More than $1.6 billion of [stimulus bill] money will come to West Virginia, according to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. That includes $351 million in job investments, $551 million for education and technical training and $664 million in health care for low-income families.
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Rockefeller said the infrastructure funding alone should save or create as many as 20,000 jobs in West Virginia. The Obama administration estimated the package would create or save 3.5 million jobs across the nation during the next two years and lift more than 2 million people out of poverty.
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Included in the stimulus package for West Virginia is a temporary $450 million increase in Medicaid funding, $163 million in additional food stamp support, more than $20 million for community block grants to help the unemployed make rental and utility payments, $585,000 for the school lunch program and $289,000 for Meals on Wheels.
Also in the bill is more than $19 billion in bonus Medicaid and Medicare payments nationwide for physicians and doctors who adopt electronic health care technologies in their offices. West Virginia lawmakers hope to use the state's share of the money to implement an electronic health care system, which was one of the major recommendations of a task force that spent last year exploring health care reforms.
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Education is the next largest recipient after health care. Public schools, colleges and universities will receive $219 million to help stabilize budget shortfalls. The state will receive another $156 million in school construction bonds over two years to build and renovate schools in such a way that they will be energy efficient and promote technology.
The state will get $210 million for road, bridge and highway construction and repair, $62 million to provide clean drinking water to communities and nearly $20 million for water and sewer infrastructure.
Other details of the plan include:
• a "making work pay" tax cut of up to $400 for individuals earning below $75,000 per year and up to $800 for couples earning below $150,000;
• expanding the earned-income tax credit to families with three or more children, helping an estimated 50,000 West Virginia families;
• giving tax relief to 86,000 West Virginians by preventing them from paying the Alternative Minimum Tax;
• $3.4 billion for clean coal research and development nationwide;
• $70 million to make West Virginia buildings more energy efficient;
• lowering COBRA health care premiums by 65 percent for unemployed West Virginians for up to nine months; COBRA recipients will be responsible for only 35 percent of COBRA premium costs;
• $3.2 million in State Employment Service Grants to match unemployed individuals to job openings through state employment service agencies and provide customized reemployment services;
• $3.6 million in Dislocated Workers State Grants to meet the needs of skilled workers;
• raising the weekly unemployment compensation benefit by $25 and temporarily suspending federal income taxes on the first $2,400 of unemployment assistance.
