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2022 State of the State address TRANSCRIPT
(1-27-2022, the time is 7:15 o'clock P.M., the State of the State address by Governor Jim Justice)
GOVERNOR JUSTICE: Okay, come on y'all, sit down. Enough's enough. I know you just went through a really special time, a great man that we lost, as our Speaker of the House, a great friend of lots and lots and lots of folks, and so with all that, you know, we know that he served our state in an incredible way. We're really proud, really really proud in every way.
Now, let me just tell you this. We’ve already had a few little mishaps and I am going to just sit here and talk with you tonight. Now just think about this for a second. It is an incredible, an incredible time to be a West Virginian and I am going to talk to you a lot about a lot of things here tonight, but the one thing that is absolutely for sure true; from time to time, not very often, almost never, you may have found that I have been a minute or two late here and there. Now, I know you are already giggling and I love that because I really believe that the Good Lord gave us all the ability to smile and laugh and the journey is very tough. It's plenty tough. In all that, whether there were times I was 15 minutes late or 20 minutes late or sometimes even later than that, I never really have been 15 days late.
(Laughter)
But I can tell you that I am extremely grateful that you are allowing me to come late. I absolutely promise you with all my soul that I couldn't believe what happened, to tell you the truth. You know, for those of you that have been in contact with this or had loved ones that have dealt with it, it's not any fun, and we all know that, but we also all know, we have got to live with it, don't we? We've got to figure a way to live with it until really smart people figure it out and it leaves us forever. Now, with all that I would say to you so many different things, but there is so much, so much to discuss here tonight and I say, without further ado, here we go.
I would like to first and foremost recognize my family. I really don't have any idea how all of the people that are around me all the time, none of them tested positive. That really doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but it especially doesn't make sense to me that my dear wife, Cathy, was with me the entire time and she didn't test positive. Now I have accused Cathy of being a carrier, to tell you the truth, but – but nevertheless our First Lady, Cathy Justice, please.
(Applause)
I got my daughter, Jill. She is still, she is out of the time when she can't go out, she is still in the time where she has to wear a mask and I've got my beautiful son Jay with me. It is really the other way around. I have got my beautiful daughter, Jill, and my okay son, Jay.
But nevertheless, I want to introduce all of my cabinet. I want you to really just bear with me just one second, and just know this. These people do incredible work. They are superstars, that is all there is to it. I surround myself with superstars because, you see, I am a real believer, I am a real believer that absolutely if you are willing to share the credit and talent and all of the responsibilities and everything, you can create winners all around you. I will just go through as quickly as I possibly can. Our Secretary of Commerce – why don't you hold your applause until I get done – Our Secretary of Commerce, Ed Gaunch, our Secretary of Administration, Mark Scott, our Secretary of the DEP, Harold Ward, our Secretary of DHHR, Bill Crouch, our Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeff Sandy, our Secretary of Revenue, Dave Hardy, our Secretary of Transportation that wears a tie a little strangely, Jimmy Wriston, our Secretary of Veterans Assistance, Ted Diaz, our Secretary of Tourism, Chelsea Ruby, our Secretary of Economic Development, Mitch Carmichael, our Secretary of the Arts, Culture, and History Randall Reid-Smith, who can dress a little unusual at times, too, our Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard, Brigadier General Bill Crane, our Chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, Sarah Armstrong Tucker. Now, now you can clap.
(Applause)
We've got our Supreme Court with us. Our Chief Justice is John Hutchison. I have to tell you this before I go any further and I just looked at the name and I just think of this. We were practicing at the Raleigh County Armory, at that time it was called the Armory, now it is Raleigh County Civic Center. We were both playing on Woodrow's team. I was a junior. John was a senior. John was right in front of me. I was playing right behind him and everything and they were going to get the tip and everything. All of a sudden out of nowhere he wheels around and rams his head right in my nose. When he does, blood is going everywhere as I have a broken nose and the coach continues to scream "Get off the damn floor, Justice." So nevertheless, our Chief Justice John Hutchison, we have Justice Evan Jenkins, Justice Elizabeth Walker, Justice Tim Armstead, and Justice William Wooton. If you could all give them a round of applause, please.
(Applause)
Our constitutional officers, and I have had really a lot of fun working with these guys and really and truly, I think of them as really dear friends. You know, our Attorney General is not with us tonight. Patrick is off doing a lot of really, really important stuff and we hope he will come back and bear a lot of fruit. But our Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, our State Auditor, J.B. McCuskey, our Secretary of State, Mac Warner, our Commissioner of Agriculture, Kent Leonhardt, and our State Treasurer, Riley Moore. Give them a big round of applause, please.
