Listen to “The Senate Said ‘No’ to West Virginia’s Economic Future” on Spreaker.
Here it is, unvarnished.
West Virginia is a financially poor state — at least compared to the rest of the Union.
Issue after issue confronting the state is not so much a problem as it is a symptom. School systems struggling to make payroll. Counties unable to fund reliable emergency medical services. A statewide crisis in special education funding. Child welfare needs going unmet — largely, though not entirely, because of a lack of money. Citizens still searching for clean drinking water. Teachers paid far less than they can earn in neighboring states. All of that and much more.
These are symptoms.
And until we start working to heal the illness, we’ll remain sick — and only get sicker.
Population loss, coupled with a low labor participation rate driven by a lack of opportunity, is the state’s underlying ailment. Fix that, and many of the symptoms begin to retreat. It’s not a particularly difficult concept to understand.
Yet as lawmakers have debated the symptoms this session, many have gone out of their way to avoid the cure.
That cure is called TEAM West Virginia.
Sadly, it died in the Senate.
That body had the first opportunity to move the bill and failed to do so. The House later passed the legislation, giving the Senate a second chance. The Senate squandered that opportunity as well.
At a high level, TEAM West Virginia would have placed the state’s economic development efforts into a private development corporation minus politics and government inefficiency — one singular entity tasked with aggressively recruiting companies and jobs to West Virginia. Jobs that would generate the tax revenue the state so desperately needs.
That kind of investment would likely bring new residents seeking new opportunities to the state as well — something West Virginia desperately needs. After all, it remains the only state in the nation that has consistently lost population over the past decade.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Marshall University President Brad Smith. During a recent appearance on Talkline, the former Fortune 250 CEO praised the concept and made it clear the state needs a program like TEAM West Virginia if it wants to make meaningful economic progress.
When someone with that level of business experience speaks, we probably ought to listen.
We didn’t.
Nobody — not an individual, not a company, and certainly not a state — cuts their way to prosperity. Yet that appears to be the path we’re determined to follow, absent any effort to the contrary.
One data center deal will not save West Virginia. You would need dozens — maybe hundreds — and even then the economy would remain dangerously undiversified.
Have we learned nothing over the past 100 years about the risks of relying on a narrow economic base?
It’s not an overstatement to say that while the House tried to give the state much-needed medicine by passing TEAM West Virginia, the Senate added poison to the effort by refusing to run the bill to the floor for a vote.
The governor holds significant political capital in the Senate. That’s well known. He does NOT hold the same sway in the House.
Supporters of TEAM West Virginia believe the governor quietly worked the Senate in an effort to stop the bill.
If accurate, that’s his prerogative.
But if that is the case, the question remains: Why?
The Senate owes West Virginians an explanation for failing to move the bill. The governor owes them an explanation for failing to support it or not pushing harder for it.
Meanwhile, we will continue doing the same old thing — hoping the state grows — instead of actively working to make it happen.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine reportedly joked that JobsOhio, the program TEAM West Virginia was modeled after, has worked so well that he wasn’t sure whether he should encourage West Virginia lawmakers to adopt something similar.
After all, why would he want the competition?
Congratulations, Governor DeWine. You and Ohio win. Your team is no doubt right now wooing the next West Virginia business across the Ohio River. Who can blame you and who could blame the business from making the move?
Drop your lawmaker a line and ask them if they supported the TEAM WV bill. That might be useful information with an election around the corner.