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W.Va. Riders of Maryland-Based Commuter Train Say They'll Likely Leave State if Service Ends

Hundreds of West Virginians travel from the Eastern Panhandle to Maryland or Washington D.C. every weekday for work. These commuters catch the Maryland-based MARC train, or Maryland Area Regional Commuter.

But during this year’s West Virginia Legislative session, lawmakers debated the future of the MARC train in the state.

Maryland threatened to discontinue MARC service to West Virginia unless certain provisions were met.

Commuting on the MARC Train

It’s almost 7 o’clock in the morning. The MARC train approaches Harpers Ferry; its last West Virginia stop before making several stops in Maryland. The final destination of the morning is Union Station in Washington, D.C.

The closer we get to D.C., the fuller the train gets. From Martinsburg to Union Station – it’s a two-hour commute.

The passengers from West Virginia say the MARC train is one of the main reasons they decided to live or stay in West Virginia — like 27-year-old Matt Myers.

Myers is a Martinsburg native, and a graduate student at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

“When we were looking for places, we found one that was only a mile-in-a-half from the train station,” he said, “so it’s been helpful having the MARC extend out that far. It definitely helped inform my choice to live there.”

The train is comfortable, well-lit, clean and air-conditioned. There are big windows and power outlets to charge a phone or a laptop. There’s a bathroom in the first car, and I’m told there’s one car labeled the “Quiet Car,” where you aren’t supposed to talk.

Some passengers read, some work or chat, and others sleep.

The MARC train’s Brunswick Line parked at the Martinsburg Train Station.

Another Martinsburg resident, 29-year-old Amber Darlington, actually moved from Maryland to Martinsburg for the lower cost of living and access to the MARC train for her job.

“My partner and I really couldn’t afford to live in Germantown for what we wanted,” she said, “so we chose Martinsburg mainly because of the train, and we could actually afford to live there.”

Maryland Demands Funding from West Virginia

The MARC train serves 300 to 400 West Virginia residents just like Matt and Amber every weekday.

For more than 30 years, Maryland paid for the trains into West Virginia, while West Virginia paid for its three local stations — Martinsburg, Duffields and Harpers Ferry.

But after 2010, Maryland requested funding from West Virginia if it wanted to keep the MARC train in the Eastern Panhandle.

In 2013, the Commuter Rail Access Fund was created by the West Virginia Legislature for this purpose…but each budget year, for one reason or another, funding was never added.

So, Maryland began imposing a fare increase on tickets purchased in West Virginia, and over time, fewer and fewer stops were scheduled in-state.

Jefferson County Delegate Riley Moore says in 2018, Maryland insisted that West Virginia lawmakers take action to fill the line item in the budget.

“MARC says, okay, look, you all have never paid us for this, and here’s the bill, and the bill originally starts off from Maryland at $3.8 million,” Moore said.

Maryland told West Virginia lawmakers if they didn’t receive that $3.8 million, MARC service in West Virginia would end as early as July of this year.

During the session, lawmakers didn’t find $3.8 million, but they did secure $1.5 million for MARC services…which Maryland accepted, for now.

“In the intervening year,” Moore explained, “what we are going to do is bring all the stakeholders to the table, which would be the counties, the towns, the state, and the federal level to see where we can find funding from each source to have a permanent solution here for funding for the MARC train and also expand that service.”

Moore says he’s hopeful they can come to an agreement, and notes ticket prices will not increase on West Virginia riders this year.

“Martinsburg, WV” flashes on the destination sign inside the MARC train car. Martinsburg is the first stop for MARC’s Brunswick Line Eastbound and the last stop for MARC’s Brunswick Line Westbound.

Future of MARC in West Virginia

Meanwhile, commuters like Matt Myers and Amber Darlington are still concerned about losing the train.

What would they do without the service?

“[Make] the longer commute to Brunswick? But that [would be] about 45 minutes in the car, an hour-in-a-half on the train, and then 30 minutes on the bike,” Myers said, “so I’m not sure. We [might consider] moving; kind of hard to even think about really.”

“I moved to West Virginia because of the train, because of the MARC train,” Darlington explained, “and if they cut the service, I’d have to drive to work, which is 65 miles one way, both ways, five days a week, and that’s going to take such a toll on my car, and I hate driving.”

