West Virginia’s tax revenue slide is continuing as October’s collections fell about $8 million below estimates.
Deputy revenue secretary Mark Muchow tells media outlets that collections of personal income, consumer sales and business and occupation taxes were all below estimates.
Personal income and consumer sales taxes are the state’s biggest sources of tax revenue.
Natural gas production boosted severance tax collections above estimates. But Muchow says it wasn’t enough to offset the declines.
October’s tax collections totaled about $313.5 million.
Tax collections in September were about $2 million below estimates.
Tag: Economy
ChannelNet founder and Marshall Alumna lays out plan for success
A Marshall graduate recently visited Huntington to share a story of motivation. The alumna now owns a company that specializes in using technology for marketing campaigns.
Paula Tompkins spoke to college students and alumni last week at the Marshall University Foundation Hall. The native Huntingtonian and alum of Marshall had a complex, but simple message. To succeed in the business world entrepreneurs have to be persistent, focused and find an idea that’s not already addressed.
“Dive into the deep end of the pool, you’ve just got to go. You’ve got to pull up your socks, you’ve got to write your idea down and you’ve got to take it to as many people as will listen to you,” Tompkins said.
“When I came up with the idea for my company I took it to some of my friends in Silicon Valley and they all told me it’s the dumbest idea they had ever heard of, seriously.”
Tompkins ideas led her from an early career with 3M and General Electric to starting her own business, ChannelNet in 1985. The company is based on using new technologies in sales and marketing ideas.
ChannelNet is based in San Francisco and has worked with companies such as Ford, BMW, IBM, Intel, Macy’s and Coca Cola. ChannelNet started just as the popularity of personal computers was on the rise. She used those computers and software to create unheard of marketing campaigns. Tompkins said technology is the key and something companies have to stay ahead of.
“Its quicksand, the technology evolves and you have to evolve with it and keep up and it moves at lightning speed, but the concepts and the kinds of things we’re trying to do really has remained the same. The way people used technology then to shop for a car using a PC and a diskette, today they’re doing the same things online,” Tompkins said.
Tompkins said it can be tough to be the leader of a company because the business world is never steady, it’s up and down continuously.
“Ups and downs are absolutely wrenching, you know recession hits the first time and you haven’t been through it, you’ve got all these employees and money is getting tight and you’re worried about whether you’re going to meet the payroll and in 28 years I’ve never missed a payroll,” Tompkins said.
Tompkins said in the world of technology and business, there has to be a marriage. Meaning IT people shouldn’t be the ones selling the products, they need to work with sales people closely.
“It takes all kinds and all disciplines, in my business today its art and creative people and copywriters, sales people, marketing people, I mean there is a whole range of people that come together and it isn’t just all about IT,” Tompkins said.
Aaron Davis is a student in game development and digital forensics. He said her speech inspired him.
“Well one thing that hit me the most was, if you have an idea, the second step drive is something that I need to start incorporating more, that really hit hard and so motivation wise, that’s where a lot of us fall short,” Davis said.
Brandon Slone is an Integrated Science and Technology major. He said he never thought about the fact that entrepreneurs need more than IT knowledge.
“Like she said you have to combine the arts and the IST programs because I’m fairly good with computers, but when it comes to making graphics and some of the things that my sister does I have no clue and what she was showing was a combination of the two,” Slone said.
Tompkins still has family that lives in Huntington.
W.Va. Public Service Commission hears electric bill concerns
The West Virginia Public Service Commission got an earful from Eastern Panhandle electric customers unhappy with Potomac Edison’s billing practices during a public hearing Wednesday evening and Thursday morning in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Customers are upset because last winter and spring they received estimated monthly bills that were much higher than normal. In some cases the electric company did estimated readings several months in a row. Delegate Stephen Skinner (D-Jefferson) was among those who spoke during the hearing.
“You can’t expect people to be hit with the kind of bills that they’ve been hit with here and not have problems,” Skinner said. “The folks on fixed incomes, some of whom are here today, can’t deal with these business practices.”
