At the legislature today, there’s a deadline looming. By Wednesday at midnight, all the senate bills must be reported to the house and all the house bills reported to the senate. It makes for long lists of legislation to be considered on both floors. The house today passed a bill that keeps the Future Fund, an account created by Democrats last year, unfunded. And we’ll talk about the state budget with the Executive Director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy coming up on The Legislature Today.
Tag: West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy
Live Event: Summit on Race Matters in Appalachia
The Summit will offer a unique opportunity for people from throughout West Virginia to participate in a constructive, in-depth conversation about the complicated history of race relations and racial inequality in the state. Participants will examine the causes and consequences of structural inequities that exist across social, political, education and financial systems and how those inequities negatively affect everyone. It will encourage strong leaders, working together, to commit themselves to building a community that improves the well-being of all West Virginians.
8:45 – 10:30 a.m.: Keynote Speaker Dr. Gail Christopher
12:30 – 2:00 pm..: Keynote Speaker author Mike Wenger
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.: Keynote Speaker Dustin Washington
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAhmqwXDwcM
Data Shows Rate of Child Poverty in W.Va. Growing
Data released Thursday by the U. S. Census Bureau shows the percentage of West Virginians living in poverty stayed consistent last year, but the number of children living below the poverty line has grown.
According to the 2013 American Community Survey, one in three children in West Virginia under the age of 5 lived in poverty in 2013.
“That’s something that should really conjure up action from our state legislators and other people in the community,” said Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
The state’s child poverty rate in 2013 was 26.6 percent, the 7th highest in the nation. An estimated 97,818 children lived below the poverty line in 2013, increasing by more than 8,000 children from 2012.
Although state lawmakers have focused more attention on the issue in recent years, Boettner said those initiatives haven’t taken effect yet, delaying the impact they could have on the poverty rate.
Boettner used the minimum wage increase as an example. The legislature passed a bill to incrementally increase the minimum wage in West Virginia from $7.25 to $8.75, but the increase won’t fully go into effect until 2016.
“One thing that’s really important to keep in mind is that we don’t have to live in persistent poverty in West Virginia,” Boettner said. “That includes investments in early childhood intervention and education programs, enacting a refundable state earned income tax credit and investing in higher education.”
Keys to Grassroots Policy Success: Wide Net, Narrow Focus
If you spend any time at the West Virginia state capitol during the annual 60-day legislative session, you’ll notice many voices clamoring for the attention of our state’s part-time lawmakers. All citizens are welcome to approach legislators with ideas and requests, but average citizens generally don’t have the time or the know-how to impact state policy decisions. One grassroots initiative has been working to change that.
In Lewisburg, Clarksburg, Hurricane and Martinsburg, citizens are meeting this month to celebrate policy success, learn how to advocate for the issues they care about and craft initiatives to champion in the upcoming legislative session.
The Our Children Our Future Regional Policy Workshops, co-sponsored by the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition and the West Virginia Community Development Hub, are an effort to build momentum and consensus for this year’s legislative agenda.
The initiative casts a wide net to solicit ideas, narrows the focus to a manageable list of priorities and then works collaboratively to engage state government officials.
Chris Kimes is Political Director for the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition. He says these workshops provide an avenue for people from around the state to learn about the issues, get energized and to believe they can participate in the process.
“As an active community member I can come, learn the skills that I need to begin working on policies and actually learn about specific policies that groups are thinking about advancing in the next session.”
And they have experienced success. This past year alone, seven of the group’s top ten priorities became law or were implemented into public policy.
- Funding was restored to Family Resource Networks and other programs that help children and families.
- The minimum wage was increased.
- The state board of education approved a policy to increase daily physical activity in public schools.
- A pilot for a parent mentor program was launched.
- Cities and counties will now have a new tool to combat the problem of abandoned properties.
- New protections for pregnant workers were put in place.
- And the West Virginia Future Fund was established to set aside a portion of natural gas severance taxes to create an endowment fund.
Senate President Jeff Kessler says his hat’s off to this group, whose grassroots groundwork can be a real help to lawmakers as they try to stay in touch with the needs of their communities.
“I represent 110,000 people in my district. I can’t shake all their hands and ask them all face to face, but when you get having a series of forums throughout the entire state where people that do have issues can come forward, present them, collect them, and put them in some type of rational agenda that we can now understand why they’re important,” says Kessler. “Sure it helps to pass policy and pass legislation that does have a direct and immediate impact on improving the lives of our people in our communities, so yeah, this is the way to get it done.”
House Speaker Tim Miley agrees that it’s an effective approach to advocating for public policy issues.
"So they have learned to come together as a large group with various interests, but a common theme to strengthen our communities. And by doing so they have created a very loud voice in Charleston for the legislators to hear and listen to and recognize by way of their agenda items. So it is very effective." – House Speaker Tim Miley
Not all of the group’s initiatives made it through the process. But Kimes says, even in defeat, there are lessons to be learned. That’s the case with last year’s effort to pass a prescription pseudophedrine bill and that group of citizens will try again.
“We literally were outspent there,” notes Kimes. “Big Pharma came in and made their voice known, but an interesting thing about that, is just last week at Lewisburg that team is back again. And they’ve learned from those lessons and they’re gearing up and they’re broadening the base and getting more people involved in the discussion and I think they may have a better try at it in this next legislative session.”
Two workshops remain – Thursday, July 24, 2014 in Hurricane and Tuesday, July 29, 2014 in Martinsburg. Organizers say walkups are welcome.
On September 9-10, 2014, groups from across the state will gather in Charleston for a Policy Symposium and in November, this year’s legislative agenda will be set.