West Virginia SOS Research

By Noah Hickman

Gov. Jim Justice was originally supposed to deliver the State of the State address on Jan. 12, but could not due to him testing positive for COVID-19.

Throughout his tenure, Justice has said that West Virginia has come a long way since his tenure and once again mentioned that during his 2021 SOS address. “I'm a business guy and our state, for all purposes, was bankrupt, and in tough, tough shape,’’ Justice said. “We drained the rainy day fund down to levels where our roads were being our roads were in pretty daggone tough shape and we had all kinds of issues at hand. They handed me a budget that was a projection for the next six years.”

Justice inherited a $500 million deficit when he first became the governor, but during his tenure, West Virginia’s General Revenue collections have consistently had surpluses. 

The Office of the Governor reported that there was a 124.4 million revenue surplus for December 2021 which is the best growth rate for the month of December in five decades. The year-to-date collections halfway through the Fiscal Year of 2022 are at about $2.518 billion which is $393.9 million above the estimate. 

It is expected that the governor will mention the consistent surpluses in his next SOS address as he has many times including his 2020 SOS address. “Personal income last year in 2019 grew 3 billion that's with a B $3 billion in this state.” Justice said. Unbelievable. Revenue growth went up $511 million. It's off the chart. Off the chart. The biggest revenue growth surely by far.”

One of the other topics of conversation that Justice has had revolves around tourism. 

Earlier this year, West Virginia was named a top 10 travel destination. The governor said in a press release that in his opinion, West Virginia is the best. 

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we live in the greatest, most beautiful state in all the country, and I’m so proud to see our great state getting the attention it deserves,” Justice said. “Just think back to my very first State of the State address, I said that we needed to change our image and tell the story of just how good we really are in West Virginia. And as we’ve moved forward, all of a sudden the world has noticed the treasure that we really are.”

Along with being a tourist hot spot, Justice and his administration have had to deal with the effects of COVID-19. In last year’s SOS address, the governor spent an extensive amount of time talking about stimulus packages. 

Justice said the stimulus packages provide much needed aid to American and West Virginian families and added that the country eventually has to stop spending money. 

“There's going to be a trillion 900 billion dollar Stimulus package passed.  With that there is a good chance that a lot of different things will happen to West Virginia,” Justice said. “A lot of good things will happen to West Virginia. I can tell you, though, the Stimulus packages will end, and you really need to listen to me.” 

There has not been much talk about stimulus packages in 2022. The effects of COVID-19 are still here, and it is a subject that all but has to be discussed in the next SOS address. The topic of conversation around the United States back then was stimulus packages and today, omicron has made headlines.

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