Today: Urge Defeat of Coal Tax Cut

Today at 3PM, the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to take up a severance tax cut for the coal industry, a expensive proposal that will do little to nothing to create jobs while taking money from our schools, colleges, and communities.

The severance tax is paid largely by out-of-state coal company owners and consumers of coal. The cut would be $30 million this year and $60 million next year, funds that could be used to pay for our roads and our schools. The coal industry has said at best only 500 jobs would be created, with 100 more likely, giving the tax cut a cost between $120,000 to $600,000 per job created. 

At $60 million, West Virginia could give about a five-percent pay raise to all school workers or it could allow every in-state undergraduate at Marshall University to go to college tuition free. 

Call your Senators today and urge them to reject this tax cut for coal. Insist that coal pay its fair share to do business in our state!

Read more in this editorial and this post on why this is such a bad proposal for West Virginia.