The Maryland Department of Transportation’s Public Affairs Director Erin Henson was not available for an interview but said in a statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting on April 5, 2018, “a formal agreement has not yet been signed,” however, the Department is working with the West Virginia State Rail Authority to come up with a deal.

***Editor’s Note: The headline was tweaked on April 12, 2018 for clarification.

Eastern Kentucky Prison Moves Forward As Opponents Consider Challenge

The Bureau of Prisons has issued a record of decision signaling that it is moving ahead with plans to build a federal prison on the site of a former strip mine in the hills of Letcher County, Kentucky. But local opponents of the prison say they’re not giving up and are considering a legal challenge to prevent the construction of a new prison.

Emily Posner, a civil rights and environmental attorney who’s been working with local and national organizations opposed to the prison, is part of a team of lawyers reviewing the newly issued decision.

“If there are violations of federal statutes,” Posner said, “then we will pull the trigger and file a lawsuit.”

Economic Development

Congressman Hal Rogers, who serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is the prison’s leading proponent. His Fifth District is a mountainous area spanning the eastern part of the state, and an area where immense amounts of coal have been mined. Today, it has an unemployment rate more than double the national and statewide averages.

Rep. Rogers hopes prisons will bring jobs to the area. This would be the fourth federal prison to be built in his district. Rogers told television station EKB the process is moving forward because of his advocacy for the project. He said he learned of the decision in a call from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom he’d just met with the week before to encourage action on the matter.

“Well he got on it,” Rogers said, “and this means eventually several hundred new federal jobs for a region that desperately needs good jobs.”

Posner, the lawyer working with groups opposed to the prison, takes issue with that description of the prison’s impact. She cites a body of social science research that indicates prisons built in struggling rural communities and prisons in central Appalachia have tended to have a negative overall impact on local economies.

“I think it is disingenuous,” Posner said of Rogers’ comments, “to be telling his constituents that he’s going to bringing all of these jobs to their community when the social science says something completely different.”

Tarence Ray holds up the left side of a banner protesting plans to build a new prison.

Prison Pressure?

Rogers and other supporters of the effort to build the prison say it’s needed to reduce overcrowding in the federal prison system. For the most part, there does seem to be consensus that U.S. prisons are overcrowded, but there is not widespread agreement that another maximum security prison is needed, or that building one in eastern Kentucky is the best option.

In testimony last June before a congressional panel including Rogers, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein explained that his agency did not see the need for a new prison. The Trump administration’s 2018 budget removed funding for prison construction and proposed returning the $444 million that had already been allocated.

“Given the current volume of inmates and given the projections for the future,” Rosenstein testified, “the Bureau of Prisons just didn’t feel that we needed that facility at this time.”

Rogers responded immediately, and suggested that not building a prison would be an act in defiance of Congress, telling Rosenstein that “It’s been passed, it’s the law.”

Rogers also took issue with Rosenstein’s justification. “We’ve got terrific overcrowding. Yes we’ve made some reductions in recent years, but not enough,” Rogers said. “This has been decided, and we expect it to be carried out.”

The Bureau of Prison’s record of decision explains that the purpose of the new prison is “to increase capacity… based on the need for additional bed space.”

Emily Posner said the inconsistency between the explanation in the decision and the testimony from Rosenstein makes her doubt the truthfulness and transparency of the process.

“I’ve never seen this where the agency out of the one side of its mouth is saying we need this and out of the other side is saying we don’t,” Posner remarked.

Preparations Begin

Meanwhile, preparations are underway in Letcher County.

The idea of building a prison was first proposed in 2005, but had been stalled by an unusually lengthy environmental review process. The record of decision clears the way for the Bureau of Prisons to start spending from the nearly $500 million dollars allocated by Congress. Next steps would include purchasing land and readying it for construction. Local officials say they’re beginning to work on proposals to fund infrastructure improvements that would be needed, including upgrades to water treatment facilities.

Emergency Grant Program Helps Concord Art Student Stay in School

A student at Concord University worked through trauma by finding ways to express herself with art. She’s hoping a degree in art will help her teach others how to find the same freedom. But without the help of a new program at Concord, she may have quit school.

