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Editorial

Why are so many state jobs vacant? They don’t pay

With all this talk of surpluses, tax cuts and where money should go, we’d like  to draw attention to another of West Virginia’s chronically underfunded services: state jobs. In mid-September, analysts presented the results of a state audit to the Legislature’s Post Audits Committee. The revelation of the day was that millions of dollars are allocated annually for vacant positions, some of which have been empty for years. As of December 2021, there were 4,857 vacant positions that had been budgeted for, totaling about $227 million of allocated but theoretically unspent ...

Homeless people are still people, and we must treat them as such

We were disappointed by the comments made at the Sept. 20 Morgantown City Council meeting regarding the “loitering issue” downtown, particularly in proximity to the Morgantown Public Library. One speaker and one council member said they no longer take their children to the library because of the presence of homeless (or “unhoused,” if you prefer) people nearby. While the fact that people are avoiding the library is in and of itself is disheartening, the true disappointment was in the way the homeless individuals were talked about: Not as if they were people, but as if they ...

Making the city greener

Back in 2017, when then-President Donald Trump pulled America from the Paris Climate Agreement, cities across the nation took climate action into their own hands. Morgantown joined the National Mayors Climate Agenda and pledged to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 26%-28% from its 2005 baseline levels by 2025. Earlier this month, the Morgantown Green Team announced that the city is halfway to that goal. That is certainly an achievement worth celebrating. But … the Green Team admitted those calculations don’t include municipal properties acquired since 2017, nor ...

If you find the title to today’s editorial confusing, just keep reading and by the end, everything should make sense. Yesterday, we covered Amendments 1 and 4. Today’s we’re going to explain what Amendment 3 — “Incorporation of Churches or Religious Denominations” — is all about. Amendment 3 is the least controversial but perhaps the most confusing. The proposed amendment changes a section of the West Virginia Constitution from “Incorporation of religious denominations prohibited” to “Incorporation of religious denominations permitted,” deletes the sentence ...

Legislature seeks to concentrate power

Last week, David Beard did a series of articles on the four amendments that will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot: Amendment 1, “Clarification of the Judiciary’s Role in Impeachment Proceedings”; Amendment 2, “Property Tax Modernization”; Amendment 3, “Incorporation of Churches or Religious Denominations”; and Amendment 4, “Education Accountability.” Since we’ve covered Amendment 2 extensively in our editorials, today and tomorrow we’ll focus on the remaining three amendments. While Amendment 2 is arguably the most controversial, voters should also be wary of ...

Editorial encore: Autumn equinox: A time of change and transition

EDITOR'S NOTE: This editorial was originally published Sept. 22, 2021. Transitions are hard. In life, in work, in age, in seasons. Today marks the first official day of fall. The autumnal equinox is equal parts day and night, but after today, the evening darkness will fall faster. Fall — autumn, whichever you prefer to call it — is a stable period of transition. We can expect it around the same time every year. The day-to-day weather might be unexpected, but we know the nights will get longer, the mornings and evenings will be cooler — and eventually so will the days ...