CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Governor Jim Justice, on statewide radio, said the state Division of Tourism might have to be shut down because of the state budget passed by the Legislature.
The Tourism office actually received $6,456,359 from the general revenue fund in the budget that was passed by the Legislature on June 16 and then allowed to become law without the governor’s signature.
There’s another excess lottery fund transfer to the Tourism Promotion Fund of $5,659,115.
The governor had wanted a $5 million increase for tourism advertising that the Legislature declined to fund.
On MetroNews’ “Talkline” from The Greenbrier Classic golf tournament today, Justice punctuated a discussion of his dissatisfaction with the budget the Legislature passed by stating his belief that one big sacrifice might be the entire Tourism department.
“What they both did is they went on their merry way, and at the end of the day what we ended up with is massive, massive pain to the everyday people — and the common every day people don’t know it, but they’re gonna know it because this is just the first thing that’s gonna happen,” Justice said.
“We took all the money out of Tourism, every dollar. We’re gonna probably have to look at the possibility of closing the Tourism Department in West Virginia.”
MetroNews host Hoppy Kercheval responded, “What’s that now?”
“We could have to close our Tourism Department in West Virginia,” the governor repeated.
“Close it?” Kercheval asked.
“Close it,” Justice said. “We don’t have any money to do anything. For crying out loud, we had the opportunity to do all this stuff.”
There was a big difference between what the governor wanted and what the Legislature funded.
Justice had asked for $5 million additional to fund tourism advertising for West Virginia.
This is an image of the Tourism line item in the governor’s budget request.
This is an image of what the Legislature actually funded.
The only difference is the $5 million the governor had intended to boost Tourism’s advertising reach.
In addition, here is the Lottery transfer to Tourism. It’s the same in the governor’s request as in what the Legislature passed.
Compared to last year’s state budget, Tourism is actually better funded for the coming year. Last year’s funding for Tourism was $6,216,150.
That’s $240,209 more in funding for the coming fiscal year.
Justice for months has advocated for increased funding for tourism advertising in West Virginia, frequently lamenting that the state can’t seem to compete with a televised advertising campaign for the state of Michigan.