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I thought B&O tax was based on gross receipts, not gross profits. My view is that the occupation tax is not a business draw. I bitterly resent paying a tax to a city while the one in which I live does not charge one. I make serious efforts to avoid spend any money inside city limits where one exists.
After some research, you are correct. The B&O tax is on gross receipts. Here is the exerpt from the Dept. of Commerce:
Quote:
The major source of revenue for most West Virginia cities is a broadly based municipal business and occupation (B&O) tax, which is imposed for the privilege of engaging in certain business activities. The B&O Tax is generally determined as a percentage of gross receipts and allows no deductions for losses to the business. Different tax rates may be imposed for different types of business activities; rates may vary from city to city.
And while the occupation tax itself may not help to lure businesses in, I think one could say with little doubt that B&O taxes help to encourage them to locate elsewhere. By allowing elimination or reduction of the B&O tax through a city sales tax, this has helped to encourage new business growth in Huntington. Being a border city where towns just across state borders have lower or no B&O taxes due to an occupation tax being in place, this gives them an advantage that we dont have. WV is one of only 2 states that don't have the option of a B&O tax. I don't like taxes anymore than the next person but if I had to pay one, I would much rather pay a local tax that would stay local and help to create a stronger economy by creating a better business environment.
I don't think tuition prices will hurt Morgantown and WVU as long as they don't go too crazy with increases. The
expensive, overpriced for-profit schools are the ones that are starting to hurt. WVU needs to increase it's online programs immediately to stay competitive with what other schools are starting to do.
I don't think that the concern is tuition cost as much as it is concerns about loan availability to pay for that tuition if the education bubble bursts.
I don't think that the concern is tuition cost as much as it is concerns about loan availability to pay for that tuition if the education bubble bursts.
WVU is a very reasonable priced school. If this bubble burst and loans dry up it would increase demand for WVU because students couldn't afford to go to higher priced schools.
WVU is a very reasonable priced school. If this bubble burst and loans dry up it would increase demand for WVU because students couldn't afford to go to higher priced schools.
not necessarily. A drying up of student loans will cut off many lower income peoples of average academic prowess from attending school. Also, especially important for WVU, is that it'll make it harder for students to go to school out of state.
I believe he's talking about the bubble busting on student loan debt. He isn't referring to WVU specifically but the ramifications of a national failure to pay back student loans. Just like the housing bubble, this will affect everyone by decreasing the amounts that can be loaned out and increasing the requirements to get student loans. This will result in fewer students in colleges and will hurt those economies that heavily rely on those students. Surely you've heard some mention of this in the news? It's been a big deal for some time but may be accelerated if the fiscal cliff talks don't yield results. Here's an article:
Schools like West Virginia are not the culprits in that issue. Primarily that comes from the community college sector, where people who are often not prepared to do college level work are pushed to attend classes, borrowing easy money to do so. They often don't succeed, and leave never paying back the money. Since they tend to come from lower income families, the government can't even get the money back from tax refunds since they rarely pay any income taxes.
To solve that issue, the Government needs to decide if it will embrace a reality based solution and make lending requirements more stringent for community college students, or a feel good, one size fits all, politically correct position and penalize everyone for the failure of a small sector of the population. Which do you think the current administration will choose?
It is possible that this will negatively impact WVU and others to a degree, but my hunch is it will have the biggest impact on students at private institutions where the ending debt load is significantly greater. The Government absolutely needs to eliminate foreign aid, and stop penalizing our own people with hair brained solutions. The latest group under assault are military retirees and veterans, who are being asked to shoulder the burden for benefits that were promised them that will not be delivered so that we can continue to build up and protect countries in the Middle East that do absolutely nothing for us.
not necessarily. A drying up of student loans will cut off many lower income peoples of average academic prowess from attending school. Also, especially important for WVU, is that it'll make it harder for students to go to school out of state.
Yes.
The demand for college degrees is only growing. Even manual labor or serving jobs require college degrees. There is much to be said about college students not getting jobs or being underplayed, but things are much worse for those without degrees in both of these. For these reasons college rates won't change students just won't be able to go into deep debt to go to school and will look to cheaper schools. Overpriced schools like Pitt or the university of SC will suffer. Schools that offer a good education cheap will thrive. In fact with loans decreasing WVU could probably increase its tuition because demand will be so high and it can still remain cheaper for out of state students.
