Sharon McCutcheon photo | unsplash.com

As we drop off our tax returns (or push the send button), it’s a good time to reflect on who pays taxes. Every working person pays taxes, but there are too many profitable U.S. companies who pay no income tax.

Cytonn Photography | unsplash.com

Visitors always talk about how friendly West Virginians are to strangers. The words of Jesus in Matthew 25, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” are advice most West Virginians follow. So, it was particularly sad to read about a young woman at the Huntington Mall who made a false accusation to police against a visitor to our state.

Why does West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey want to take away coverage for pre-existing conditions guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

Part of the American Dream every West Virginian should be free to pursue is giving their kids a life that is as good or better than their own. In many cases, that includes providing their children a college education.

Freedom is being able to pay the bills. Freedom is having a little left over for a trip to the beach with your family. Freedom is being able to stay in West Virginia because the jobs pay well, and the roads aren’t tearing up your car. Freedom is good schools with well paid teachers who parents can trust while they go off to work.

If you don’t like your tax money being used to help low income earners, then you should support raising the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage results in raises for most everyone and would result in fewer full time working people having to rely on government assistance to survive. Yet a bill sponsored by House Democrats to raise the minimum wage in WV $.75/year until it reaches $12/hour went nowhere after being assigned to business friendly committees.

Of all the rip-offs going on by the drug companies these days, insulin has to be one of the worst. It was discovered nearly 100 years ago by a doctor who sold the patent for $1 because “He felt it was unethical for a doctor to profit from a discovery that would save lives.” The big drug companies lack such ethics. They’ve jacked the price of insulin up 700% over the past 30 years.

Some politicians want us to blame immigrants or environmental regulations for the financial pain that many of us are feeling.  But the truth is that our state legislature and federal government have been quietly betraying us by cutting taxes on corporations and the rich while piling them on for individuals and families, especially those with lower incomes.  The gap between the richest and poorest West Virginians has been getting larger and larger since the 1980’s. Today, 13.4% of all income earned in our beautiful state goes to the richest 1%. Meanwhile, West Virginians who make below $30,000 have higher state and local tax rates than those making over $700,000.  Many of us are feeling the effects of that right now as we file our taxes.

All session Senate President Mitch Carmichael and his leadership team have consistently been willing to betray West Virginians by blatantly pushing the agenda of a national corporate interests wanting to shift state education funds from public to private schools.

After several years of budget cuts, WV is finally running a budget surplus again. All types of proposals have come forth for how to spend these additional funds. Many programs and institutions that had their funds slashed over the past years breathed a cautious sigh of relief. The years of the budget shortfalls seemed to be at an end…or so we thought.