Potomac Edison and Mon Power are supposed to read meters every other month, and can send estimated bills in months when actual readings aren’t taken.
Before the PSC heard comments, Potomac Edison representatives gave a power point explanation for the problem, saying two big storms last year, the derecho and October snowstorm affected the ability to actually read the meters.
Skinner was among those who didn’t buy that explanation.
“What I heard this morning about the reasons for why we’re in the situation that we’re in was excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse,” he said. “And then I heard that there were some issues in need of enhancement. I have yet to hear the real personal responsibility from First Energy and Potomac Edison for the problems in the Eastern Panhandle.”
Several customers who received extraordinarily high bills testified. One was Kevin Bohrer, who is retired from a power company where he worked at a generation plant. Bohrer says the inconsistent billing has been hard on him.
“This is the way I’ve been paying my electric bill now for the last two-to three years: I have to send them an extra $100 or $200 extra every month because I don’t want to get hit with no $500, $600 electric bill like I did one time,” Bohrer said. “I can’t afford that I’m on disability now.”
Some customers described getting multiple bills in a single month, and others expressed concern that the power company doesn’t have good enough documentation to accurately estimate a meter reading. Sharon Wilson offered a solution.
“I think the only way to get a bottom line accurate estimate for everybody is to mandate that for a 12 month consecutive period that the meters get read every month,” Wilson said. “And that to me would give a base line then and would probably make future bills be more accurate.”
Potomac Edison spokesman Todd Myers said the company encourages customers to call when they have a problem so the Potomac Edison can work with them. Several company representatives were on hand to meet with customers during and after the hearing.
Myers said before First Energy bought Allegheny Power, the employees who read meters had other duties, like collections, hook ups and disconnections.
“Now meter readers do nothing but read meters,” he said. “The other responsibilities have been split off.”
“So people say there’s not as many meter readers,” he said. “There may be a little bit less meter readers but they are meter readers who are 100 percent dedicated to reading meters all day long. And we’ve clustered their routes together.”
Potomac Edison representatives were on hand at the hearing to help people find a solution to their individual billing problem. The PSC also took comments from Mon Power customers Thursday night and Friday morning in Fairmont, W.Va.
How much do we know about drilling horizontal wells?
The Horizontal Well Control Act of 2011 required studies be conducted to gain a more profound understanding of all that's entailed in the natural gas…
The Horizontal Well Control Act of 2011 required studies be conducted to gain a more profound understanding of all that’s entailed in the natural gas drilling that’s sweeping northern West Virginia. Those reports are coming due, and legislators are hearing from scientists who have been looking into the matter.
Two major reports are being discussed in Charleston this week. One looks at air and noise pollution, while another considers water use related to Horizontal Well drilling.
1. Air and Noise
Michael McCawley is the interim chairman of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health from the School of Public Health at West Virginia University. He presented recommendations based on the air, noise, and light study he published this summer.
McCawley says the major surprise his study revealed were copious amounts of benzene detected by his air monitors. The monitors were set up at the current legal “set-back distance” of 625 feet from the center of drilling pads. His report notes that at one site, benzene levels were detected of up to 85 parts per billion. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends workers regularly exposed to 100 parts per billion wear respiratory protection.
So why worry about benzene? Substantial quantities of epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory data link benzene to aplastic anemia, acute leukemia, and bone marrow abnormalities.
“Now we suspect that the benzene may be coming, in fact, from the diesel engines because a lot of the fracking sites have a lot of truck traffic going in and out of them. And also during the actually fracking itself there are a number of diesel engines that are sitting in the pad being run at high rates,” McCawley says.
Based on his findings, McCawley made suggestions to lawmakers this week.
Control the emissions.
McCawley says the current required “set-back distance” is a regulation that should be abandoned. The aim of the rule was to protect people in the vicinity from exposure, but he says an arbitrary number won’t achieve that given the variability of topography and considering that pollution doesn’t always come from the center of the pad.
