BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — About 48,000 jobs are expected to come from “Jim’s Promise” project — an initiative that Gov. Jim Justice created to fix the state’s roads and bring tens of thousands of jobs to the Mountain State.
Justice kicked off the program Thursday, with visits to Bridgeport and Hurricane touting the jobs that will be created.
“And it is immediate. That’s the beauty of this,” he said. “This isn’t like build a field and it will come. This is like turn on the switch and let’s go.”
Department of Transportation Secretary Tom Smith said projects in Harrison County made possible through the program include the resurfacing of Bennett’s Run Road, Middleton Road and Plum Run Road, slip repair on Co. Rd. 34 and a bridge replacement on W.Va. 23.
“In the first three months of this program starting right now, $350 million of roadway work that would not have gotten started this year without the governor’s program. It’s just remarkable,” he said.
Justice said that “Jim’s Promise” isn’t only about the roadwork itself but also the secondary impact that such a program will have on the Mountain State.
“Think about the economic impact of 48,000 jobs. Just think about it,” he said. “Think about the payroll tax or think about the income tax. Think about the multipler affect of those jobs. I mean, for every dollar spent — we’ve heard it forever — there’s $10 of economic impact.”
West Virginians vote Oct. 7 in a special election to authorize the state to sell bonds to turn money from the July 1 tax and fee increases into a multi-billion dollar bond program for roads and bridges.
Justice said if the bond is rejected, it will be detrimental to the state.
“I don’t want to say anything bad like this, but if the road bond is rejected — and this sounds dramatic — in all honesty, you can just turn out the lights. Our hope and everything is over,” he said. “It would be the worst mistake a state could make in the history of all time.”
With the the program’s potential economic impact, Justice said it’s time for West Virginia to stop being dead last in national polls.
“We’ve been dead last forever,” he said. “The coach has got to run a different play, and a lot of times, the players just don’t like it.”