Should West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice Get The Tax Cut He Wants? No one likes taxes — that much is for sure. However, the difference between the federal government and the West Virginia state government is that the state must operate on a balanced budget — something that is simply unheard of in Washington, D.C.

The first round of personal tax cuts that were contained in House Bill 2526 cut personal income taxes by 21.25% and contains a trigger that will slice an additional 4% come January 2025.

The problem for Jimmy, Jim or James, and Baby Dog, is that the 2023 tax cut benefitted the wealthier 1% 500 times more than the bottom 20%, and gave $2 out $3 to the upper 20% leaving only $1 for the bottom 80% including not only Democrats but Republicans and Independent and third-party citizens as well those not yet old enough to vote.

So, adding the additional 5% the governor wants on top of the 4% in automatic cuts triggered by the carryover will once again benefit the silver spoon set far more than the bottom four-fifths.

In Kevin Phillips’s book “Wealth and Democracy,” we read about “A Political History Of The American Rich”.

After the Great Depression but especially in the 1940s & 1950s, this country’s growth went to the middle three-fifths, but starting around 1982 someone reset the distribution of growth and it ended up going to the upper fifth ever since but partially the top 1 percent, touching off a second gilded age with Calvin Coolidge-era results. Only the addition of second household incomes mostly from women entering the work world has allowed the struggling middle class to even come close to keeping pace.

That is what these tax cuts have done and that is what Gov. Justice and Baby Dog plan to do with this next round to benefit the upper one-fifth.

Professor Andrew Hacker’s 1998 book “Money: Who Has How Much and Why” made the statement “With each new generation, a limited supply of silver spoons must be divided among a greater number of heirs.”

So, on the way out the door, James and Baby Dog will leave the bottom four-fifths wanting.

He is teasing the two-income family holding candy behind his back while the ice cream truck on a hot day is parked up the street on Beacon Hill.

The bottom fifth is single moms with children will be denied much-needed health care.

From the working class, your devoted public servant!

Michael Traubert is a resident of Wellsburg.