(Applause)
We have so many different people here. We have our Senate President right behind me, Craig Blair, our Speaker of the House, Roger Hanshaw. You know, I haven't seen Joe, but I see Shelley here. Shelley, thank you so much for coming and everything in every way. I haven't seen any of our congressmen or congresswomen, but I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Absolutely, please, a big round of applause for all of them.
(Applause)
We've got college presidents here, our WVU President, Gordon Gee, and our new President of Marshall University, Brad Smith. I don't know where they are, but, please, give them a round of applause.
(Applause)
Last but not least, this gentleman right here, surely deserves a ton of credit. From almost day one, we have wanted to get this accomplished. We now in West Virginia have a newly appointed Intermediate Court of Appeals. And these – and these people are Tom Scarr, Dan Greear, and Donald Nickerson. Please give them a round of applause, too.
(Applause)
Okay, it's been two years, the pandemic has been tough and you know the toll it has taken on every single last one of us. I have read every name. It's been really, really bad. That is just all there is to it. You know, we're great people and we're resilient people in West Virginia, and I know in my heart we are going to get through this. We still need to all stay together and pull the rope together as much as we can and I want to talk to you just a second about that. But I'd like you to all stand and us bow in a moment of prayer. We have now lost 5,697 people. We will just do this in silent prayer, but please, please, remember all those we've lost.
(Pause)
Thank you so much. I want to recognize my team through this. Our Coronavirus Czar Doctor Clay Marsh, our general that was our general for a long time with the National Guard here and has gone on to do more and more great stuff with us, that is General Hoyer. Doctor Amjad, who came on kind of semi in the beginning, middle of this thing, but what a job she has done, and Secretary Crouch, and all of the people that have worked right with them. You know, some way, somehow, you can say a whole lot of things about this, but some way, somehow we've pushed the right buttons over and over and over. Could they have been better? Could they have been perfect? Well, maybe. Maybe, but in all honesty, they sure absolutely could have been a lot worse. I think all of the time about, you know, when we had to close something or we just stayed rock solid and said, "No way, no way, no way," and we somehow, somehow got through it. Really and truly, and I mean this with all my soul, I'm nowhere close to smart enough to have made the decisions that we made. There's no way. I'll promise you, I have said this a billion times over, God above helped us in this great state in many, many ways. If don't believe that, then you are really, really a misguided individual in my opinion because really when it boils right down to it, as elderly as we are, as close as we are to population and as absolutely so many different diseases and illnesses we have with our citizens, this could have absolutely wiped us out. It could have been really, really bad. Now in all of that, please give those people that worked side by side with me a giant round of applause. They have done great work.
(Applause)
I want to introduce one other group, because I think this is a tremendously educational deal that is happening right here, right now. You know, I happen to have my basketball team that's sitting right up there, a bunch of talented young ladies that are on their way, that are smart as they could possibly be. If you all would stand up, please give them a round of applause.
(Applause)
Now let's get through a lot of business, okay? We are now going to create or have created an Emergency Management Crisis Fund. We did it with 10 million dollars. It wasn't all of the money in the world, but we did it out of one of the last tranches of monies that we had from the CARES money and have done this for our EMS workers. We've done this to try to retain or recruit, you know, good, good, good people. These people have given so much. You talk about people that are running to the fire, they surely have.
Now, I want to just touch on one other thing real quick. I want to just tell you from my heart some really important stuff to me. You may think, "Well, that didn't mean anything. That wasn't anything." But you all watch what is going on in Washington all the time. I don't know any of us here that could possibly say that it's good stuff. This country is so much better than that, it is unbelievable. Don't fall prey to that. Please, be as staunch and great as you are all the time. You know, whether you believe this, don't believe this, buy into it, or don't buy into it, I don't really care. I know the very reason that I ran for Governor. I have never wanted anything. I never wanted a thing. You see, a long time ago, our forefathers, that is what they did. They stepped up, lost a lot, didn't they? They lost a lot. Well, I'll promise you from the standpoint of a financial trip, it has surely not been the most rosy financial trip for Jim Justice, but I can tell you just this. I did it for the right reasons. I also would tell you something else. I didn't want to just be your Governor. I can remember when Governor Moore was running and in some of his ads, you know, as he was running for re-election, said "Reelect a good Governor." I don't want to be a good Governor. I want to be the greatest Governor you've ever had and I want to be that every, single day. And I would challenge you to do the exact same thing. But we cannot do it, we cannot do it disrespectfully, we can't do it throwing rocks at one another. We can't do it trying to one-up each other all of the time. There are so many people that depend on us, it is unbelievable. Let me just say one last thing. You know, I don't get to fly very often, but I fly from time to time, whether it is in my plane or the state's plane. And on a clear day, and I've said this over and over, I'll be up at 20,000 feet or 25,000 feet, where you can see for miles and miles and miles and miles. And you know what I think so often is just this: All those people for as far as I can possibly see depend on me. They depend on you too. It's breathtaking when you really just think about it. The responsibility is really enormous. Please, let's not be Washington, DC. We're better than that. If we don't watch out, we will really, really, really get in trouble with that.
