CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Claiming the state needs more educated and better-trained workers, Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette says its the main factor West Virginia must address in order to grow its business base.
Appearing before the special legislative committee on tax reform Monday, Keith Burdette said taxes are down in West Virginia and the cost of doing business is affordable. Yet some obstacles are hard to overcome.
“We can’t sell our college-going rate—it’s bad. We can’t sell our infrastructure,” Burdette said Tuesday on MetroNews “Talkline.” urging lawmakers to concentrate their efforts on those issues.
“It’s not hard for me to say (workers) are dedicated and loyal—they are. But the participation rate is low, lowest in the country, and our education levels are the lowest in the country, and it’s affecting our ability to be attractive to business,” Burdette said.
Unlike a scarcity of flat land that impairs recruitment—something West Virginia officials can’t change—Burdette said developing a more highly-educated, trained workforce is attainable.
“I want to be able to say ‘We have the best-educated, most-skilled workforce in the country and we’ll put them up against anybody.'” Burdette said.” I can put them up against anybody for their loyalty, dedication and showing up to work. I can’t do that in the other categories.”
The workforce situation also impacts existing businesses and their plans to expand.
“I hear it every day from companies: ‘Keith, we love our team. We love the people who work for us. They are hard-working, dedicated and show up for work.’ All the good things. But we aren’t convinced you have a deep enough bench,” Burdette said.
The tax-reform committee expects to have a final report ready for the full legislature later this year.