Public Comments

• Introduces tax incentives for businesses that sponsor or provide childcare for their employees, supporting employers in the process.
• Requires the state to provide childcare subsidies based on a child’s enrollment status instead of a daily rate. This approach stabilizes funding for childcare providers serving lower-income families.
• Ensures the government employs an accurate model to assess the cost of care, moving away from the current low reimbursement rates that fail to cover actual childcare expenses. This forward-looking measure promotes financial stability for the future.
• Empowers the Department of Human Services, which oversees state childcare funding, to mitigate the cliff effect families face when transitioning off subsidized childcare, ultimately supporting families in their childcare needs.

1. I support this bill. Having a child care supplement for individuals already working in childcare would contribute to workers staying in centers and centers staying open. We must pass this bill in the next 3 days. We can not wait another year for child care services.

What exactly are we doing with this bill?

From what I am reading, the primary outcome appears to be: large corporations receive substantial tax credits, and citizens may receive a handful of jobs in return. Is that truly the intended balance?

Why are we granting massive tax credits to enormous data centers and corporations simply for being expensive? Large-scale infrastructure projects already come with significant capital backing. Why does a corporation investing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars require additional public subsidy from a state that consistently emphasizes budget constraints?

I am particularly concerned about the provision allowing companies to offset taxes tied to employee withholding. If tax relief is being applied to income generated by employees’ labor, why does that benefit not go directly to the employees themselves? If the justification is job creation, shouldn’t working citizens see direct financial benefit rather than corporations reducing their own tax liability?

Additionally, the minimum qualification standard is structured as an “OR” requirement — meaning a corporation can qualify by investing $2.5 million without necessarily creating meaningful long-term employment. Why is there no stronger “AND” requirement that ensures both substantial investment and substantial job creation? Without that safeguard, it appears possible for large corporations to receive significant tax advantages with minimal obligation to the working class.

Many working-class citizens of West Virginia are already struggling with rising costs of living, housing, and healthcare. It is difficult to understand why the state’s priority seems to be expanding tax flexibility for major corporations rather than strengthening direct economic stability for the people whose labor sustains the state economy.

If the citizens who power West Virginia’s economy are not the primary priority, then what is?

• 5B-12-10 of HB 4001, as currently drafted, would prohibit any person or organization from using the name “TEAM-WV” or words of similar meaning without the written consent of the newly created corporation. As written, this provision could require our long-established organization to seek permission from a newly created entity in order to continue using the name and identity under which we have operated for nearly four decades.

• A structured review of child development studies found that higher screen use in early childhood is associated with poorer sleep, reduced physical activity, attention difficulties, and challenges in emotional and social functioning.  
• Research specific to preschoolers shows that routine use of devices to soothe or distract children can reduce self-regulation and is linked to lower inhibition and greater emotional lability.  

• Pediatric guidelines (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics) recommend no screen time under age 2 and no more than ~1 hour/day for ages 2–5, because exceeding these is associated with developmental delays and negative outcomes.  

• A pediatric behavioral study found that children with ≥2 hours/day of screen time showed more behavioral problems and ADHD-like symptoms, and mechanisms like excessive dopamine release from screen engagement make devices harder to disengage from (a marker of addictive patterns).  

1. We have a grandchild with Hearing Aids with private insurance, which does not pay for them. Simple question?? Why does medicaid recognize the treatment of hearing loss as a basic medical necessity, while most private medical insurance companies do not. Recent research has confirmed that hearing loss plays a vital role in both cognitive development and decline.  Therefore, the funding of treatment for hearing is essential to both young and the old. 

• I strongly encourage you to vote for Bill 4027. The most precious resource in
• our state is our children. Investing in them through their care makes them better adjusted and makes for happier families. Do your part to make that happen!