I promised you a rocket ship ride, did I not, in 2017. I told you we were on the pad in 2020. I am going to tell you, for real, there can't be a human being in here that doesn't believe that it's real now. It is absolutely real. This state is setting record growth – record after record – record surplus – record after record – record unemployment as far as the greatest levels, the lowest unemployment in history. People are moving here. From 2010 to 2019, a number that I can't imagine, 43,000 people left the state of West Virginia and we know right now for the first time, for the first time in forever, they are moving here. They are finding out the very thing that I had said to you over and over and over and over. We are that diamond in the rough. We’re the diamond in the rough that absolutely can do kinds of greatness. I mean, I believe in our people beyond belief. I believe in the fact we have got these incredible four seasons and our proximity is where it is off the chart, and with all that, our natural resources, on and on and on, it’s an opportunity beyond belief. Tourism is exploding, I could go on and on and on, we are building road after road, businesses are expanding and businesses are coming. It’s amazing. It is an amazing time in West Virginia. I say to you over and over and over, let's continue to propagate more and more and more good. I'll promise you we have the chance to do just exactly that.
Last year I came to you and asked you to fund, basically, another secretary, did I not? I asked you to create the Department of Economic Development, did I not? And I absolutely asked you to allow Mitch Carmichael to be our secretary, did I not? And to focus on job recruitment into our great state. You just think about this. Mitch Carmichael is somewhere in here and Mike Graney. I want you to stand, hold your applause for just one second. I want you to think about this. In 2021 more than 1.1 billion dollars was invested in West Virginia by 39 different companies through economic development efforts and activities. In the calendar year 2021, the first year of the Department of Economic Development, total employment in West Virginia has increased over 36,000 jobs, over a 3,000 percent increase, the lowest unemployment in the history of our state today. Now look, when I came to you and said, "Let's fund this," it’s a pretty daggone good investment in my opinion. But please give them a big round of applause.
(Applause)
You know they went fishing, did they not? You know, and they caught some big, big, big fish. You have already heard about these announcements, but I wanted to bring them to you, you know, in the State of the State, 15 days or so ago, but Owens & Minor is somewhere here and we have, and I know I am going to mess up pronouncing this, but Ed Pesicka is here and, oh I can't do this one. This one is, I'll never do it. So anyway, Ed and whomever.
(Applause)
I want to also thank, for the work in getting them here, Albert Wright at WVU. This company is going to absolutely be able to help us along the way with supplies in the medical industry and a lot of different things, 125 employees. We thank them and thank them from the bottom of my heart. The total investment will be close to 50 million dollars and that’s great. So thank you so much.
Then along came GreenPower Motor Company, did it not? I think Mark Nestlen is with us with GreenPower tonight. They are going to go into South Charleston and start off with 200 jobs with the hope at some point in time of growing to 900 jobs. From the standpoint of Owens & Minor, you realize they are a Fortune 500 Company coming to West Virginia. It’s amazing. So wherever Mark is, please, Mark, stand.
(Applause)
And just think about this. You know, you have gone fishing. You caught – you caught two world class tunas, maybe Blue Marlins, you know, and absolutely we are so proud to have you here and we know that you will love this state beyond all good sense. But along the way, in that, we kept fishing, did we not? And we talked and talked and talked to these people and I did everything but tell them that I would dance at their next 6,000 weddings, and along came Moby Dick. And boom. We got it. We absolutely have so many things to be thankful for. But we’ve got Nucor in West Virginia right now, and if you could give them a monstrous round of applause, Leon Topalian, David Sumoski, John Farris and Ben Pickett.
(Applause)
Now believe it or not, the biggest investment hands down that has ever come to West Virginia, but the biggest investment that Nucor has ever made. Can you imagine, a Fortune 150 Company, it is unbelievable it is coming to West Virginia and the spinoff of this is going to be job after job after job. It is exactly what we have been working for forever.
Also a really important fellow I want to thank – there is Chris Beam. Chris with AEP really stepped up. AEP really stepped up. We should be very, very thankful for them. Chris I saw you just a second ago. Thank you so much.
(Applause)
Okay. More of the business. Years ago, now I’ve seen this, I’ve seen this so many times. I’ve seen this, you know, where really smart business people tried to do just this. We had so many industrial sites that were just mothballed all over kingdom come. We believed we will build a site and they will come. Build a field and they will come and they didn't. And they didn’t. And We had to be nimble and we had to move and we had to change our techniques of the way we were going after people and everything. And today, today, today I am directing our Secretary of Commerce and Economic Development as well to find those more sites now. So you guys have got to get to work, that is all there is to it. We need more sites.
