Commonsense bill to help working women
I am writing today to express strong support for a set of bills that will strengthen West Virginia’s workforce and help West Virginia families out of poverty. These bills are all focused around pay equity for women.
According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “If employed women in West Virginia were paid the same as comparable men, their poverty rate would be reduced by more than one-third,” and working women in West Virginia lost out on $3.7 billion due to pay inequity in 2017 (West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy).
The goal of the Katherine Johnson Fair Pay Act, SB 288 (also HB 2121 Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan Fair Pay Act of 2020), and the Pay Transparency Act of 2021, SB 43, is to fix those problems.
In order to keep and attract the best and the brightest — people and businesses — we must offer them the same protections and opportunities as other states. Mountaineers go first — let’s be on the forefront of lifting families out of poverty and making sure women are fairly compensated for the work they contribute to West Virginia.
We must have policies that support pay equity and include transparency and the ability to talk about one’s pay. These policies at the end of the day will make West Virginia stronger and a place where people raise their families and retire. Contact Sen. Roberts and Sen. Nelson to ask them to put SB 288 and SB 43 on an agenda, then contact Delegate Zatezalo and Delegate Barnhartto ask them to put HB 2121 on an agenda.
Melanie Page
Morgantown
Support the Caregivers as Candidates bill
Caregiving is an experience that unites so many of us in West Virginia. In our state, caregivers include grandparents raising their grandchildren, husbands caring for a disabled partner, single parents bringing up children on their own, adults caring for aging relatives and parents looking after their kids.
And caregiving is incredibly rewarding, but it also takes a huge amount of time and energy — as many of us know from taking on extra caring responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are well into West Virginia’s 2021 legislative session, and most of our legislators are able to serve because they don’t have immediate caregiving responsibilities. It’s clear that we need more people in office with a wider range of life experiences. That means more women, who are the primary caregivers in most homes. And it means more people who know what it’s like to be short on funds.
Caregiving responsibilities are a major barrier to candidates even running for office. Paying for care is costly. The average cost for infant care in West Virginia is $8,029 per year. And the average cost for senior care runs from $5,000 to $10,000 a month, or $17 an hour for home help.
I really hope that our legislators pass the Caregivers as Candidates Bill, HB 2927. This bill would allow candidates to use campaign funds for caregiving costs incurred in running for office, just like they can use these funds for yard signs and refreshments. Already, 19 states allow campaign funds to be used for caregiving costs. This bill would update state code to match federal standards. And implementing HB 2927 wouldn’t cost taxpayers a cent.
Current campaign finance rules favor candidates with independent financial resources. But I want my representatives to speak from experience — and not just from money.
Rose Casey
Morgantown
Vaccinated seniors want place to gather safely
Several of us elders who have completed the COVID regimen plus the recommended wait time feel we have earned passage into the activity space at the Mountaineer Mall.
It’s been a year and our space there is ideally suited to all the familiar compliance guidelines.
The 5,500-square-foot main room has 15 tables large enough for proper distancing, and the pool tables have a great measure in the cue stick. Long before the pandemic, each table was amply suppled with alcohol hand sanitizers.
Each time I have inquired about opening, there has been no response to even suggest a plan.
Each day the space lies dormant unnecessarily computes to a loss that is uncapturable.
We hope the commissioner will soon see our viewpoint and announce an opening plan.
Francis McGreevy
Morgantown
Bill would allow utilities to spend big, pass costs
I am disturbed by so-called Republicans pushing bills that expand the size of government, reduce local control and harm small and large businesses throughout the state. We Republicans used to oppose those things, but they are all moving through the current legislative session with lightning speed.
Perhaps no bill better exemplifies this trend than HB 2959, which would allow utilities to recklessly spend hundreds of millions of dollars on equipment upgrades, regardless of whether it makes economic sense. The bill limits the ability of the Public Service Commission to assess such plans and restricts the ability of citizens to get a fair hearing. The worst part: The requirement that such spending be “used and useful” was taken out. That wording made sure the spending was at least needed. But utilities can plan big spending, secure in the knowledge ratepayers will pay them back and guarantee them a tidy profit to boot.
The bill is cosponsored by Mon County Delegate Joe Statler and is up for passage next week. Mon Power ratepayers are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars in higher bills for scrubbers at the Hatfield’s Ferry power plant, even though that plant is now closed. Utilities need “the discipline of the marketplace” to prevent wildly excessive spending on uneconomic facilities, or we consumers, small and large businesses, churches and schools will all be paying higher utility bills solely to fatten the wallets of utility execs. I urge Delegate Statler to withdraw his name from that bill, and vote no!
Jim Kotcon
Morgantown
Morgantown needs real cop for a police chief
Morgantown has not yet experienced the wanton violence, arson and destruction that ANTIFA and other anarchists and street thugs have imposed on many U.S. cities in recent years. The pitiful, passive acceptance of such violence by most of those city governments was disgusting.
Morgantown’s police force must have the personnel and equipment to nip incipient riots in the bud. Vital to that ability is a chief of police who has the guts, the know-how and the experience to lead his or her officers when force is required to defeat lawlessness.
We need to hire a real cop, one who has experience patrolling the streets at night, breaking up fights and getting his or her hands and uniform dirty; one who can lead from in front and earn the respect and allegiance of our MPD officers.
The City of Morgantown has announced that no sunlight will illuminate the process of hiring a new chief — that we citizens and our newspaper will not learn about of any of the candidates until a new chief has been hired. This is not only unacceptable, it is scary! With our predominantly “woke” city council guiding the hiring, we could find Morgantown’s finest led by a chief more devoted to promoting leftist ideology than to keeping the peace.
We need a real cop with some social work skills, not a social worker with some police skills.
Richard S. Kerr
Morgantown
