West Virginia legislators are on the edge of passing a series of bills related to a major economic development project that Gov. Jim Justice is expected to announce this week.
The House of Delegates will continue deliberation about the bills when they gavel in for a 9 a.m. Tuesday floor session. The state Senate also has a 9 a.m. floor session scheduled, but already voted in favor of the bills and probably will just need to receive word of the House’s action.
“We think it’s a wise investment, and it’s the beginning, not the end,” the governor’s chief of staff, Brian Abraham, told delegates.
“This company is going to be a vendor to West Virginia businesses; it’s going to be a customer to West Virginia businesses.”
No one, through hints by the governor and a day of discussion in the Legislature, has publicly named the company yet. But it is widely believed to be Nucor Steel of Charlotte, N.C.
Justice has hinted at a “major, major announcement” at his annual State of the State address on Wednesday evening.
State leaders said the company could produce up to 800 full-time jobs along with about a thousand construction jobs over a couple of years at a Mason County location. State officials said jobs with the company could pay about $96,000 a year for non-managerial positions.
“We have an opportunity here now to recruit an investment in heavy industrial manufacturing in our state and provide the kind of jobs that we’ve not announced in the State of West Virginia for some time,” House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
The bills that lawmakers voted in special session to adopt included a bundled set of incentives for the company, including tax breaks and funding for site preparation.
Additional, related bills direct money from the federal American Rescue Plan funding to cover pandemic response costs at a range of state agencies. Resulting budget surplus at those agencies, then, would be swept toward the state Department of Economic Development for use in its fund meant to help the state close deals.
Governor Justice officially announced the special session at 10:22 p.m. Saturday. The state Senate voted for the bills during a Monday floor session that took less than an hour, suspending constitutional rules that normally would have required voting on each bill three separate days.
The only senator who voted against the tax incentives bill was Owens Brown, a Democrat from Wheeling, who objected to the fast track. “I cannot see why it’s being rushed through without actually looking at it,” Brown said.
The House of Delegates also acted swiftly, but stopped short of passing the bills during a Monday evening floor session.
The House sent the bills for consideration by its Finance Committee, where delegates asked questions over about two hours time in the afternoon.
“Questions, I think, are probably worthwhile,” said Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer.
Most of the questions were about the structure of the incentives, what West Virginia was putting on the line, what the company would guarantee in return and whether there could be unintended consequences of another company taking advantage of the same bill.
“When I see a bill like this, I try to look for the guard rails,” said Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, who asked for a fiscal note that would outline the possible costs of the legislation.
Rowe acknowledged, “It’s the kind of investment we want to have made in West Virginia.”
The incentives bill, called the Industrial Advancement Act, is fairly narrowly defined: the beneficiary has to be a manufacturer, has to be qualified as a labor-intensive industrial manufacturer, has to invest at least $2 billion for manufacturing equipment and has to hire at least 500 full-time employees.
The qualifying company could receive tax credits valued at 50 percent of its manufacturing investment. The credit is available year after year until it is exhausted.
“We believe this bill is a wise decision to attract not just any company but this particular company,” Abraham said.