“It was a long hard life for awhile in my teenage years,” Concord student Sara Bibb said.

Bibb says she endured sexual assault, in addition to a turbulent home life as a kid, but she found a way to escape and express emotions through art.

“Growing up I would just draw and have fun with it,” Bibb said. “My room was filled little drawings. My artwork was very dark, but it was just a way to get rid of that negativity.”

Art helped, but Bibb says she still found herself turning to drugs and alcohol until she noticed the impact her behavior was having on loved ones.

“I have a step sister, and she started to look at me as a role model. I didn’t want to be a bad role model, so I wanted to change for that and for myself,” she said. “Because my parents weren’t ever proud of me for anything. So I wanted them to be.”

Bibb decided to enroll in college to make her parents proud, to be a better role model for her sister, and to empower her passion for art.

But getting to school wasn’t always easy. For money, Bibb worked as a seasonal job during the summer as a zipline guide. But by December 2018, she began to run out of money.

“I messed up somewhere,” she said. “Right at the end I didn’t have enough to make it to the finals, and I was freaking out.”

One of her professors suggested Bibb visit the Academic Success Center to see if she qualified for assistance.

This fall about 55% Concord’s undergraduates received a Pell grant, which is given to students from families with low-income.

A survey on campus found that about 40% of students at Concord have dealt with food insecurities, so the Academic Success Center now runs a food pantry.

Just recently, Concord started what’s called the CU Gap Fund. It’s an emergency grant fund for students who find themselves in a financial situation that may lead to quitting school.

The timing was right for Sara Bibb. She needed help, in particular gas money, so she could make it to her classes.

“I just explained that I was having trouble affording the travels and I was desperate for help,” Bibb said.

Based on her application, Bibb was able to get the help she needed.

Bibb says she still has issues with her car, but she’s thankful for the support she found during the Fall semester. It’s something she hopes to pass on.

“I do want to help people express themselves and to be able to grow on their abilities,” Bibb said. “Don’t let people push you down and tell you can’t do art for a living. That’s what my dad always told me. I want to show you that I can.”

Bibb is still working towards earning a bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts by December 2018. She plans to continue her education and pursue a Master of Fine Arts.

Sara Bibb overlooking the New River Gorge in October 2016.

Editor’s note: This story has been modified to reflect the correct projected year of graduation as 2018 not 2019.

Treasurer Seeking Banking Solutions for Medical Marijuana

West Virginia’s state treasurer says he’s seeking guidance from the U.S. Treasury secretary as he seeks solutions for collecting funds from the state’s medical marijuana program.

Media reports say State Treasurer John Perdue will release a request for information in search of banking solutions for sales, fees, licenses, taxes and other transactions related to medical cannabis. The request will be released by Monday, and responses are due back to the state in April.

Perdue also says he will join at least 10 other state treasurers in sending a letter to congressional leadership urging legislative changes to protect medical marijuana patients.

Early this year, the Trump administration lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on marijuana trade in states where the drug is legal.

What Would ‘Fixing’ PEIA Really Look Like?

During the teacher strike a couple weeks ago, West Virginia educators were asking for two main things: a pay raise and for legislators to “fix PEIA.” While the prorgam’s finance board ultimately agreed to freeze proposed changes to the plan that would have increased costs, truly fixing PEIA on the long term might not be that simple.

Watching Premiums Rise

Jennifer McCallister and her husband are both school teachers in Wirt County. Earlier this month, the McCallisters joined thousands of other school employees at the Capitol.

“I didn’t have a huge issue with PEIA before they proposed all the changes in December,” said McCallister.

The change that most alarmed her was one that would calculate her family’s premiums from “total family income” rather than based on the average of her and her husband’s salaries. That shift would mean they would go from paying $189 a month to $517 a month in premiums. Still yet, their premiums and other costs have been on the rise.

“Our premium has gone up about $50 a month from two years ago,” she said. “Just simple visits like when I take my kids to MedExpress because I think they have strep throat or something. Last year, it was a $30 copay. This year it’s a $50 copay. It’s just all those little things that add up throughout the year.”

McCallister said she and her husband knew teaching wasn’t a particularly lucrative career path – but that hasn’t really bothered them because good benefits have traditionally been part of the deal. She says she understands that health care costs as a whole are going up, but feels that the situation is unsustainable.