I absolutely believe that if we are truly the diamond in the rough, we have got to stop right now, in West Virginia, having one person go hungry. We don't need people in our state hungry. We need to absolutely fund our food banks to find absolutely everything we can possibly do to make sure we don't have West Virginians go hungry.
(Applause)
Now I am here to tell you that a group of people that we should be so thankful for, it is off the chart and that’s our National Guard. They have done so much so many different times. I can remember in the flood of 2016 wading the mud with lots and lots and lots of them, and really beginning my knowledge of just how good they really are. I’ve seen them through all this pandemic. I’ve seen them through a lot of storms and lots of bad stuff, I’ve seen right through to their soul, just how good and how blessed we truly are. And I see today that they are backstopping our hospitals and doing everything they can to help us again today.
Not only that, and this is the neatest, this is – first of all, you have got to know this, I love kids. I don't go on vacations and Cathy can probably kick me for that. I don't go on vacations. I love West Virginia. I love to hunt and fish, and spend time with kids and be right here in this great state and that is what I do. That is why this story is so meaningful to me – the Mountaineer Challenge Academy, and then along came the Mountaineer Challenge Academy South, did it not? Imagine this: kids that were having a tough time, kids that were really going the wrong way, going the wrong way. And lo and behold, we have a graduate now of Mountaineer Challenge Academy South. His name is William Farkas. He is 17 years old and he just got appointed to West Point. His parents are right here with us tonight, Jay and Rhonda. If you would stand, I don't know where you are. Oh, right here.
(Applause)
Now I’m not one who can spend a whole lot of time being critical, but I truly believe in telling the truth. When somebody is going the wrong way, I don't believe that you should just pamper them. I believe you have got to tell them, "You’re going the wrong way." That is all there is to it. I really believe we don't get out of the holes if we don't know where we are in the hole. I really believe the Biden Administration is absolutely driving me, at least, crazy. That’s all there is to it. I think the situation today with inflation and with crime and especially what is going on at our borders, what happens internationally with Afghanistan and whatever it may be, if that doesn’t trouble you, then absolutely again I think you’re not really thinking right. But in all of that, this border situation has caused a big-time problem. Fentanyl. Over and over and over, it is killing people in West Virginia right now. So tonight, I am directing our Department of Homeland Security and also the Fusion Center to do everything in their power, I don't know exactly what all they can do, but to do everything in their power to communicate across borders with every state, all the way to the Texas border, all of the way to whatever border it may be, to do any and everything that they can possibly do to help stop the terrible scourge because it is killing our people. That’s all there is to it. I would also – I would also welcome anything that you chose to come up with that says for a drug dealer that comes into this state and peddles stuff that is going to kill our people, absolutely you can't come up with anything that is too strenuous for me. There is no way. You just can't do it. That’s all there is to it.
Our Jobs and Hope program is doing all kinds of neat stuff, we have now touched 1,540 individuals that have now gone out and gotten jobs in West Virginia and there are 1,600 more people that are in the program right now. That’s really good stuff. We want to recognize a young lady here with us that has battled an addiction and a problem for 25 years. Her name is Katie Everly. Imagine this now, she out of nowhere got into our Jobs and Hope program and lo and behold of all things today, you know what she is? She’s a heavy equipment operator. And you know where she is working? She’s working for our West Virginia DOT. She is going to get a promotion here right soon and she is with us tonight. She is on her way, she is with her children, she is absolutely on her way with a new life, a life away from a terrible addiction. Where is Katie? Great job.
(Applause)
Okay, we want more people back to work in West Virginia. We had a few extra dollars from the remaining CARES money, the original CARES money. We’re starting a thing called our Job Jumpstart Program. Basically, it is just an incentive to be able to get people to go back to work, even though our unemployment level is super low, get more people back to work because our businesses need them. And they need them really bad. We are going to give those people 1,500 dollars if they can stay on the job for eight weeks. It doesn't sound like much. It doesn't sound like much at all, but really and truly we have got to some way get them back because they are sitting on a porch somewhere right now a lot of them that are absolutely willing and able, and we need them back. Now the federal government is doing their thing, but I think what we should do is try any and everything we can possibly do to get them back. We’re also hiring a resiliency officer that is going to work in our office and is going to be able to work all of the programs, help them every way you could possibly help them, with all of the different areas of the program we can help them with. This program really has worked in Oklahoma, you know. I'm not going to promise you that it will work here, but I surely think it is worth a shot.
