West Virginia Freedom Dividend
What We're Up Against
Out-of-state corporations have been robbing West Virginia of its land and labor forever. From salt and timber to coal and natural gas, West Virginia workers and surface owners have always worked harder and earned less than their fair share.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen our pay, pension and the profits we’ve created shipped up and out of state to landholders, CEO’s and the politicians they own.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can follow the lead of Alaska and North Dakota to make sure that the wealth of our natural resources is not being robbed.
Our Plan
This will be paid for out of a combination of five separate sources:
- Increased severance tax on natural gas.
- Increased excess acreage fees for out-of-state landholding companies
- A data dividend, derived from taxes on Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, and other companies that earn money based on the data provided by consumers.
- An end to corporate welfare.
- Dividends from profits realized by the State Bank of West Virginia.
No one politician or slate of candidates can win this plan alone. We need you.
If you have an idea for how to make this plan stronger, or if you would like to lend a hand to win it, contact our co-chair Stephen Smith at stephen@wvcantwait.com.