CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail
Justice previously had appointed the more than 280 people to policy groups covering education, infrastructure, tourism, health care, economic development, energy and the environment, and the state’s drug crisis.
Those individuals included lobbyists, millionaires, a U.S. Attorney, a former U.S. senator, current and former state elected officials, leaders of West Virgina’s two premier research universities, some of the state’s most well-known business officials and two executives from Justice’s own private businesses.
The news release about the gathering of minds was marketed as a way to “generate policy ideas from West Virginians on the front lines” — something Justice talked about often on the campaign trail.
“I had recommendations from a lot of different people, but I reviewed the entire list of everybody,” Justice said, in his first news conference since he was elected in November. “These people are leaders in every facet of what they do all over the place and all over the state. So these people can really get it done and they will deliver great ideas.”
Justice has yet to choose most of the members of his incoming administration, but on Thursday, he said he would bring in the best and brightest.
“Finding those people is the biggest and most important thing I can do, and that is why this process is taking a little bit longer,” Justice said. “I’m soliciting all the brain power I can solicit.”
But as the soon-to-be governor discussed policy in the private meetings, Justice remained unsure of how he is going to deal with a growing state budget deficit. During the campaign, he suggested he would not support tax increases or cuts to state government — the only two ways to directly balance the budget.
On Thursday, he jumped back and forth on the issue again.
“I want to find a way without laying additional taxation on our people or trying to just move in and cut, cut, cut,” Justice said.
But Justice added that he could “never say never” to new taxes, the most direct statement he has made on the issue thus far.
Last week, the state’s revenue secretary Bob Kiss told members of the legislature that the state could be facing a budget deficit “north of $400 million” in future years if elected officials don’t make “structural” changes.
A day later, Justice’s incoming chief of staff, Nick Casey, said tax increases will have to be part of solving the state’s budget crisis, but added that he was speaking for himself, not the incoming governor.
“I go back to what I said many times. We’ve got to scrub all the financials in every way, and see really where we stand,” Justice said Thursday. “I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that yet. That will lead us to where we have to go. You can’t get out of the hole until you know where you are in the hole.”
Justice, who also is a coal mine operator, said he believed coal severance taxes were “going to improve significantly and improve quickly,” though he said that would still leave a “hole in the bucket.”
The governor-elect’s own mining operations owed millions of dollars in delinquent severance taxes as of November — one of many examples of how Justice’s privately held businesses interact with the state government that he will take over in January.
Justice was dismissive of any questions about pending ethical conflicts between the state’s highest elected office and his private businesses, which are expected to be controlled by his children while he is in office.
In the most direct example of Justice mixing his businesses with his new elected position, Justice appointed the chief operating officers of his Greenbrier resort and his Southern Coal Corporation to the transition advisory committees. He said Thursday he didn’t see any problem with those business executives being part of his transition effort because they were “very knowledgeable.”
“I mean my businesses are, you know, wide reaching,” Justice said. “And, you know, I want you to know this. I want everyone to know this loud and clear. I ran for this office for nothing for me, and it will remain that way always.”
Justice said people can continue to “nitpick” his business holdings. The reported billionaire emphasized that he was stepping aside from the day-to-day operations of those corporations, but he was adamant that he would not divest from the businesses — one of the only ways that ethics attorneys say he could completely avoid conflicts of interest during his term in office.
“I’m going to try to remove myself completely — in fact, I’m going to remove myself completely — from the daily decision that they make,” Justice said. “But I want you to realize just this: What is the alternative? Is it best to just close the businesses that I have? I mean, they generate tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars to our state. It would be frivolous to do that. It would be absolutely the stupidest thing in the world to do.”
Justice suggested his ongoing ownership of the West Virginia businesses were an asset, not a liability.
“With my businesses being far-reaching comes knowledge and everything that can help all of us,” Justice said. “I don’t want a thing, and absolutely, I want to underline that. You can’t bring me anything to my business that’s going to be beneficial to me in any way.”
Justice’s resorts have received millions of dollars in advertising dollars from the state Division of Tourism and could be approved in millions more in tourism-related tax breaks from the Department of Revenue.
Reach Andrew Brown at [email protected], 304-348-4814 or follow @Andy_Ed_Brown on Twitter.