WV Press News Sharing
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The office of Gov. Jim Justice has made his 2022 State of the State address available through an initial transcript and video.
There is also a related photo album. Please credit the Office of the Governor for the courtesy photos.
Please note that the transcript, pasted below to assist with quick search, is a rough draft and the actual video might differ.
| 2022 State of the State address TRANSCRIPT-Rough Draft 1 (1-27-2022, th. time is 7:15 o’clock P.M., 2 the State of the State address by Governor Justice) 3 GOVERNOR JUSTICE: Okay, come on y’all, 4 sit down. Enough is enough. 5 I know you just went through a really 6 special time, a great man that we lost, our Speaker of 7 the House, a great friend of lots and lots and lots of 8 folks, and so with all that, you know, we to he served 9 our state in an incredible way, really proud, really 10 really proud in every way. 11 Now, let me just tell you this. We have 12 already had a few little mishaps and I am going to just 13 sit here and talk with you tonight. I just think about 14 this for a second. It is an incredible, incredible time 15 to be a West Virginian and I am going to talk to you a 16 lot about a lot of things here tonight, but the one 17 thing that is absolutely for sure true from time to 18 time, not very often, almost never you may have found 19 that I have been a minute or two late here now, I know 20 you are already giggling and I love that because I 21 really believe that the Good Lord gave us all the 22 ability to smile and laugh and the journey is very 23 tough. In all that, whether there were times I was 15 24 minutes late or 20 minutes late or sometimes even later 25 than that, I never really have been 15 days late. 2 1 But I can tell you that I am extremely 2 grateful that you are allowing me to come late. I 3 absolutely promise you with all my soul that I couldn’t 4 believe what happened, to tell you the truth. 5 You know, for those of you that have been 6 in contact with this or had loved ones that have dealt 7 with it, and we all know that, but we also all know, we 8 have got to live with it until really smart people 9 figure it out and it leaves us forever. Now, with all 10 that I would say to you so many different things, but 11 there is so much, so much to discuss here tonight and I 12 say, “Dude, here we go.” 13 I would like to first and foremost 14 recognize my family. I really don’t have any idea how 15 all of the people that are around me all the time, none 16 of them tested positive. That really doesn’t make a lot 17 of exception to me, but it especially doesn’t make sense 18 to me that I dear wife, Cathy, was with me the entire 19 time and she didn’t test positive. Now I have accused 20 Cathy of being a carrier, to tell you the truth, but — 21 but nevertheless our First Lady, Cathy Justice, please. 22 (Applause.) 23 I brought my daughter, Jill. She is still 24 — she is out of the time when she can’t go out, she is 25 still in the time where she doesn’t wear a mask and I 3 1 have got my beautiful son Jay with me. It is really the 2 other way around. I have got my beautiful daughter, 3 Jill, and my okay son, Jay. 4 But nevertheless I want to introduce all 5 of my cabinet. I want you to really just bear with me 6 just for a second, just know this. These people do 7 incredible work. They are super workers, that is all 8 there is to it. You see, I am a real believer, I am a 9 real believer that absolutely if you are willing to 10 share the credit and talent and all of the 11 responsibilities and everything, you can create winners 12 all around. I will just go through as quickly as I 13 possibly can. 14 The Secretary of Commerce — why don’t you 15 hold you are place until I get done. Our Secretary of 16 Commerce, Ed Gaunch, Secretary of Administration, Mark 17 Scott, our Secretary of the DEP, Harold Ward, our 18 Secretary of DHHR, Bill Crouse, our Secretary of 19 Homeland Security, Jeff Sandy, our Secretary of Revenue, 20 Dave Hardy, our Secretary of Transportation that wears a 21 tie a little strangely, Jimmy Wriston, our Secretary of 22 Veterans Assistance, Ed Diaz, our Secretary of Tourism, 23 Chelsea Ruby, our Secretary of Economic Development, 24 Mitch Carmichael, our Secretary of Arts, Culture, and 25 History Randall Reed-Smith who can dress a little 4 1 unusual at times, too, our Adjutant General of the West 2 Virginia National Guard, Brigadier General Bill Crane, 3 our Chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education 4 Policy Commission, Sarah Armstrong Tucker. 5 Now, now you can clap. 6 (Applause.) 7 We have got our Supreme Court with 8 us. Our Chief Justice is John Hutchison. I have to 9 tell you this before I go any further and I just looked 10 at the name and I just think of this. We were 11 practicing at the Raleigh County Armory, at that time 12 was called the Armory, now it is Raleigh County Civic 13 Center. We were both playing on Woodrow’s team. I was 14 a junior. John was a senior. John was right in front 15 of me. I was playing right behind him and everything 16 and they were going to get the tip and everything. 