Comments on: Money Needed to Maintain the Roads for Heavy Trucks https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2012/02/02/money-needed-to-maintain-the-roads-for-heavy-trucks/ Just another WordPress site Wed, 14 Feb 2024 02:06:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: WV Environmental Council https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2012/02/02/money-needed-to-maintain-the-roads-for-heavy-trucks/#comment-2338 WV Environmental Council Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:59:19 +0000 http://www.frackcheckwv.net/?p=4114#comment-2338 Center on Budget and Policy Annual Meeting Tuesday, February 7, from 7:30-10:30 a.m. the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy will host a breakfast meeting at the Charleston Marriott. Titled, “Creating Sustainable Wealth from Non-Renewable Resources,” the forum will feature Ambassador Mike Sullivan, former Governor of Wyoming. He will talk about Wyoming’s experience with a permanent mineral trust fund. WVEC will be doing whatever we can to encourage lawmakers to pass this type of legislation as soon as possible. It is such a simple idea that would have profound effects on our state. The Center has issued a report on the subject, which can be found at www.wvpolicy.org . According to the report, if West Virginia had created such a program in 1980, the state would now have a trust fund with assets of nearly $1.9 billion — that’s BILLION, with a B.  If started now, the fund would generate revenues of $5.8 billion by 2035.  The report says: If West Virginia wants future generations to benefit from the extraction of its natural resources, it must set aside a portion of the severance tax revenue from all natural resources to invest in important public structures that will build a stronger, more vibrant future for the state. To accomplish this task, West Virginia could follow the lead of six other energy states by creating a permanent severance tax trust fund (hereafter referred to as a permanent fund) that converts non-renewable natural resources into a source of sustainable wealth that serves the state today and in the future through targeted investing. Even after the state’s natural resources are depleted, West Virginia could use income from the fund to diversify the economy, make much-needed investments in infrastructure and human capital, lower future tax burdens, and deal with costs associated with past and future mineral extraction. In all, it is a modest proposal - and one that we should all support. We all know that coal and natural gas will not last forever, and the costs of recovering our natural resources are too often paid in destruction of our land and in human lives and suffering by residents. Coal operators keeping selling us jobs, jobs, jobs and the coal counties have the lowest standard of living in the state. This is an attempt to change that dynamic. Center on Budget and Policy Annual Meeting

Tuesday, February 7, from 7:30-10:30 a.m. the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy will host a breakfast meeting at the Charleston Marriott. Titled, “Creating Sustainable Wealth from Non-Renewable Resources,” the forum will feature Ambassador Mike Sullivan, former Governor of Wyoming. He will talk about Wyoming’s experience with a permanent mineral trust fund.

WVEC will be doing whatever we can to encourage lawmakers to pass this type of legislation as soon as possible. It is such a simple idea that would have profound effects on our state. The Center has issued a report on the subject, which can be found at http://www.wvpolicy.org .

According to the report, if West Virginia had created such a program in 1980, the state would now have a trust fund with assets of nearly $1.9 billion — that’s BILLION, with a B.  If started now, the fund would generate revenues of $5.8 billion by 2035.  The report says:

If West Virginia wants future generations to benefit from the extraction of its natural resources, it must set aside a portion of the severance tax revenue from all natural resources to invest in important public structures that will build a stronger, more vibrant future for the state. To accomplish this task, West Virginia could follow the lead of six other energy states by creating a permanent severance tax trust fund (hereafter referred to as a permanent fund) that converts non-renewable natural resources into a source of sustainable wealth that serves the state today and in the future through targeted investing. Even after the state’s natural resources are depleted, West Virginia could use income from the fund to diversify the economy, make much-needed investments in infrastructure and human capital, lower future tax burdens, and deal with costs associated with past and future mineral extraction.

In all, it is a modest proposal – and one that we should all support. We all know that coal and natural gas will not last forever, and the costs of recovering our natural resources are too often paid in destruction of our land and in human lives and suffering by residents. Coal operators keeping selling us jobs, jobs, jobs and the coal counties have the lowest standard of living in the state. This is an attempt to change that dynamic.

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