Coal industry costs W.Va. state budget $97.5 million a year more than it generates
Must read report: Coal industry costs W.Va. state budget $97.5 million a year more than it generates
June 22, 2010 by Ken Ward Jr.
Does the coal industry help or hurt West Virginia’s state government budget?
The conventional wisdom is that coal keeps the state running, and is a — if not the — major driver behind the state budget (not the mention the overall state economy). That’s the argument consistently put forth for years by the industry, its friends in political office, and by various economists working for the mining lobby.
But a new, must-read report from the folks at Downstream Strategies and the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy raises major new questions about that bit of conventional wisdom. According to the report:
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