An Aging, Sick Population

“Health care utilization is going up and when health care utilization goes up, the premiums go up to reflect that,” said Carolyn Long Engelhard, director of the Health Policy Program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Engelhard researches health care and the factors that influence costs.

Engelhard said unhealthiness drives up the cost of insurance.

“The more comorbidities you have — maybe diabetes, hypertension and so on — then you’re going to have higher drug costs, which will also drive up the premiums.”

The whole idea behind health insurance is that a big pool of people who don’t use the service very much subsidize a smaller group of those who need it for more serious conditions or more often. The healthier that “pool” is, the costs can be more manageably spread around. But the sicker that population is, the more expensive health insurance becomes for everybody.

Englehard also says that it’s not just premiums on the rise.

West Virginia’s population is aging and sick. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and hypertension in the country. Those rates mean that more people in the West Virginia health insurance pools are using health care, which makes it more expensive for everyone.

“I’m coming to the realization that we have a population that does not necessarily want to be accountable for their health and wellness and people don’t realize that that impacts the cost that they’re paying,” said PEIA director Ted Cheatham.

“All they know is what they’ve had and what’s coming out of their pay and how they budgeted to live on the money they’re given – which they perceive – and I agree with some of them that it’s not enough,” Cheatham said. “And they don’t want it to be $110 a month.”

At the beginning of this year, PEIA rolled out a wellness program known as Go365 to try and incentivize people to get healthier. The program asked people to fill out a health assessment with questions about weight, eating habits, stress levels and blood pressure, among other things. Each answer awarded participants a certain number of “points.”

Almost immediately, there was a lot of public outcry – with many calling it an invasion of privacy. Vocal opponents to the wellness program criticized the provision that penalized those without enough wellness “points” with an extra $25 a month in premiums and an additional $500 tacked onto their deductible. Less than a month after Go365 was rolled out the penalties were removed. On Monday, PEIA announced they were canceling their contract with Go365.

But experts say the wellbeing of a population isn’t the only thing that impacts the cost of premiums and deductibles. There’s also the actual cost of what it takes facilities and health professionals to treat illnesses.

Medical Inflation

“The health care you get today is more than it was 10 years ago,” said Gary Claxton, director of the healthcare marketplace project for the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It’s better. It’s more expensive, but it’s also better. Because we can do more things for more people, so that naturally has an effect on the cost.”

The effect means that medical inflation is growing faster than general inflation.

Medical inflation is the rate at which medical prices increase annually. For the past few years, medical inflation has been hovering around 6.5 percent a year (which is good, by the way – in 2007, medical inflation was around 12 percent). Meanwhile, regular inflation has been between 2-3 percent. Cheatham said these are national trends – not something that could be easily or even possibly controlled at the state level.

“There are many, many things that must happen at the federal level – we cannot control them here. Drug spend is an incredibly…complex, convoluted system,” Cheatham said.

In the United States, drug companies can basically charge whatever they want for a product – remember the price hikes on EpiPens in 2016?

Right now, PEIA is funded through a combination of state appropriations and employee contributions. On average, the state pays about 80 percent of the cost of insurance through PEIA and the patient pays roughly 20 percent. With health care becoming more expensive across the board, everyone has been paying more.

Some people want the state to allocate more money to PEIA, but the program struggles to get fully funded as it is. Unless new industry brings money into the state — or the federal government makes major changes that impact drug pricing and inflation — the answer may be: higher taxes or higher premiums.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Union: Pact Reached with Frontier To End Strike

A union representative said a tentative contract agreement has been reached with Frontier Communications to end a three-week strike by about 1,400 workers in West Virginia and parts of Virginia.

The Communications Workers of America’s District 2-13 said on its Facebook page that the agreement was reached Sunday.

District vice president Ed Mooney said the agreement will ensure that workers “will continue to have good, family supporting jobs.”

The union said workers will return to their jobs by Wednesday.

Details of the agreement weren’t immediately released. The union said a vote on the proposal will be made in the coming weeks.

The workers went on strike March 4 after a contract extension expired and the union complained that job cuts at Frontier had “gone too far.”