17 All of a sudden out of nowhere he wheels 18 around and rams his head right in my nose. When he 19 does, blood is going everywhere as I have a broken nose 20 and the coach continues to scream “Get off the damn 21 court, Justice.” So nevertheless, our Chief Justice 22 John Hutchison, we have Justice Evan Jenkins, Justice 23 Elizabeth Walker, Justice Tim Armstead, and Justice Tim 24 Wooton. Would you all give them a around of applause, 25 please. 5 1 (Applause) 2 And constitutional officers, I have had 3 really a lot of fun working with these guys and really 4 truly, I think of them as really dear friends. You 5 know, our Attorney General is not with us tonight. 6 Patrick is off doing a lot of really, really important 7 stuff and we hope he will come back and bear a lot of 8 fruit. But our Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, our 9 State Auditor, J.B. McCuskey, our Secretary of State, 10 Mac Warner, our Commissioner of Agriculture, Kent 11 Leonhardt, and our State Treasurer, Riley Moore. Give 12 them a big around of applause, please. 13 (Applause) 14 We have so many different people here. We 15 have our Senate President right behind me, Craig Blair, 16 our Speaker of the House, Roger Hanshaw. You know, I 17 haven’t seen Joe, but I see Shelley here. Shelley, 18 thank you so much for coming and everything in any 19 way. I haven’t seen any of our congressmen or 20 congresswomen, but I thank them from the bottom of my 21 hard. Absolutely, please, a big round of applause for 22 all of them. 23 (Applause.) 24 We have got college presidents here, our 25 WVU President, Gordon Gee, and our newly President of 6 1 Marshall University, Brad Smith. I don’t know where 2 they are, but, please, give them a round of applause. 3 (Applause.) 4 Last but not least, this gentleman right 5 here, surely deserves a ton of credit. From almost day 6 one, we have wanted to get this accomplished. We now in 7 West Virginia have a newly appointed Intermediate Court 8 of Appeals. And these — and these people are Tom 9 Scarr, Dan Greear, and Donald Nickerson. Please give 10 them a round of applause, too. 11 (Applause.) 12 Okay, it’s been two years, the pandemic 13 has been tough and you know the toll it has taken on 14 every single last one of us. I have read every name. 15 It has been really, really bad. That is just all there 16 is to it. 17 You know, we are great people and we are a 18 resilient people, West Virginians, and I know in my 19 heart we are going to get through this. We still need 20 to all stay together and pull the rope together as much 21 as we can and I want to talk to you just a second about 22 that. But I would like to all of us bow in a moment of 23 prayer. We have now lost 5,697 people. 24 We will just do this in silent prayer, but 25 please, please, remember all of those that we have lost. 7 1 (Pause.) 2 Thank you so much. I want to recognize my 3 team through this. The Coronavirus Czar Doctor Clay 4 Marsh, the general that was a general for a long time 5 with the National Guard here and has gone on to do more 6 and more great stuff with us, that is General 7 Hoyer. Doctor Amjad, who came on kind of semi in the 8 beginning, middle of this thing, but what a job she has 9 done, and Secretary Crouch, and all of the people that 10 have worked right with them. 11 You know, some way, some how, you can say 12 a whole lot about this, but some way, some how we pushed 13 the right buttons over and over and over. Could they 14 have been better? Could they have been perfect? Well, 15 maybe. Maybe, but in all honesty, they sure absolutely 16 are. I think all of the time about, you know, when we 17 had to close something or we just stayed right and said, 18 “No way, no way, no way,” and we moved and we some way, 19 some how got through eight. Really and truly, and I 20 mean this with all my soul, nowhere close to hard enough 21 to have made all of the decisions that we made. There’s 22 no way. I’ll promise you that, a billion times over, 23 God above helped us, the great state in many, many ways. 24 If don’t believe that, then you are 25 really, really a misguided individual in my opinion 8 1 because really when it goes right down to it as elderly 2 as we are, as close as we are to population and as 3 absolutely so many different diseases and illnesses we 4 have with our citizens, this could have absolutely wiped 5 us out. It could have been really, really bad. 6 Now in all of that, please give those 7 people that worked a round of applause. They have done 8 great work. 9 (Applause.) 10 I want to introduce one other group, this 11 is a tremendously educational deal that just happened 12 right right. You know, I have had my basketball team 13 sitting right up there, a bunch of talented young ladies 14 that are on their way, that are smart as they could 15 possibly be. If you all would stand, please give them a 16 round of applause. 17 (Applause.) 