There’s lots of money available for striking school workers, but the state won’t give it to them. The WV State Journal reports that the state killed “the temporary severance tax that was used to pay off the state’s workers compensation debt” which was paid down. That’s “more than $125 million” per year that could be reinstated to fund PEIA and raise wages. Simple. But instead that money is now going to coal and gas companies and not to public workers: Reinstating Severance Tax Could Provide Much Needed Revenue.
Even an extra $125 million per year to the public schools is a fraction of the funds the state could raise to direct to public education and public employment in West Virginia, but starting with $125 million would be a good stimulus to local economies and households statewide, instead of directing that money to the bank accounts of out-of-state coal and gas companies.
Also see: “How Tax Cuts Led to West Virginia’s Massive Strike“. The rich got richer and the public got poorer. Big time. Funny how that works. Government of, for, and by the One Percent.
New Woodburn Community School 
Leave a comment