Gov. Jim Justice delivered a better-late-than-never State of the State address. The governor’s speech traditionally sets the tone for the start of the annual legislative session, but Justice came down with a case of covid-19 the day before he would have delivered it.
“You may have found that I’ve been a minute or two late here and there,” Justice told a crowd of state officials familiar with his flexible sense of scheduling. “I’ve never really been 15 days late.”
Nevertheless, Justice gave his folksy version of a formal speech anyway on Thursday evening, two weeks into the regular session, underscoring three big economic development announcements that were made in his absence while also outlining a series of public policy positions he would like to see the state embrace.
Much of Justice’s speech was a pep talk meant to encourage West Virginians, reaching its grand finale with a gesture involving his dog.
In the classic House of Delegates chamber, in front of delegates, senators, court justices, agency leaders and corporate executives the governor had his beloved English bulldog walk down the center aisle. Justice then made reference to a comment about West Virginia the actress and singer Bette Midler apologized for making late last year.
Turning the dog’s rear end directly to a camera broadcasting the speech for people to see, Justice proclaimed “Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there, kiss her hiney.”
That drew laughter and standing applause.
On substance, the governor celebrated recent economic development announcements by Nucor’s Mason County steel mill, the GreenPower electric school bus project in South Charleston and the Owens & Minor health care products project in Morgantown.
“I promised you a rocketship ride, did I not?” he asked.
“You’ve already heard these announcements, and I wanted to bring them to you at the State of the State.”
Justice had already announced his support for an average 5 percent pay raise for state workers, as well as a bonus that he has described as vaccination against inflation. He reiterated those goals Thursday evening and said that otherwise his administration intends to deliver a relatively flat budget.
“We don’t have any reason to dip into the Rainy Day Fund. We absolutely don’t have any reason to grow government. We absolutely need to watch the store every day,” he said.
He described his desire to streamline the way state government settles on contracts. And Justice promoted a new Job Jumpstart Program to provide a one-time $1,500 incentive for state residents who go back to work and stay on the job for eight weeks.
He promoted some ways of harnessing the millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan funds coming from the federal government, focusing in part on the need for renovated state laboratories for agencies such as the state Medical Examiner, State Police and Department of Agriculture.
The governor announced a proposal to make college equivalency classes free for students still in high school, hoping that will encourage more to pursue higher education. And he suggested West Virginia should make computer coding and information technology classes mandatory for secondary schools students.
The governor also described the hard time West Virginia has gone through with the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been two years. The pandemic’s been tough,” he said before asking for a moment of silence. “Please, please, remember all those that we’ve lost.”
He also urged West Virginians to continue taking pride in the state. Justice has often spoken of frogs who should be proud of their ponds, and he told the crowd that he is the proudest.
He laid out goals not only for West Virginia, but also for himself.
“I didn’t want to just be your governor,” he said near the beginning of his speech. “I want to be the greatest governor you’ve ever had. And I want to do that every single day.”
Then, after about an hour and a half, as his speech drew to a close, he lifted his dog up for all to see.
It was an unprecedented moment.
“God bless y’all,” Justice said. “God bless you. I told you I’d make you smile. Thank you all so much in every way. Keep doing it West Virginia.”