18 Now let’s get through a lot of business, 19 okay? We are now going to create or have created an 20 Emergency Management Crisis Fund. We did it with $10 21 million. It wasn’t all of the money in the world, but 22 we did it out of one of the last bunches of moneys that 23 we had and when have done this for our EMS workers. We 24 have done this to try to retain or recruit, you know, 25 good, good, good people. These people have given so 9 1 much. You talk about they run to the fire, they surely 2 have. 3 Now, I want to just much on one other 4 thing real quick. I want to just tell you from my heart 5 the real important stuff. You may think, “Well, that 6 didn’t mean anything. That wasn’t anything.” But you 7 all watch what is going on in Washington all day. I 8 don’t know any of us here that could possibly say that 9 its — this country is so much better than that, it is 10 unbelievable. Don’t fall prey to hat. 11 Please be as staunch and great as you are 12 all of the time. You know whether you believe this, 13 bang to it, don’t bang to it, I don’t know the very 14 reason that I ran for Governor. I have never wanted 15 anything. I just wanted — you see, a long time ago, 16 our forefathers, that is what they did. They stepped 17 up, lost a lot, didn’t they? They lost a lot. Well, I 18 promise you from the standpoint of a financial trip, it 19 has surely not been the most rosy trip for Jim Justice, 20 but I can tell you just this. I did it for the right 21 reasons. 22 I also would tell you something else. I 23 didn’t want to just be your Governor. I can remember 24 when Governor Moore was running and some of his ads, you 25 know, as he was running for re-election, said “Reelect a 10 1 good Governor.” I don’t want to be a good Governor. I 2 want to be the greatest Governor you have ever had and I 3 want to be that every, single day. And I would 4 challenge you to do the exact thing. But we cannot do 5 it, we cannot do it just disrespecting, we can’t do it 6 throwing rocks at one another. We can’t do it trying to 7 one up each other all of the time. There are so many 8 people that depend on us, it is unbelievable. 9 Let me just say one last thing. You know, 10 I don’t get to fly very often, but I fly from time to 11 time, whether it is in my plane or a state plan. And on 12 a clear day, and I have said this over and over, I’ll be 13 up at 20,000 feet or 25,000 feet where you can see for 14 miles and miles and miles. And you know what I think so 15 often is just this: All those people for as far as I 16 can possibly see depend on me. They depend on you. It 17 is breath taking when you really just think about 18 it. The responsibility is really enormous. Please, 19 let’s not be Washington, DC. We are better than that. 20 If we don’t watch out, we will really, really, really 21 get in trouble. 22 I promised you a rocketship ride, did I 23 not, in 2017. I told you we were on the pad in 2020. I 24 am go to tell you for real there can’t be a human being 25 in here that doesn’t believe that it’s real now. It is 11 1 absolutely real. This state is setting records, record 2 after record after record, record surplus after surplus, 3 record after record, record unemployment as far as the 4 greatest levels, the lowest unemployment in 5 history. People are moving here from 2010 to 2019, a 6 number that I can’t imagine, 43,000 people left the 7 State of West Virginia and we know right now for the 8 first time, for the first time in forever, they are 9 moving here. They are finding out the very thing that I 10 had said to you over and over and over and over. We are 11 that diamond in the rough. We are the diamond in the 12 rough that absolutely can do all great things. I mean, 13 I believe in our people beyond belief. I believe in the 14 facts we have got these incredible four seasons and our 15 proximity is where it is off the chart, it is all 16 natural resources, on and on and on, is it an 17 opportunity beyond belief. 18 Tourism is exploding, I could go on and on 19 and on, we are building road after road, businesses are 20 expanding and businesses are coming. It is amazing. It 21 is an amazing West Virginia. I say to you over and over 22 and over, let’s continue to propagate more and more and 23 more good. I’ll promise you we have the chance to do 24 just exactly that. 25 Last year I came to you and asked you to 12 1 fund, basically, another secretary, did I not? I asked 2 you to create the Department of Economic Development, 3 did I not? And I absolutely asked you to allow Mitch 4 Carmichael to be our secretary, did I not? And focus on 5 job recruitment into our great state. 6 You just think about that. Mitch 7 Carmichael is somewhere in here. I want you to stand, 8 hold your applause for just one second. I want you to 9 think about this. In 2021 more than $1.1 dollars was 10 invested in West Virginia by 39 different companies 11 through economic development efforts and activities. 12 In the calendar year 2021, the first year 13 of the Department of Economic Development, total 14 employment in West Virginia has increased over 36,000 15 jobs, over a 3,000 percent increase, the lowest 16 unemployment in the history of our state today. 