Here is really neat news. Our Old Fund and all of you all probably know exactly what Old Fund means. Our Workers' Comp Old Fund – at one time we had a 3.5 billion dollar deficit in this state. For all practical purposes, nobody would like to come to West Virginia and do business. Today and tonight I can announce now it has – the deficit is completely eliminated and we have a positive balance of 57 million dollars and it’s over.
(Applause)
I am delivering to you tonight for the fourth year in a row, for all practical purposes in every way, a flat budget. We have absolutely – we don't have any reason to dip into the Rainy Day Fund. We absolutely do not have any reason to grow government. We absolutely need to watch the store every single day. You will absolutely see a flat budget, with some minor, minor increases for pay raises or whatever it may be, but we can cover that with our surpluses.
I encourage all of you, we absolutely looked after the store as we possibly could with the CARES money. Now we have the ARP money. We need to solicit all the good ideas, we need to work through all the good ideas. We need to be super-respectful to one another and we need absolutely to manage those dollars in the very best way possible. It is another real opportunity for West Virginia.
We have government reform going on and I am a real believer in streamlining government and cutting out ways to do all of the different things we can do. You know, I am proposing bills to further streamline our Department of Arts, Culture, and History, DHHR, the DOT, and the Division of Corrections, and I want to show you just something, and I don't know where it is and everything, but where is it, Jordan? Somebody’s pointing. Are you all going to bring it out here? Okay here we go. I want you all to look right here. You will not – there is no way that you could possibly believe this. This is the flow chart in the state – y’all can stand right in front of me, that would be good. Come stand right here. It goes all of the way over here. This is a flow chart that shows the process of getting a contract through our state purchasing department. Now I want you to look at this. And I want you to imagine, that was created so we would – we would not waste. Honest to God. That's the truth. That's why it was created, so we would not waste. It is the beatinest thing I have ever seen. Toyota has been an incredible partner to West Virginia, have they not? And Toyota Production Support System, they are surely one of our business partners and the Toyota Production Support System – a world leader in efficiency – has agreed to help us streamline this and try to come up with some way that it isn't this.
(Applause)
Now you all don’t need to just stand there and get your picture taken all night. You all need to leave.
We need a new lab in West Virginia. We absolutely need a new lab and need it really bad. We need a new lab and we can put it all under one roof and we can have a public health, a law enforcement, and an ag-lab under one roof that’s state-of-the-art and state-of-the-art beyond belief. We can use ARP money to fund this, but we desperately need a new lab for our medical examiners, our State Police, and our ag department. Please let's absolutely move forward and get this done.
(Applause)
Man, you all clap a lot. Okay. Okay, our State Police, now just think about this. We need to commit dollars to locality pay. That’s all there is to it. Our State Police continues to have dwindling numbers. We have had three cadet classes since I walked in the door and who knows how long before that we didn't have any. Now we are on the brink of having our fourth cadet class and we’re still way underwater, maybe to the tune of 700 to 800 State Policemen. We absolutely need to move forward with our cadet classes. We need to move forward with locality pay and we need to absolutely support the very, very people that support us. How again, and I don't mean to step on anybody's toes, but how again could anybody have come up with the idea in life that we are going to defund the police? Where on God's Earth did that come from?
(Applause)
Think about what tourism is doing in the state of West Virginia today. You know, we have a Secretary of Tourism, Secretary Ruby, who has done an incredible job. Chelsea is stuck on “on” all the time and absolutely lives, eats, and breathes ways to bring more and more folks to West Virginia. I have been an absolute believer and supporter through and through. Without any question whatsoever, from the very first day that I walked in this door, I have been a believer in diversification and a believer in tourism being an absolutely tremendous leader in West Virginia. I said over and over, and you might think, "Oh, gosh, why does he say these things?" I’ve said, you know, any frog who is not proud of his own pond is not much of a frog. And for forever, forever, we must have not been real proud of our own pond, not proud enough to put some dollars into it. You just think of the investment that we’ve made in tourism and what has happened in this state. It is unbelievable, and you know what I am telling you, Jim Justice, the business guy, he is telling you just this, right now, you are still just getting the parsley around the outsides of the plate. The meat and potatoes are still there to come. Absolutely if there is ever a place on this planet that people would want to come to if they really understood what we are all about, what we have here, is tourism in West Virginia. So –
(Applause)
Think about this, whether it’s rafting, or ATVs, or our parks, or good gracious, all of the different things for travel, all of the different things that are happening. Think about all of those publications all over the place. They are now ranking West Virginia at the top 10, the top 25, whatever it may be. You know, tourism magazines that, to be perfectly honest, most of us had never heard of before. You couldn't imagine that they would pick West Virginia. But they are all picking West Virginia. It is un-flat-believable. So Chelsea, please stand, incredible job, incredible job.
