I would like to thank Alyson Clements of the WV Center on Budget and Policy for setting the record straight in her April 30th letter to the editor. The legislation passed by the West Virginia legislature raises the state minimum wage to $8.75, not $10.10. It is the proposed federal legislation that would raise the national minimum wage to $10.10 per hour if passed.

I attended the League of Women Voters candidate forum last week that was held in the public meeting room in the Charles Town Library. It is the same room where the County Commission conducts its business. Participating in the forum were the candidates for the Jefferson County Commission from the Harpers Ferry magisterial district, Democrat Ronda Lehman and Republicans Eric Bell and Peter Onoszko. The moderator was Dr. Lori Stilley.

I attended a dinner party recently and ran into two acquaintances, one of whom is a school teacher in Jefferson County. We began talking and the discussion meandered a bit until the subject moved to income inequality, which is apparently a hot topic among progressives these days. The solution, I was told, is obvious; people at the high end of the income scale should be taxed more. After all, the highest tax rates in the 1950s ran over 90%.

Last Thursday I attended the candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters in Charles Town. Although in all likelihood there are few, if any, new votes to be had there by the candidates, the forum has value in that it provides a venue for citizens to learn about issues. On more than one occasion that evening a spokesperson for the League made mention that the organization is “non-partisan”. That means that it has at least one thing in common with the local Tea Party group.

In my previous column I made reference to an organization called True the Vote. Its president, Catherine Engelbrecht, recently testified at a congressional hearing looking into allegations that the IRS inappropriately targeted groups based on their political views. True the Vote, one of the organizations allegedly targeted by the IRS, was founded by Engelbrecht in response to what she witnessed as a volunteer monitoring local elections.

I was involved in a discussion with a friend the other day about the proper role of government. Particularly with regard to markets. It quickly devolved into the usual memes. I believe in free markets and he, well, doesn’t. Finally…he came out and said it: “the role of government is to hold the private sector accountable”.