To protect not only people within the vicinity but also workers on site from harmful emissions, McCawley submits that monitoring real-time emissions is likely the smartest, most effective tool to employ. Especially around sensitive areas like houses, hospitals, schools, monitoring would allow high levels of pollutants to be addressed immediately by the people controlling the operation.
Control the noise.
“We were seeing short term exposures exceeding 100 decibels around some of these sites. 100 decibels is kind of the level of a rock band. You don’t want a rock band outside your bedroom window. Although the long term exposures were below 70 db on average for the sampling period that we saw, there were levels that exceeded 70 db for brief periods of time. But those brief periods of time can be a concern particularly if they’re disturbing sleep or if they’re really loud.”
An expert in public health, McCawley explains that 55 decibels is enough to interrupt sleep which, in turn, could result in hypertension, or high blood pressure—already endemic in the state, especially in the northern panhandle.
He says noise pollution needs to be taken into account when constructing these sites, and also when considering the traffic patterns to and from them.
2. Water use
Water use is another area of concerns for legislators. Evan Hansen, president of Downstream Strategies, conducted a study on water use in hydraulic fracturing operations in and around the state. He and his colleagues set out to analyze water-use data provided by natural gas drillers to the Department of Environmental Protection—data operators are required to provide as per the 2011 law.
Hansen says, the average Marcellus well in WV injects about 5 million gallons of water into wells as fracking fluid. 8 percent of that comes back up. He says the DEP and industry should be applauded for adopting new recycling practices as about 75% of that flowback is now being reused. He says the remainder is disposed of in deep well injections.
“Even though about 3/4 of the flowback water is being reused and recycled, which is great, that’s only substituting for 10 percent of the water withdrawls. So while great progress has been made in the areas of recycling, that’s not taking care of the vast quantities of water that still need to be withdrawn from WV streams.”
Hansen adds that tracking this waste water should continue to be a priority. WV already sees 100-million gallons of waste water each year and in PA, across the border where the industry is significantly more developed, they see nearly a billion gallons of waste. Each year.
Hansen also sees several areas of improvement, regarding data collection and reporting requirements.
- Fix mistakes identified in the database, and make data entry less error-prone to prevent future mistakes
- Ensure data gets reported completely and within appropriate timeframes
- Make data available and searchable online so that researchers and public have access
- Streamline the efforts of DEP offices of Oil and Gas and Water Management regarding wastewater
Hansen says his biggest concern is that WV law only requires operators to report flowback water. It’s a different story in PA where flowback water only accounts for 38% of reported waste.
“In WV, because only flowback fluid is reported, and the other types of waste are not reported, we still don’t really have a handle on how much waste is being generated and where it’s going. So we’re still operating with some uncertainty about what’s going on in the real world and that’s not a great place to be if you’re trying to get the right policies in place to protect water resources,” Hansen says.
Hansen says his report will be made available on the 30th of October. That day he will also conduct an online webinar explaining his finding that is open to the public.
Can the DOH take over the state turnpike?
The governor, the legislature, even a special commission on highways are all looking for ways to fund state roads. A select committee on Infrastructure is trying to find ways to save money and increase efficiencies by combining the Division of Highways and the governing authority of the state’s Turnpike, but simply combining the two would create serious legal implications for the state.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 55 requested a study to consolidate the operations and maintenance responsibilities of the state Parkways Authority and the Division of Highways in the hopes of saving money by finding efficiencies.
The Parkways Authority is currently a separate entity responsible only for the 88 miles of turnpike through southern West Virginia. In 2019 when the bond debt on the road is paid off, state law dictates the Commissioner of Highways will decide if the condition of the roadway is good enough for the state to assume control free of tolls.
But state lawmakers want to know, could we save money if we just did that now? The answer, in short, is no. But of course it’s not that simple.
“That would be a problem,” General Manager of the Parkways Authority Greg Barr told legislators Tuesday. “That would violate the impairment of contract clause in the Constitution.”