(Applause)
I talked about that frog being proud of his own pond and I am going to tell you this and I promise you to God above this is a fact. You know, a lot of people would sit here with teleprompters and read to you and I’ve never done that. I speak in real common language and I talk about frogs and I talk about the Babydog and everything else under the sun, and really and truly you know that I am talking to you, just like we were sitting in your house and I was talking to you. I’m not talking down to anybody, I don't believe in it. I absolutely believe that out of all of the frogs, I am proudest. Now, there may be somebody that ties me for the proudest, but I love you and I love this state more than sense.
So many different people throughout all of the different land and everything have thrown rocks at our natural resource industries, our coal miners and gas workers, it really makes me mad. The reason it makes me mad is all that these people have given, good gracious sakes a living, they have given so much. And we owe them so much. The same way with our great factory workers, our craftsmen wherever it may be, all of the different people, our teachers, all of the people that are doing the work, putting in the licks in this state, and people have thrown rocks at them. I frankly don't like this either. And you know, I am going to probably get in trouble about this, but I will just get in trouble. I have been in trouble a lot. But, you know, I don't like the fact that, whether it be our financial institutions or whomever it may be, that they come out publicly and say, "Oh, no, we don't believe in making loans or whatever to the energy industries. We’re not going to do that." Well I think it should be their prerogative as private business people without any question, but for God-sakes-a-livin', I don't know how you exist in the state of West Virginia and turn your back on the very industries that have made this state and still continue to do so. So I thank them. I thank all of those, whether it be our healthcare people, our first responders, and I truly love the fact that I am the proudest frog. So I'll just go with that.
The Beckley Veterans Nursing Home, we have talked about it for 700 years and truly we were right on the verge of being able to pull this off, but when we got the quotes all in, the quotes came in a little higher to pull it off than what we wanted to have happen. So we got – we’ve got to make a decision. We can phase it down. We can phase down from 120 beds, to 90 or 80, and maybe we can get by. Now listen. And I am going to tell you this as point blank as I can tell you, these people have given us every single thing we have in life. Absolutely we have got to find the money. I expect you to do that with us and absolutely go arm and arm. We’ve got to get this done, and we’ve got to get this done right now. That is all there is to it.
(Applause)
Okay. I am going to keep moving here. We are starting a new thing that is really spawned from Ascend WV and it is, you know, that Brad Smith and Alys have come up and helped us so much with that program. Can you imagine that program, and Brad, you know this, we had 10,000 applicants I think and 2.5 million visits to our website, unbelievable, through the combination of you guys, through the combination of WVU, through the combination of our tourism folks and everything else, 2.5 million people visited us and said, "We have an interest in West Virginia." We have got to build houses in West Virginia, people. That is all there is to it. So I am going to try some way to create something called Build West Virginia, some level of tax credit, a tax credit for builders to incentivize them to try to go out and build homes. Again, I thank Ascend for all that they’ve done and we have a young lady with us tonight that is one of those that has come to West Virginia. Of all places, she came from an 800 square-foot apartment in Chicago, Illinois, her name is Quintina Mengyn and I think I am pronouncing this one correctly. Her boyfriend, her dog, and herself, all of them have moved, now, to West Virginia. They supposedly love it. Babydog’s has talked to the dog and the dog loves it, too. So where is she?
(Applause)
The DNR police are with us tonight, Bobby Cales, our Colonel is here, 125-year celebration for how many years they have been with us and protecting our natural resources in this state and now they have got a new motto, is it called "Protecting the Wild and Wonderful." So where are you, Bobby? Colonel? Where are you? Please, you all stand.
(Applause)
We are semi-losing an incredible friend, an incredible guy who has done an amazing job with our DNR, Steve McDaniel. Steve has done absolutely wonders and Steve and I bingo off on one another like you can imagine. You know I love the outdoors and you know really and truly I am broke up a little bit now and to be perfectly honest, a little chunky too. And with all of that, but I have honestly almost walked up and down every mountain in this state just about. I have chased a bird dog all over kingdom come and I have chased every wild turkey there could possibly chase in this state. I have crawled on my belly countless hours, days, weeks absolutely with a little five-foot fly rod with a fly I would shoot on the water and a three-and-a-half foot wide little native brook trout stream, to catch a little native “brooky” that big about that I thought would look like a tarpon. I love this state. Steve McDaniel, the job that he has done is unbelievable. We have added 85,896 new acres in West Virginia. The hunting and fishing licenses are off the chart. We have absolutely stocked our fish the right way or made an ungodly improvement in that and brought more and more folks to West Virginia. We have spent 151 million dollars on our parks. The absolute occupancy in our parks is off the chart. We are 52 percent higher income in our DNR today than we were the day I walked in the door. Steve McDaniel is here with us here somewhere and he deserves the lion share of all of the credit, wherever he is, Steve, God bless you, man. Thank you for all you have done.
