West Virginia State of the State Address

 By Noah Hickman

Gov. Jim Justice has tested positive for COVID-19 causing the annual West Virginia State of the State address, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, to be delayed.

“I apologize in every way for not being able to join you tomorrow night, and I especially apologize to all our invited guests who are having to change their plans,” Justice said in a press release. “I’ll be back in front of you in-person before you know it.”

With COVID-19 cases on the rise and Omicron becoming more prominent, Justice was going to spend a great portion of the SOS talking about the virus as he has in previous speeches. 

Justice has been a big vaccine advocate during his time in office and if the SOS had happened on Wednesday, he would have persuaded his audience and viewers to get or be fully vaccinated.

In previous SOS’s Justice mentioned the budget surpluses and how West Virginia went from a state that was bankrupt, to a state that he deems “the miracle of West Virginia.”

The governor was expected to talk about the industrial development in Mason County and the Northern Panhandle part of West Virginia.

The West Virginia Legislature held its regular session just after 12 p.m., the day the SOS was originally scheduled.

The legislators laid down their priorities and what they wanted to see done during the 60-day session.

“We want education. We want to bring in jobs for the area. We want to diversify the economy. We want to work on all the things that are going to help the working families of West Virginia, bring people into the state, keep people in our state,” Del. Jim Barach (D) said.

A WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research report showed that the development project will have approximately a $25 billion economic impact over the span of 10 years. The report also shows that there will be a $439 million increase in tax revenue over the next 10 years.

As a businessman and politician, Justice would have made a heavy emphasis on the economic developments that are bringing numerous jobs to West Virginia to affirm that the state is open for business.

“If you look at just this week with the significant economic development projects being announced, I think it’s really an affirmation of the efforts we have made in recent years to try to improve our business climate here in West Virginia,” Del. Paul Espinosa (R) said.

West Virginia News Station reported that day one of the 60-day regular sessions had 194 bills introduced and many more are to come.

Another topic of conversation that Justice has mentioned in previous SOS’s are the budget surpluses.

“We had deficits like you can’t imagine. No one had a solution whatsoever, other than more and more cuts.” Justice said. “But with the great work of the Legislature and all those with me, we started to make things change.”

Not only has there been a surplus in revenue, the Office of the Governor also reported that the year-to-date collections have been $181.4 million more than expected during the first four months of the 2022 Fiscal Year (July-Oct. 2021).

Justice said that the state of West Virginia has come a long way in a short span of time. 

“It’s become old hat. But to have all this success, month after month, we would have danced in the streets not that long ago. Before I walked in the door, all of this would have been impossible,” Justice said. “We had deficits like you can’t imagine. No one had a solution whatsoever, other than more and more cuts.”