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On Wednesday, Jan. 10, for the last time in his tenure as governor, Jim Justice delivered an occasionally emotional State of the State address to the 1.79 million people who call West Virginia home. As one might expect, Justice's eighth such address was reflective, prideful, and, ultimately, optimistic. Admittedly, I was expecting something of a glorified campaign speech as Justice is running for one of West Virginia's two United States Senate seats, but I was, happily, surprised.
There is no doubt that West Virginia in 2024 looks much different than what it did when Justice officially took the helm in mid-January of 2017. The state is sitting in a much better position economically, fiscally, and, let's say, philosophically.
When Justice took office, West Virginia's labor force participation rate -- the measure of how many working-age individuals are either working or actively looking for work -- was a full two percentage points lower. Today, it is at its highest peak in nearly 14 years. The unemployment rate is a full percentage point lower, the state's budget has remained largely flat thereby easing the burden on the state's taxpayers, and the state has passed some truly remarkable policy reforms. From last year's historic income tax cut to 2021's landmark Hope Scholarship school choice program, the reforms over the last eight years are remarkable and simply make the state a more attractive place to work, live, relocate to, and raise a family.
To be clear, there is a robust debate to be had about how much credit or blame a governor, president, head football coach, or any type of leader for that matter, deserves for the successes or failures under his or her leadership. This is especially true for leaders who govern over truly large, complex systems like a state economy. My view is that leaders of complex systems can muck it up rather easily. However, the best they can do is get out of the way and advocate for the types of policies that allow an economy to do what it should naturally do when people are left to their own devices: grow.
For Gov. Justice, it is a mixed bag, as it usually is. There is little doubt that, for example, 2023's income tax cuts would not have happened were it not for Justice's effective use of the bully pulpit, statewide tax cuts tour, tax reform roundtable, and the litany of other tools he used to make the case to the public that income tax cuts were necessary to make West Virginia more competitive. On the other hand, Gov. Justice had to go through an evolution regarding school choice.
In his earlier days, Gov. Justice was, at best, agnostic, though perhaps even a bit hostile toward school choice. Ultimately, he got out of the way, remained neutral, and eventually signed the Hope Scholarship bill when it became clear school choice was a political winner. Gov. Justice's change on the topic was acutely demonstrated on Wednesday evening when school choice was one of the first policies he used as evidence that West Virginia improved under his leadership.
This is not to be taken as an indictment. It's simply the case that political leaders grow as the environment around them changes. Some of those changes are directly and intentionally caused by said leaders (e.g., income tax cuts), while other environmental changes occur in a more organic fashion or as the result of other advocacy efforts (e.g., school choice).
As the speech continued, Gov. Justice reflected that some days as governor can be "lonely" and "doggone tough." This was a familiar snippet of the folksy rhetoric that helped Gov. Justice consistently be rated among the top 10 governors in the country. There is little doubt that leadership is lonely and isolating. I truly believe that Gov. Justice had some tough, tough days -- some of which were self-inflicted (cow manure budget stunt), while others were not.
As his speech neared its end, Gov. Justice ripped through a list of desired projects, many of which would require tens of millions of dollars in new spending. While some projects were admirable, for the continued fiscal health of West Virginia, they will, hopefully, not go very far.
Gov. Justice's nearly 10,000-word speech was an effective -- in Justice's unique way -- summation of eight years of battles -- some won, some lost, some to be continued. A Democrat-turned-Republican governor for a Democrat-turned-Republican state, Gov. Justice changed West Virginia. Of that, there can be no doubt.
Garrett Ballengee is the President & CEO of the Cardinal Institute for WV Policy.