(Applause)
Let me tell you just this. There’s no question we can make education better and better can we not all the time. There’s no question we put a stake in the sand right off the get-go and said, "Make education our centerpiece," did we not? Things started to change. Our image started to change. We have done many, many things and we’re on a journey to make it better and better and better and better. Tonight, I want to propose really three different things. I want to propose that we make the penalties for somebody that’s a school employee that abuses a student so tough that they will know that I am sitting on their chest. And that’s gonna be bad, isn't it?
(Applause.)
Unless you all are wanting to be here all night long, you are going to have to slow down on the clapping just a little bit. I want to propose tonight to the Legislature that we fully, fully cover the cost of college classes to our high school students. I think we can do that and then when they leave high school or, you know, go to a community college or technical school, they are absolutely covered. You know, but with that we need to encourage more and more and more of our students to continue on with their education. I also – let me see. I also want to propose a bill to make computer programming and coding classes mandatory in middle and high school. All that you will see really soon and this just helps us in every way for the next generations to come.
We have a young lady with us tonight, I'm sorry, a young man with us tonight. He is the Teacher of the Year. His name a Brian Casto. Brian is an eighth grade teacher that teaches West Virginia studies at the Milton Middle School in Cabell County. You know, absolutely, it is amazing what great work that our teachers do every day. But also, we have our Service Personnel Person of the Year, and that’s Kathy Miller. Kathy is a cafeteria manager at Wayne High School in Wayne County, absolutely could you give these people an incredible round of applause.
(Applause)
Just stay up there just one second. Let's follow it up with special thanks to Highmark, the Horace Mann Insurance Company, the West Virginia Lottery, Toyota, and all of the others that made all of this good stuff happen as well.
(Applause)
I am going to ask you now to show your real appreciation so I won't get into all kinds of trouble later tonight, but Cathy has really done an amazing job with Communities In Schools. You know me, you know I'll horse around with you and smile and love to laugh, but I'll tell you the truth, always, and I mean this to my dying soul, if God above was standing right here, and that is serious business with me, if God above was standing right there, I am telling you the gospel truth, I have never seen a program, never ever seen a program in my life that works like this. It's unbelievable. And Cathy and I really and truly in all fairness didn't know much about this at all and we just started down this path. We started with next to nothing and then it’s just grown. Communities In Schools is the number one dropout prevention initiative in the nation right now. They’ve been around for 40 years and truly it works. The program is in 31 counties in West Virginia. Get this, you won't believe this, 171 schools, impacting 70,000 kids. There’s story after story after story. It’s just truly amazing. But Cathy’s got some good help around her. They are adding Marshall County now and we are on a quest absolutely together, but Cathy primarily with all of her great people, whether it be Vicki and Katie, all of the different people, you know, Michelle, all of the different people that work with her. They are on a quest to absolutely be sure that Communities In Schools is in every single one of our schools before we leave. Then it will be up to you. But if you don't – if you are me, you absolutely would make that profound statement, with God above standing right here, and you are in as many schools as I’m in and you are as with as many kids that I’m with, I’ve never seen anything work like this. It is absolutely, truly remarkable. So with all of that, I would say to you just this, I have got one more thing. We have – we have an individual that was coming here tonight, this young man, his name is Conner Cook. He is a senior at Woodrow Wilson High School. Without any question, these kids really are – have lost their way. You know, kids have to deal with so much now, we all know it, but all of the different stuff, from bullying, to parents and drugs and everything that can be out there that a kids has to face and deal with, all of the social media stuff, all of the stuff, my God-a-livin’ when I was growing up, all we had to deal with who was going to win kick the can in the alley that night. I mean, really and truly it was just a matter of getting up and putting on our school clothes, coming home and putting on our play clothes and then going to play - playing some kind of ball somewhere or whatever it may be. Kids have so much today to deal with. There was a young man, like I said, whose name was Conner Cook, Woodrow Wilson High School. Connor was going way, way, way the wrong way. There is a site coordinator there, her name is Erin Boyd. She’s a long-time educator, and she’s now working with Communities In Schools. And she recognized that this kid was a bright kid but on the wrong path. A kid had given up in school. Imagine this. Imagine this. Conner today is a straight-A student and what he is doing is unbelievable. He was going to be here tonight and he became ill. We don't know if he’s got Covid or not right now, but he was coming here tonight. But please give Cathy and all these great people a tremendous round of applause. They have done incredible work.
(Applause)
Okay. To wrap up the education end, you know, last but not least, I am proposing a 5 percent pay raise to all service personnel, I mean all, all of our state employees, our teachers, our service personnel, all of the people in the state of West Virginia that work for the state of West Virginia, rather, and absolutely I am also proposing my Inflatocine, which is just a backup for really trying to backstop some of this terrible inflation that is going on and help them out a little bit there because we can do exactly that. I hope that you will take that and really, seriously consider both. We’ve got a lot, a lot of good folks in our state government that are doing really good stuff.
