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Trump pressures journalist to accept doctored photo as real: 'Why don't you just say yes?' Head Start funding cuts threaten MA early childhood program success; FL tomato industry enters new era as U.S.-Mexico trade agreement ends; KY's federal preschool funding faces uncertain future.

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President Trump acknowledges the consumer toll of his tariffs on Chinese goods. Labor groups protest administration policies on May Day, and U.S. House votes to repeal a waiver letting California ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

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Rural students who face hurdles going to college are getting noticed, Native Alaskans may want to live off the land but obstacles like climate change loom large, and the Cherokee language is being preserved by kids in North Carolina.

WV House Passes State Opportunity-Zone Tax Breaks Despite Questions

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Thursday, June 20, 2019   

CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The West Virginia Legislature is moving forward with state-level opportunity zone tax breaks for businesses in spite of serious questions about how they're targeted.

House Bill 113 would create state level opportunity zones to piggyback on federal zones, promoted as helping disadvantaged areas.

But critics point out the census tracts proposed by local development officials and approved by the governor's office include some of the richest and already fastest growing parts of the state.

Delegate Mike Pushkin of Charleston says four were proposed in his district, and three were designated.

"The only census tract that I know of that is over 50% African American did not get it,” he points out. “Let's not pretend it's something it's not. On the federal level, it's a capital gains tax break for business, a corporate net income tax break for business on a state level."

Pushkin voted for the bill. But he says Greenbrier County, including the luxurious Greenbrier resort owned by the governor, has a cluster of opportunity zones.

An amendment requiring that data be gathered on the cost and effect of the state opportunity zones was voted down. A separate one requiring that 60% of the tax breaks go to businesses owned by women, veterans and minorities also failed.

Delegate Barbara Fleischauer of Morgantown argued that over the years the state has granted hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate tax cuts based on false promises of economic growth. She says the only result was the loss of badly needed revenue.

"We should be very, very careful before we give away money that has been turned in from mostly people that are not high income,” she stresses. “Before we are requiring them to make an investment, we should be sure it's a good investment."

The bill passed the House overwhelmingly. It now moves to the Senate, where similar legislation had already passed.


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