You forget two things. WVU out of state is often cheaper than instate. For this reason if loans dried up you would probably see more out of state students going to WVU since it would be cheaper than in state and competition for instate will be fiercer. Finally it would be much harder to go out of state for WV residents.
This situation is not limited to WVU. Fairmont, Marshall, and other bargain schools will benefit. It will mostly hurt expensive private schools and overpriced public schools. WV is not known for either of these.
They had to cap WVU admissions because demand is too great. WVU could really grow if the state would fund it and it will continue to grow despite what happens with loans. WVU is one of the few things WV did right.
And while the occupation tax itself may not help to lure businesses in, I think one could say with little doubt that B&O taxes help to encourage them to locate elsewhere. By allowing elimination or reduction of the B&O tax through a city sales tax, this has helped to encourage new business growth in Huntington. Being a border city where towns just across state borders have lower or no B&O taxes due to an occupation tax being in place, this gives them an advantage that we dont have. WV is one of only 2 states that don't have the option of a B&O tax. I don't like taxes anymore than the next person but if I had to pay one, I would much rather pay a local tax that would stay local and help to create a stronger economy by creating a better business environment.
I agree with Tim on this issue. The B&O Tax is one of the many negatives that makes the State of West Virginia less competitive than neighboring states when it comes to luring business. Ohio, for example, has cities that levy a city income tax. That is more broad based than a B&O tax and insures that individuals, not just businesses, pay their share of the tax burden. If you are a business, that is very importans because in West Virginia businesses get stuck with the majority of the burden, even at the local level.
The people of this state have to make up their minds. Are they going to continue the failed policies largely put in place due to the influence of unions that have killed development and resulted in a lack of job opportunities for several decades only to protect the few that are fortunate enough to remain behind and have jobs, or are they going to get serious about thinking long term and adopt policies that are conducive to growth and prosperity for more people. It is true that the latter course of action means individuals would be paying a larger share of the taxes, but there would be a lot more jobs to go around and their children would no longer have to move to out of state areas to find work.
Schools like West Virginia are not the culprits in that issue. Primarily that comes from the community college sector, where people who are often not prepared to do college level work are pushed to attend classes, borrowing easy money to do so. They often don't succeed, and leave never paying back the money. Since they tend to come from lower income families, the government can't even get the money back from tax refunds since they rarely pay any income taxes.
To solve that issue, the Government needs to decide if it will embrace a reality based solution and make lending requirements more stringent for community college students, or a feel good, one size fits all, politically correct position and penalize everyone for the failure of a small sector of the population. Which do you think the current administration will choose?
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Awwww, CT, can you come up with a statistic to support that?
I don't think tuition prices will hurt Morgantown and WVU as long as they don't go too crazy with increases. The
expensive, overpriced for-profit schools are the ones that are starting to hurt. WVU needs to increase it's online programs immediately to stay competitive with what other schools are starting to do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mattec
not necessarily. A drying up of student loans will cut off many lower income peoples of average academic prowess from attending school. Also, especially important for WVU, is that it'll make it harder for students to go to school out of state.
Any drying up of student loans will effect for-profit and/or private schools long before WVU. Look up how much a 2 year degree at PTI in Pittsburgh costs...it's laughable.
Biggest problem in WV is jobs...it's awful beyond words.
Quote:
For-profit colleges educate 12 percent of all college students, but the sector is responsible for 43 percent of student-loan defaults.
Awwww, CT, can you come up with a statistic to support that?
It doesn't take a mental giant or a statistician to see that we are constantly fighting it out with Mississippi for last place, and we are surrounded by states that are far more affluent than are we. You can make the point that the situation is heavily skewed in a negative manner by the southern part of the state, and that would be true, but Wheeling is not as prosperous as Columbus or Harrisburg, and the roads in Uniontown are better than ours here in Morgantown.
20% of our workforce is unionized, but those unions have organization and political clout thus they have far more influence than the 80% of our work force that does not belong to a union. The laws are crafted to cater to the 20%. They also follow the failed logic that business somehow owes everyone everything. If you were running a business and had a choice about where to invest, where would you go... a state that spreads responsibility around or one that focuses most everything on business?
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