(Applause)
And, no, I am not done – I was going to say I'm almost done. But I have got to just say two or three more things, two or three more things to you very quickly. What we have done with our roads in the state of West Virginia is totally off the chart. Just think about this. We have got Jimmy Wriston with us tonight. Like I said, he wears his tie a little unusual, but Jimmy, prior to Jimmy, Byrd White, a lot of people have really put in a lot of licks. Again, and I mean it, I give the credit to the good Lord. How in the world could I have possibly come up with the idea of Roads to Prosperity? Where did it come from? Where in the world did it come from? You know, a lot of people thought, "There’s no way, there’s no way, it will cost us more money. We’ll have to tax more. We’ll have to do this and that." You know what we did? We created ten of thousands of jobs. We absolutely put ourselves on a pathway and lo and behold it worked. Think about this, as far as the ditches, the slips, all of the guardrails, and everything else. In 2019 they did 30,000 miles in West Virginia. In 2020, they did 39,000. In '21, they did 47,000 miles. My God-a-livin’, we’re going to run out of miles. 1,000 road projects in West Virginia. Before I leave, I absolutely want to see the completion of the Nitro-St. Albans Bridge. I absolutely want to see us complete Corridor H or surely get it way down the trail. I absolutely want to see us try to make every inroad we could possibly make in the Coalfields Express in the southern part of our state, and I absolutely for God sake above, surely to God above we can get the roads paved in Wheeling. I mean, surely we can get that done.
(Applause)
Okay, I am coming to a close here. You will probably be really proud, maybe you won't, of hanging around here to the close, but, you know, we together put a real stake in the sand not long ago. We said and we need to hold up to our promise. We said we weren't going to stop until we had broadband in every single house in this state. Did we not? For crying out loud, we are on our way. We have started with a billion-dollar program. We started down the pathway. We have got lots and lots and lots more to do, but we can do it, and for God sakes above let's make it all happen and happen now. Now is the time to make that happen. We’ve got our people that need that. It’ll drive business here. It'll drive so many things here. We need to crawl out of the dark ages a little bit and connect every single person we’ve got in this state. Thank you so much about that.
(Applause)
Now remember what I told you about the Good Lord gave you the ability to smile and to laugh. Did I not tell you that early on? I’d like you to do this. I’d like you to take a moment, not necessarily in prayer, but I’d like you to take a moment because we’ve had an individual retire and we are going to miss him so much, Phil Kabler.
(Laughter)
Now, so let's just take a moment.
(Less than 1-second pause)
Okay, that is long enough.
(Laughter)
We can move on from there, but, nevertheless, on a more serious note, you know, I do wish Phil the best in his retirement. And we are going to miss him more than you can ever imagine and by me saying this now, none of you have anything to worry about. He will write about me every day now.
The last thing I have got is to tell you just this, I know a bunch of you have asked about it. But this has been the year of Babydog, hasn't it? So she’s got to come out here. Come on out here, baby. Come on Babydog.
(Applause)
Look at her. Stand up where you can see. I want to just end by just saying this: We’re getting through a pandemic, are we not? Y’all can all come up before we leave. I’ve brought you a flat budget again, record low unemployment, broadband becoming a reality, tourism exploding, proud to never, ever forget our coal miners and our gas workers and all the fact that we all should be so proud of who we are, record pay raises, Communities In Schools doing phenomenal work, streamlining and eliminating waste, combating drugs, feeding the hungry, very, very just the essential ingredients of who we ought to be, building road after road and surplus after surplus and made education our centerpiece and did so and the world began to know that we are that diamond in the rough that everybody’s missed. Now, Drew, if you can hand me Babydog. I want to tell you all just this. And I mean this. I told you a second ago – easy, Baby. You’re hung up in my jacket – I wanted to tell you just this. I told you a few minutes ago, I am your proudest frog. Absolutely too many people doubted us. They never believed in West Virginia. They never believed in West Virginia, that we could do it. They never believed that the Nucors or the GreenPower or Owens & Minor, they never believed, they never believed they’d be here. They told every bad joke in the world about us. And so from that standpoint, Babydog tells Bette Midler and all of those out there, kiss her hiney.
(Applause)
God bless you all. God bless you. I told you I'd make you smile. Thank you all so much in every way. Keep doing it, West Virginia. You can absolutely do greatness more and more and more to come. Thank you so much. You are an incredible group of people. Don't become DC. Keep it going. Way to go West Virginia, proud of you.
(Applause)
(The State of the State address was concluded at 8:28 P.M., 1-27-2022)
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