1. spend time filling out paperwork for taxes
2. opening up personal information on tax forms to ID theft
3. costing the state money to refund the loan made to them over a year there are additional benefits.....
4. Tourists pay sales taxes while visiting the state adding to the tax base.
5. It is more fair as it makes all put in some money to the system in tax dollars.  And those on EBT/Food Stamps don't pay taxes on food (if that is added in) anyway thus giving them a break from the sales tax on essentials.
6.  8% with no income tax is reasonable.  Working on occasions in Texas and in-laws in Tennessee its a reasonable amount.  Their sales taxes are higher and yet no income taxes.

• Advanced electronics and data infrastructure
• Semiconductor components
• Heavy mining and energy equipment
• Medical supplies and pharmaceuticals
• Large-scale construction materials

• Workforce training investment
• Infrastructure modernization
• Energy grid reliability
• Clear cost-benefit analysis
• Transparent fiscal reporting

I sat down and read through Committee Substitute for House Bill 4027, the general appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2027. I can't say I particularly enjoy combing through all your legalese and appropriations language, but I’ve learned that if any of us want to understand what any of you in positions of power in this state truly values, we need to follow the money.

The bill says its purpose is to fund the “economical and efficient discharge of the duties and responsibilities of the state”. I keep thinking about that word — responsibility. In West Virginia, we require our students to meet the Student Success Standards set forth by the Department of Education. In fact, this is a large part of my job as a Behavior Development teacher for middle schoolers. We teach them personal responsibility, empathy, responsible decision-making, and civic engagement. We teach them to consider how their actions affect their community.

If those are the standards we hold our children to, then surely we must hold ourselves — and you, our Legislature — to the same ones. Responsible budgeting means considering long-term impact. Civic responsibility means listening when working families say they are drowning in insurmountable debt, inability to pay their bills, and child care costs. Public service means building systems that allow families to be self-sustaining, not forcing them to patch together survival through grandparents, social networks you all keep gutting, and subsidies that just perpetuate the Cliff Effect.

Responsibility, to me, looks like you all making sure working families can actually function. I pay what amounts to a mortgage every single month in daycare costs. Over $1000. Except instead of building equity, it disappears the moment it’s paid. That money doesn’t go toward home improvements. It doesn’t go into savings... who even know what those accounts are for anymore? It doesn’t circulate through local shops or restaurants. It goes to the absolute necessity of having someone care for my child so I can work.

And I am one of the lucky ones. Most families I know — even with two incomes — are barely holding it together. They rely on grandparents who are already tired. They rely on neighbors. They rely on subsidies if they qualify. They shuffle schedules. They trade shifts and hope nothing falls apart. We don’t say that we are suffering and struggling to our breaking points like it’s a badge of honor. We don’t romanticize the grind. It’s not grit, y'all. We need relief.

I work in public education, and I see how fragile the system is from the inside. When child care arrangements collapse, attendance slips. Parents miss work and stress levels rise. Kids feel it in their bodies and are perpetually dysregulated by the pressure they feel at home. Stability in early childhood isn’t just about supervision, folks. It’s about consistency, healthy attachment, and security... predictability. When that stability exists, children walk into school ready to learn. When it doesn’t, we spend years trying to repair the gaps left from dysfunctional home environments.

We talk constantly about workforce participation in West Virginia and how we have to get more of our folks working. We talk about keeping young families here and encouraging people to have their kids here. We talk about economic development and attracting industries. But none of that conversation is honest if we are not talking about child care. About taking care of our environment. Taking care of the basic needs a village provides for children.

A stable child care industry is a necessity to our social and economic infrastructure. It is the hinge that everything else swings on. If providers can’t survive on these razor-thin margins, centers are forced to close. When our centers close, parents leave the workforce or reduce their hours to the point it's not even worth it to work anymore. When parents reduce their hours, income drops and cue safety nets. When there's nothing left, communities shrink and it's a snowball effect of services shutting down, schools consolidating and jobs go out of business. It is all connected.

