’s budget. He also has presented an alternative budget that includes massive cuts to almost every state department and service.
The governor also has been touring the state, trying to build support for his plan for new taxes to fund state government. That included a visit to Barboursville Monday, and other local press conferences showing the impact severe cuts would have.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been considering a dramatic tax reform plan that would add taxes and gradually reduce the state income tax. It’s not clear how the plan would affect the current budget crisis, and a fiscal review calls into question whether the reform would produce the future revenue needed.
Senate Bill 335 would expand the sales tax to more goods and services and perhaps increase it to as much as 8 percent. But the fiscal note prepared by Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow estimates that after removing the income tax, the state would come up about $610 million short per year.
With a Democratic governor and a Republican controlled legislature, it is not surprising that there widely differing approaches. But that means it is going to take more time to negotiate a clear plan that the public supports and understands.
For many years, the Senate and House versions of the budget bill would come together in the last week of the session and with final adjustments made in a short extended session. Last year, that approach resulted in an extra session that lasted until June, and this year the task is even more complex.
The budget clock is ticking.
Online:
https://www.herald-dispatch.com/
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March 7
The Exponent Telegram on urban and rural blight:
For all of its inherent beauty, West Virginia also suffers from urban and, even, rural blight.
For every mountaintop peak shrouded in fog, to the colorscape of fall, the Mountain State also has a house in ruin, a building collapsing.
But there is relief in sight, or at least the beginning of relief in sight.
Sparked in part by Clarksburg’s ultra-successful dilapidated building demolition program, as well as the efforts of the Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center at West Virginia University, more and more communities are targeting rundown buildings for renovation or demolition.
“Honestly, it’s been an issue for a long time,” Luke Elser told Staff Writer Brittany Murray for an in-depth story that appeared in Sunday’s The Exponent Telegram as well as this week’s State Journal. Elser is the head of the brownfields program at West Virginia University.
Once focused solely on former commercial properties that were contaminated by the manufacturing facilities that were on site, the WVU program now offers a BAD (Blighted, Abandoned and Dilapidated) Buildings Program that helps communities identify, target and respond to issues.
The program has worked with 17 communities thus far, Elser said, explaining he helps cities identify a plan and funding sources.
The program is beneficial, especially to smaller communities like Weston and Shinnston, both of which have participated.
BAD officials help city leaders with comprehensive planning and prioritizing those buildings that pose the biggest public health threat.
“They can’t deal with 100 in a year,” Elser explained. “They may have to tackle just three or five in a year. We help them look at whether to prioritize the ones that residents may come to the city council meetings to complain about or the one that’s a bigger safety risk on a main artery through town that kids frequently walk by. We help them with determining the why, as well as the how.”
Bigger cities such as Clarksburg and Huntington face larger problems since they are more populous and urban in nature. Both have resorted to buying properties and/or condemning them to protect the public’s well-being.
Clarksburg borrows money from the West Virginia Housing Development Authority to expedite the process, using general fund money, as well as any proceeds made from the selling of revitalized property to offset the payments.
Huntington formed a land bank, which gives it the ability to purchase abandoned buildings, often demolishing them and then re-selling the land for future development.
The efforts are important for several reasons. Dilapidated homes and buildings often become havens for the homeless and/or a criminal element including drug traffickers.
Also, the rundown properties affect other properties in the area, driving down potential sale prices. And there is the risk to public safety, either through infestation of pest and rodents, or from collapse.
“Community blight is a lot of times described as a cancer,” Elser told The Exponent Telegram. “What starts out as only one dilapidated property turns into three, then five, then 10. Suddenly you have a neighborhood that is no longer safe and it’s not viable. It hurts the heart and soul of many of these communities. That sense of community is destroyed.”
We agree and applaud the efforts of the WVU program and the communities that are utilizing it.
Correcting the state’s blight is a great investment in the future and is much needed. Here’s hoping their efforts continue to reap success.
Online:
https://www.theet.com/
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March 6
The Inter-Mountain on bureaucracy in West Virginia:
With little fanfare, West Virginia legislators are making a concerted attack that is long overdue. It is against the jungle of state regulations that make government more expensive while adding unnecessarily to the cost and frustration of creating and maintaining jobs in our state.
Among regulations that were not even good ideas at the time they were established is one involving schools that teach nurses, Delegate Danny Hamrick, R-Harrison, pointed out last week.
Current state Board of Nursing rules limit the number of nurses in a training program. Specifically, schools may not go beyond a specific student-teacher ratio in classes. “I’ve talked to a lot of nursing teachers, and they all say they can handle more students,” Hamrick noted.
Obviously, cutting corners in an endeavor as important as training health care workers is not a good thing. But various licensing requirements are in place to ensure graduates know what they are doing.
Hamrick is chairing a new panel in the House, the Subcommittee on Anti-Competitive Rules and Regulations. It was created last week by Delegate Gary Howell, R-Mineral, as part of the Committee on Government Organization that he chairs.
“The goal is to make it easier for people to start a business in a field that currently requires an occupational license,” Howell explained.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the state Capitol, senators have been busy, too. They recently passed five bills eliminating obsolete state regulations, with each measure passing unopposed.
Obsolete rules involving everything from a hemophilia program that has not existed for years to banking regulations are being taken off the books.
“For too long, West Virginia has been ranked as having the most burdensome, onerous regulatory structure of any state,” said state Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, in explaining the initiative.
Precisely. Too much bureaucratic red tape is part of the challenge West Virginia’s economy must overcome. Mountain State residents’ reaction to the state Senate and House of Delegates ought to be a simple, “Keep up the good work
Online:
https://www.theintermountain.com/
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