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Justice again blames delegates for killing tax plan, again says he’ll take plan to the people

Gov. Jim Justice continues to blast the House of Delegates for voting down a big tax plan 0-100 while saying he’ll take the plan out to persuade the people of West Virginia.

For months, Justice has touted a big income tax cut offset by increased and expanded sales taxes. Delegates overwhelmingly voted down his proposal at the end of the legislative session. But since then, Justice has repeatedly called their judgment into question while saying citizens just don’t understand yet.

Gov. Jim Justice

“It’s almost like the people were surrounded by a scare tactic, a bubble, a bubble that was saying to the people ‘We’re going to tax you more,'” Justice said at a briefing today. “And it scared ‘em to the point that they absolutely did not understand. We took the money out of the people’s pocket. We denied ourselves an opportunity to grow.”

Referring to delegates, the governor continued, “I could give a hoot in every way what the House did with their grandstanding effort. I only care just about this: Their grandstanding and showing their behind really just mooned our people. That’s what they really did. That’s what I care about.”

Justice, a Republican, made an income tax cut the focal point of his State of the State address.

The state Senate, with a Republican supermajority, narrowly voted in favor of the plan last week, 18-16.

The House of Delegates, which also has a Republican supermajority, then unanimously voted it down. Delegates expressed concern about the effects of the increased sales tax. They had planned to just quietly table the bill, but then put it to a vote after the governor said at a midday Friday briefing that delegates should be ashamed of themselves for letting it fizzle.

Marty Gearheart

“To quote our governor, there is no way, shape, form or fashion I could ever support any portion of what is suggested,” Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, said right before the vote. “”It is time for us to let the governor and the Senate know that tax shifts are not a tax cut.”

Now the governor, who had objected to letting the bill die quietly, says the vote amounted to showing off.

“For us to be childish and say ‘Oh we all got together and showed the governor and everything, it isn’t a matter of showing the governor. It’s a matter about the importance of what this is for West Virginians,'” the governor said at a briefing today that was supposed to be about the state’s pandemic response.

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During a Saturday night review of the legislative session, Justice suggested many of those delegates actually voted against their true view of the bill.

“When politics gets going with the snowball going down the side of the mountain, it gets out of control,” he said. “We all know it’s physically impossible to think that a hundred of those folks — that there isn’t a goodly percentage of those folks are all on board. But when leadership is pushing and everything, it gets going downhill.”

Eric Tarr

Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, who pushed for the bill in that chamber, made a similar claim Monday on “580 Live” on WCHS Radio — that delegates followed leadership to the 0-100 vote mainly to spite the governor.

“It started picking up momentum that we could go into the House,” said Tarr, R-Putnam, referring to the short period after the Senate’s 18-16 vote.

“When the governor did his press conference that the Speaker took offense to, I think the Speaker was able to rally the votes to make a message to the governor that you don’t control the House, and I think that’s where that vote came from.”

Although there probably wouldn’t have been a vote had the governor not made his comments, delegates had been saying publicly and privately for weeks that they could not support the tax shift.

Jeffrey Pack

“We were halfway through session before we actually got a bill,” Delegate Jeff Pack, R-Raleigh, said today on “Radio Roundtable” on WJLS-AM. “The fact that nothing happened on that this session isn’t terribly surprising.”

Pack said it’s a good idea for the governor to go out and talk to people about the tax plan.

“He definitely needs to go on the road. During all this time, I’ve spoken with one person in my district who said ‘You know what, maybe we ought to try that.’ Every other person said ‘No, this is a bad idea.’

“If he wants this to succeed in the Legislature, he does need to go out on the road and try to convince people. There’s no support for it right now.”





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