CHARLESTON, W. Va. — While many Republicans disagreed with Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s standpoint on tort reform and tolls, the new leaders in the state House and Senate joined his call for bipartisan collaboration.
“I’m looking forward to some of the initiatives that he’s talking about,” Senate President Bill Cole (R-Mercer) said. “I love that he’s talking about jobs and job creation.”
House Speaker Tim Armstead (R-Kanawha) also found positives, though he wanted Tomblin to provide more details.
“I would have hoped to hear a little more substance, but I was glad he was talking about workforce investment, because I think that’s a very important component of moving our state forward,” he said. “We’re going to have to really train our workforce and also at the same time take some pretty bold steps to create jobs in our state.”
Part of that training could be advanced for middle and high school students with Tomblin proposing to establish a STEM network to review current science, technology, engineering and math-related education systems.
In 2013, business and industry in #WV identified a critical need for workers with math, technical, computer and mechanical skills. #WVSOTS15
— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) January 15, 2015
“We have to catch our kids earlier and train for those jobs that are going to be available,” Cole said. “He also talked about alternative certifications and I think he’s spot on with that. We need to look at anything we can do to help our education system deliver a better product.”
Along with luring jobs to the state and training the workforce, Republicans were eager to work with the governor on tackling problems related to drug abuse.
“We certainly realize that it’s a huge problem in our state and I applaud his efforts to address it,” Armstead said. “We’ll have to sit down and look through the details of how what he has in mind and how to do that, but we certainly agree with him that it’s an area that we need to address.”
A strong workforce is a drug-free workforce. Substance abuse affects #WV families every day. #WVSOTS15
— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) January 15, 2015
Tomblin announced $660,000 dedicated to expanding treatment options across the state and introduced legislation to equip emergency responders with naloxone, an opioid antagonist first approved by the FDA to counter overdose deaths in 1971.
In closing Wednesday’s speech, the governor said he was “confident that we can continue to move West Virginia forward, together.”
At least in some areas, the leaders in the legislature agree.