Governor Jim Justice began his version of shuttle diplomacy Thursday in yet another attempt to work out a budget agreement with the Legislature. Democratic and Republican legislators from the House and Senate split into separate rooms at the Capitol and the Governor stopped at each to make his pitch.
The meetings were closed to the public, but reports indicate the Governor’s presentation was both a pep talk to lawmakers, as well as another plea for the plan favored by him and Republican Senators to lower the state income tax rates by 20 percent, while raising the consumer sales tax to 7.25 percent.
Senate Democrats, House Republicans and Democrats don’t like that plan. In fact, the House voted 85-0 Wednesday to reject the proposal, triggering the decision by the Governor to try a different approach. “I want to get this budget deal done, and a mediation session will hopefully help us get there,” he said.
Maybe it’s splitting hairs, but the Governor cannot be the “mediator” because he has a vested interest. A true mediator—and one who has the best chance of bringing about resolution—has no agenda other than reaching an agreement; they need to be impartial.
This latest effort remains a negotiation with the Governor attempting to use his powers of persuasion to try to craft a deal. However, the sides are fairly entrenched, so it remains unlikely the Governor—or anyone else—can move the needle by restatement of familiar arguments or the timbre of his voice.
During the campaign, Governor Justice promised he would be a different kind of leader. He reminded us over and over that he was not a politician and he would bring to the job his vast business experience. Those attributes helped carry him to victory, and now those skills are being tested.
Certainly the Governor knows that rational minds want to deal, but not give in. Allowing the other side to have its way feels too much like a loss, and you don’t enter a negotiation to lose. The spotlight is on this Capitol version of shuttle diplomacy, so you have to craft a deal where the principals can walk away with a feeling of success.
By the way, according to the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, the term “shuttle diplomacy” was coined in 1973-74 “by the members of the media who followed (Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger on his various short flights among Middle East capitals as he sought to deal with the fallout of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War.”
It’s worth noting that Kissinger negotiated an Egyptian-Israeli disengagement in eight days and then arranged a Syrian-Israeli disengagement in a month. West Virginia’s lawmakers and Governor Justice have been haggling over the budget in one form or another for four months.