CHARLESTON, W.Va. - West Virginia lawmakers are debating the idea of taking some tax income from the Marcellus natural gas boom and setting it aside for the state's economic future. A former Wyoming governor who will speak at a meeting in Charleston this week says a similar plan was a lifesaver when he was in office.

Mike Sullivan says that state's permanent mineral trust fund is like a savings account built on a small portion of severance taxes, where investment income goes into the general fund. He says it made a huge difference when he was in office during a serious downturn.

"We had difficulty just balancing the budget. We would have had trouble taking care of the most necessary needs. Probably we could not have balanced our budget without it."

The West Virginia Center On Budget & Policy (WV COB&P) estimates a 1 percent hike in severance taxes on gas and coal would yield $5.7 billion over the next 23 years.

Wyoming has no income tax and has lower sales and business taxes than its neighboring states. Sullivan says part of the credit goes to the mineral trust fund. He says since 1975 it has put $2.8 billion of investment income into the general fund, almost as much as the state spends in two full years.

"It represents currently about 13 percent of the general fund, which would serve to lighten the load some."

Sullivan will be the keynote speaker at the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy annual meeting. He says one topic he will address is whether increasing taxes and regulation drove some of the oil, coal and gas business out of his state, as some had said it would.

Six states have mineral trust funds now. Arguments for them are that they help diversify the state's economy and pay for development once the resource runs out. Sullivan says another advantage is they ease the impact on state revenue that comes from the boom-and-bust pattern of the extractive industries.

"We're a resource state, just as you are, and we've seen the peaks and the valleys. I think it clearly smooths out some of the peaks and valleys."

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is opposed to raising severance taxes, and senate president Jeff Kessler says a hike is unlikely in an election year.

The WV COB&P annual meeting, "Creating Sustainable Wealth From Non-Renewable Resources," will be held on Tuesday from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Marriott Town Center in downtown Charleston. Additional information is available at www.wvpolicy.org.




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The long-delayed Farm Bill could benefit Virginia farmers by renewing funding for climate-smart investments, but it's been held up for months in Congress.

Some lawmakers want this bill to expand funding for such programs as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, which gives financial and technical help to farmers and ranchers to make conservation a priority. About $250 million was allocated for the program, but more than 9,000 applications were submitted, bringing it to $475 million.

Gabrielle Walton, federal campaign associate with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said these programs' popularity proves their necessity.

"This money allows them not only to practice more efficiently - and to preserve the environment that they love so much and they're so attached to - but it also saves them money that they can devote to other concerns," she said, "and provides them stability for their pocketbooks going forward."

One issue with the new Farm Bill is a proposed increase in so-called "reference pricing," which critics have said only benefits large farming operations and would come at the expense of more widely used social and climate-smart programs.

Walton said she thinks political divisiveness and competing priorities have held up the new Farm Bill.

The previous Farm Bill was extended to this September, but lawmakers have said they aim to have a bill ready by Memorial Day. Along with climate-smart investments, the Farm Bill also funds social safety-net programs.

Geoff Horsfield, a policy director at the Environmental Working Group, said people don't always know how helpful nutrition programs are to families.

"There's a misconception that things like SNAP only benefit urban communities," he said, "and we just know that that's not true - that folks in all counties rely on nutrition assistance programs, some of these social programs, to be able to make ends meet."

SNAP and other nutrition programs received 75% of funding in the 2018 Farm Bill. More than 876,000 Virginians use SNAP and EBT benefits, since food insecurity has been a longstanding issue in the state.

Today, groups working with lower-income families in Connecticut are raising awareness about the state's "benefits cliff" with a day of action.

The benefits cliff is when a person might get a raise, have a kid with a part-time job, or some other income increase which then makes them ineligible for certain benefits. The changes can have severe impacts on communities and disproportionately affect families with children.

Stephen Monroe Tomczak, professor of social work at Southern Connecticut State University, said it is part of a larger workforce problem.

"People, particularly people of low income, are in a sense disincentivized to participate in the labor force and denied adequate jobs and income when they try to do that," Tomczak explained.

Several General Assembly budget bills could have dealt with the issue but most failed, which inspired today's action, a mock funeral procession to the governor's office to eulogize the bills, including the refundable Child Tax Credit, a housing voucher funding boost bill, and a bill eliminating the asset limit on the HUSKY C medical insurance program.

Social service advocates know the bills will resurface in next year's budget process.

Rose Ferraro, program lead of health justice policy advocacy for the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, said people are taking alternate steps like going to food banks or avoiding medical care to cover lost benefits.

"Folks will lose their rental assistance and then, they will sort of have to make some tough decisions," Ferraro noted. "'Do I put food on my table or do I make sure to pay rent?' And, so it becomes a sort of untenable position."

Ferraro added interwoven state and federal funding makes it hard to reach the core of the issues leading to benefits cliffs. One eulogized bill would have established a benefits cliff pilot program. For two years, it would have provided subsistence for people who've reached the benefits cliff.

New York towns are reaping many benefits since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed.

Along with funds for larger clean energy projects, the state was awarded $158 million for the IRA's Home Energy Rebates program.

Smaller towns and villages use these grants to implement their climate action plans.

Brighton Town Councilmember Robin Wilt said an IRA grant they applied for will help upgrade the town's HVAC system.

"We will be implementing geothermal and then use a solar array to make the system close to net zero, not quite," said Wilt. "I think we'll get 55% of our energy back with the solar panels."

The bureaucratic process to access the funding was challenging, but some groups are working with the Department of Energy to improve it.

Wilt said feedback on the clean energy projects has been positive. Future projects using IRA funding include increasing walkability and sustainable redevelopment.

Critics have said the IRA includes multiple provisions to increase fossil fuel production.

Towns nationwide are using IRA grants to bolster clean energy projects.

Joel Hicks is a council member for the Borough of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

They've just applied for a grant to work on energy efficiency and solar projects with Harrisburg. He said this will have positive impacts beyond establishing clean energy.

"We were really excited at this potential," said Hicks, "because we saw that the cost savings we would have for putting in substantial solar projects on our public property would actually fund many of our other public municipal goals."

These include purchasing an electric vehicle fleet and having more efficient solid waste programs.

One thing Hicks said he wants to see in future is state and local governments helping small towns and municipalities with putting together their IRA grant proposals.