When I look at the scale of allocations across this bill, I cannot help but measure them against what families are paying out of pocket just to stay employed. We can fund smear marketing campaigns with false attacks against your opponents. We can fund development offices and new furniture. We can fund new data center initiatives with multi-million dollar price tags and absolutely no regulation to keep our environments safe and livable. Surely we can treat child care like the economic driver it is.

Child care allows parents to work. It allows businesses to retain employees. It allows households to build some form of stability instead of living in constant improvisation. It supports early childhood development in ways that save money long-term in education, health care, and social services. Working families are applying pressure. Right here and now. We are telling you plainly: this is unsustainable.

We are not asking for luxuries. We are asking for breathing room.

If this budget is about responsibility, then let’s be responsible to the families who are doing everything right and still struggling. Invest in child care. Stabilize providers. Increase access. Reduce the financial burden on working parents. Healthy, self-sustaining families do not happen by accident. They require policies that understand how people actually live. Right now, too many families are one childcare disruption away from losing a job, one tuition increase away from real financial strain. We don’t need applause for surviving this. We need structural support so survival isn’t the only option. Stabilize our childcare services. Our communities are counting on this.

Childcare plays a vital role in my life and for my family to make a living. I have four children and when I was pregnant with my second I had to either leave the workforce or find childcare. The cost alone didn’t make sense for our family. That is when I went and opened my own tier 2 childcare center as early childhood education is my background and I was working at the state level with. I have now provided care for my four children in an environment I know is safe, developmentally appropriate and preparing the foundation for my children’s later success. Last year however, I had to leave the day to day work of my center and obtain a full time job with Headstart. I needed insurance for my family and our center wasn’t able to afford my income anymore. I know work full time for Headstart and manage my childcare center full time five day a week. It is not the ideal situation, but it’s the only option I have at the moment to be able to provide for my children, and have a safe place to leave them while I do so.

I’m writing to express support for subsidizing childcare in WV. My infant attends a well-regarded licensed non-profit daycare in WV. Even as a non-profit, it’s clear that the employees are struggling. One lead teacher quit to return to Door Dash; she told me that Door Dash has better pay and more flexible hours. That really alarmed me because services like Door Dash are notorious for underpaying delivery workers.

In my baby’s classroom in the last year, I have seen three teachers come and go due to the low wages and challenging work conditions — including a high rate of infectious illness. I am concerned teachers begin to look burn-out after only six months. Childcare teachers deserve better pay for doing a job that is critical to society: helping raise the next generation!

I’ve done the math and without subsidies nothing can improve. Tuition at childcare centers is already 1-3 times the cost of a mortgage — a brutal expense for most families. Meanwhile the overhead to run a daycare center leaves no slack. Revenue barely covers operating costs.

Failing to support childcare will lead to further population decline. Most people I know would love to have a child, or more children, yet a realistic assessment of the cost forbids those dreams. It’s truly tragic.

I would prefer to see subsidies based on center enrollment, rather than attendance, because the number of staff booked for any given day is based on *enrollment* ratios. That is, one teacher for every four infants enrolled, etc. Daycares can’t control whether a child fails to attend, so they shouldn’t be penalized if a parent decides to keep a child at home on any given day.

It would also be helpful if teachers were eligible for wage subsidies after working a minimum of 20 hours per week — and without any household income cap — as many teachers are parents themselves and some are college students. (But truly, even subsidies for 32 hours and up would be better than none!) Wage support for part-time workers would encourage more employment overall in this critical sector. And that’s what we need to focus on: better wages and more applicants for these jobs!

I’m so excited this is even being considered because I want to see a prosperous future for West Virginia, and affordable high-quality childcare is absolutely critical to making that happen. For the love of babies, let’s pass this bill!

• The legislature needs to prioritize childcare and take meaningful action this legislative session.
• Childcare employees working 20+ hours per week deserve a child care subsidy, regardless of household income.
• Child care subsidy payments to licensed facilities should be based on enrollment rather than daily attendance.