Tag: Government

Lottery Officials Say Charity Gambling Illegal

West Virginia Lottery officials say “casino night” fundraisers conducted by charitable organizations are illegal.

But the Lottery doesn’t have any prosecutorial authority in such cases. Lottery director John Musgrave says county prosecutors have shown little interest in pursuing charges against members of local charitable organizations.

The Charleston Gazette reports that the Lottery Commission discussed the issue on Monday during a regular meeting.

Commission member David McCormick said raising awareness would help solve the problem. He said charitable groups don’t know that “casino night” events are illegal.

Musgrave says the Lottery may need to ask the Legislature to give it authority to crack down on such events.

State law prohibits possession of roulette wheels and other gaming devices that aren’t licensed by the Lottery.

Tax Reform Committee Discusses More Problems, Few Solutions

The Joint Committee on Tax Reform held their final meeting before a July break Monday in Charleston, continuing their comprehensive review of the state’s tax code.

Panels of both county assessors and sheriffs discussed the state’s property tax system. A separate panel of attorneys and an accountant described the nuances of the state’s severance taxes for coal, natural gas and timber.

Still, three months into the process, lawmakers have discussed more problems with the tax code than solutions.

House Finance Chair Eric Neslon said the committee’s review process is deliberately slow so members have a real understanding of the tax code before they begin to suggest changes; however, he still expects at least some of those changes to be made during the 2016 session.

“I would hope that we would come with something before session begins. Will that be an all encompassing tax redo? I would probably say doubtful,” he said after the meeting.

The committee will take a break for the month of July and start meeting again in August. The two meetings that month will focus on sales and personal income taxes, and the state road fund.

Parkersburg, Vienna Implement Sales Taxes Under Home Rule

Businesses in Parkersburg and Vienna will begin charging an additional penny on the dollar for taxable items and services this week.

Each city has implemented a 1 percent municipal sales tax under West Virginia’sMunicipal Home Rule Pilot Program. The Parkersburg News and Sentinel reports that the municipal taxes will be added to the state’s 6 percent sales tax on Wednesday.

State law requires cities that impose a municipal sales tax to reduce business and occupation taxes.

Vienna’s business and occupation tax cuts will go into effect on Wednesday. Parkersburg plans to delay its tax cuts until Jan. 1, 2016.

The Home Rule Board has asked Attorney General Patrick Morrisey for an opinion on whether Parkersburg’s plan complies with the law.

FBI to Investigate Death of Arrested Woman

The FBI plans to investigate the death of a Mercer County woman who died at a Charleston hospital several days after being briefly held at the Bluefield City Jail.

Supervisory Special Agent Chris Courtright told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph there’s no timeline for when the investigation will end.

Bluefield resident Connie Hambrick was arrested by police June 4 on an outstanding warrant from Tazewell County, Virginia. That night, she complained about a bad headache and was taken by to Bluefield Regional Medical Center. Hospital personnel told police Hambrick had a stroke and needed to be transferred to another hospital. She was taken to the Charleston Area Medical Center the next day and died June 17. The cause of death is under investigation.

Us & Them: In Dixieland I'll Take My Stand

In this episode, my friend Alice Moore and I visit a Confederate cemetery in Corinth, Mississippi.  Alice tells me about her love for the battle flag.

In our conversation, we soon learn that you can’t talk about the flag without also talking about people’s ideas about the War and slavery and racism … and whether our ancestors were on the right side of history. This program features Cornell University history professor Ed Baptist, who has a view of the South’s history that differs from that of Alice.  

And we dig into another beloved southern icon – the song Dixie.

You can subscribe to Us & Them on iTunes and Stitcher, and listen on the podcast’s website.

In recognition of the sesquicentennial of the ending of the American Civil War, Us & Them had been preparing a program about the emotionally charged icons of the Confederacy.

We decided to move up this release of the program because we felt that our program could be a part of the conversation sparked by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley calling for the Confederate battle flag to be taken down from that state’s capitol grounds.    

Haley’s action came days after pictures had been circulating of the man who confessed to shooting nine African American people in a South Carolina church; he’s posing with Confederate flags. This led many people to call on South Carolina to stop flying the battle flag over its statehouse.  Subsequently, lawmakers in other states are debating whether to remove the flag and other symbols of the Confederacy from public display and from license plates. And some big retailers say they’ll stop stocking it.

But experience has led me to believe that some people won’t let the Confederate flag go without a fight.  For years, I’ve wondered why some people have such a deep affection for the flag and other symbols of the Old South.  This program tries to examine this.

Officials Discuss Juvenile Justice Reform

State officials joined with members of the juvenile justice community in Huntington Thursday to examine Senate Bill 393.

Senate Bill 393 which reforms the state’s Juvenile Justice system was signed into law on April 2nd. One of the many objectives is to reduce the number of status offenders, those who are charged with an offense that would not be a crime if committed by an adult. Much those offenses have to do with running away from home or what occurs often in West Virginia, being truant from school.

The reforms are expected to reduce the costs to the state that are incurred when kids are housed in residential homes or juvenile facilities – sometimes out of region, sometimes out of state.. The goal is to keep juveniles at home – and treated locally. It’s estimated this could save as much as $20 million that could be reinvested into community services. It’s those services, said Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and others, that can better help the kids.

“So basically we’ll have interveners in each of the counties now, because of the law passed that basically says when a student starts to be tardy or truant we can get to that child and work with them and their family and give them the kind of help they need in their communities and keep them out of the custody of the state,” Tomblin said.

Those interveners or counselors that Tomblin speaks of in each county will serve much in the same way as Cabell County School based probation officer Nikita Jackson. Jackson is a member of the West Virginia Intergovernmental Task Force that worked on Senate Bill 393. She’s there for students that need that extra guidance. When kids are repeatedly truant, Jackson gets involved with the entire family.  

“Our main concern is to get them through school and graduate and if you’re not in school and missing school then you’re not going to get an education so that’s my job, to make sure they’re getting to school and getting the education they need to be able to advance in life,” Jackson said.

The state hopes to have the program up and running this fall.

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