Barr said should the state choose to consolidate them under the DOH before 2019, it would violate the bond contract.
“When the contract was entered into to sell the bonds by the Parkways Authority, there was representation to the bond holders that the Parkways Authority would be an independent agency that would oversee the maintenance and upkeep of [the Turnpike] and take care of the responsibilities for the bond holders.”
Senator Bill Cole of Mercer County suggested integrating the agency into the DOH, but keeping the Parkways Authority name and governing board to align with the contract. The debt left on the bond then becomes the state’s.
“I would think that if I held that bond, the state of West Virginia might be a little bit more substantive than an authority within the state of West Virginia,” Cole said. “Is that really a technicality that we’re talking about that isn’t a big deal, paying a couple hundred dollars to pay a name and get some approval?”
“In this case it would be a big deal,” responded Brian Helmick, bond counsel for the authority.
Helmick said it is unconstitutional for the state to incur any debt.
“There’s a Constitutional provision that doesn’t allow the state to incur debt without a vote of the people, and when we say a vote of the people, we actually ask the people in west Virginia to vote on an amendment to the Constitution allowing for certain debt to be incurred,” he said. “That has been done a few times over the years, primarily for DOH highway projects.”
So, just pay it off early. Pay off the debt and assume control of the roadway. That’s what Delegate Nancy Guthrie of Kanawha County asked of Helmick. How much would it take to pay it off now?
Helmick said there is about $55 million in principle left on the bond, but you can’t just pay it off when you have funds. The state would incur prepayment penalties to the tune of $7.5 million.
It appears the Parkways Authority is contractually obligated to not just remain intact, but remain in control of the maintenance and collection of tolls on the Turnpike.
But of course, in 2019, all of that could change. The state could decide to re-bond the road, keep the tolls and use the money to fund other road projects, or at least a dozen other scenarios all being considered by the governor, the legislature and the Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways.
Israeli Consul General visits W.Va. to expand cultural and economic ties
An Israeli General Consul is in West Virginia this week visiting lawmakers as well as both Jewish and Christian groups.
Sideman met with members of a Morgantown synagogue yesterday who were not happy with his participation in an event featuring a prominent evangelical Christian politician.
Cultural Ties?
Sideman explained that part of his job is to expand cultural ties between Israel and the US by meeting with community members and encouraging events that promote Israel. To that end he also participate in an event hosted by Christians United for Israel. The keynote speaker at the event was Gary Bauer, one-time presidential candidate and the head of the nonprofit organization American Values . Many members of the Jewish community, however, took issue with the event, telling Sideman the values represented were those of the Christian extreme right.
“Aligning yourself with people like this is the best way to lose the American middle,” warned Jim Friedburg.
Sideman reiterated that the event’s purpose was solely to support the state of Israel. “If it’s anything different than support of Israel, then I will be the first to make public note of that,” he said.
Sideman says his remarks at the Christian event were largely to celebrate the securing of a Jewish homeland:
“I’ll be talking about the state of Israel, about the significance of Israel’s existence, about its achievements, about some of its challenges, about the historical moment in time that we are at that 65 years ago we have reestablished our sovereignty over our ancestral homeland where we were born as a people 4,000 years ago. And we reestablished ourselves in the land that we’ve been dreaming of for 2,000 years. So it’s a historical, unique moment in time that we should all relish and do everything that we can to sustain it for another 2,000 years.”
Economic Ties?
Sideman says even more than promoting cultural ties in West Virginia, his goal is to expand economic ties.
“This is the first of, I have a feeling many such visits to West Virginia. There are many economic opportunities that I would like to explore between Israel and West Virginia in areas such as energy, biotechnology, chemicals. The chemical industry is very strong in Israel and West Virginia. And I Think there are many opportunities I would like to see if I can promote mutual business between Israel and WV, more so than there is today.”
Sideman’s West Virginia visit continues in Charleston where he’ll be meeting with members of the Jewish community as well as legislative leaders in both the House and Senate.