17 Look, when I came to you and said, “Let’s 18 fund this,” pretty daggone good investment. But please 19 give them a big round of applause. 20 (Applause.) 21 You know they went fishing, did they not? 22 You know, and they caught some big, big, big fish. You 23 have already heard about these announcements, but I 24 wanted to bring them to you, you know, in the State of 25 the State a few3 days or so ago, but Owens & Minor is 13 1 somewhere here and we have, and I know I am going to 2 mess up pronouncing this, but Ed Pesicka is here and, oh 3 I can’t do this one. This one is all, I’ll never do 4 it. So anyway, Ed and whom ever. 5 (Applause) 6 I want to also thank for the work in 7 getting them here, Albert Wright at WVU. This company 8 is going to absolutely be able to help us along the way 9 with supplies in the medical industry and a lot of 10 different things, 125 employees. We thank them and 11 thank them from the bottom of my heart. The total 12 investment will be close to 50 million dollars and that 13 is great. Thank you. 14 Then along came GreenPower, the Motor 15 Company, did it not? I think Mark Nestlen is with us 16 with GreenPower tonight. They are going to go into 17 South Charleston and start off with 200 jobs with the 18 hope at some point in time of growing to 900 jobs. From 19 the standpoint of Owens & Minor, you realize they are a 20 Fortune 500 Company coming to West 21 Virginia. Amazing. So wherever Mark is, Mark, please 22 stand. 23 (Applause.) 24 And just think about this. You know, you 25 have gone fishing. You caught — you caught two world 14 1 class tunas, maybe Blue Marlin, and absolutely we are so 2 proud to have you here and we know that you will love 3 this state beyond all good things. 4 But along the way in that, we kept 5 fishing, did we not? And we talked and we talked and 6 talked to these people and I did everything but tell 7 them that I would dance at their next 6,000 weddings and 8 along came Moby Dick. And boom. We got it. We 9 absolutely have so many things to be thankful for. 10 But we have Nucor West Virginia right now, 11 and if you could give them a monstrous round of 12 applause, David Topalian, David Semonsky, John Farris 13 and Dean Pickett [spelling] 14 (Applause.) 15 Now believe it or not, the biggest 16 investment hands down that has ever come to West 17 Virginia, but the biggest investment that Nucor has ever 18 made, can you imagine, Fortune 150 Company, it is 19 unbelievable it is coming to West Virginia and the 20 spinoff of this is going to be job after job after 21 job. It has absolutely been working for it forever. 22 Also a really important fellow I want to 23 thank there is Chris Beam. [spelling] Chris with AEP 24 really stepped up. AEP really stepped up. We should be 25 very, very thankful for them. Chris I saw you just a 15 1 second ago. Thank you so much. 2 (Applause.) 3 Okay. More of the business. Years ago, 4 now I have seen this, I have seen this so many times. I 5 have seen this, you know, where really smart business 6 people tried to do just this. We had so many industrial 7 sites that were just mothballed all over kingdom 8 come. We believed we will build a site and they will 9 come. Build a field and they will come and they 10 didn’t. We had to be nimble and we had to move and we 11 had to change our techniques of the way we would attract 12 them and everything. And today, today, today I am 13 directing our Secretary of Commerce and Economic 14 Development as well to find those four sites. So you 15 guys have got to get to work, that is all there is to 16 it. We need more sites. 17 I absolutely believe that if we are truly 18 the diamond in the rough, we have got to stop right now, 19 West Virginia, of having one person hungry. We don’t 20 need name people in our state hungry. We need to do in 21 our food banks to find absolutely everything we can 22 possibly do to make sure we don’t have West Virginians 23 go hungry. 24 (Applause.) 25 Now I am hear to tell you that a group of 16 1 people that we should be so thankful for, it is off the 2 chart. That is our National Guard. They have done so 3 much so many different times. I can remember in the 4 flood of 2016 wading in mud with lots and lots and lots 5 of them, and really beginning my knowledge of just how 6 really good they are. I have seen them all. I have 7 seen them through a lot of storms and lots of bad stuff, 8 right through to their soul, just how good and how 9 blessed we truly are. And I see today they are back at 10 the hospitals and doing everything they can to help us 11 again today. 12 Not only that, and this is the neatest — 13 this is, first of all, you have got to know this. I 14 love the state. I don’t go on vacation and Cathy can 15 probably kick me for that. I don’t go on vacations. I 16 love West Virginia. I love to hunt, fish, spend time 17 with kids and be right here in this great state and that 18 is what I do. That is why this story is so meaningful 19 to me. 20 The Mountaineer Challenge, then along came 21 the Mountaineer Challenge Academy South, did it not? 22 Kids were having a tough time, kids that were really 23 going the wrong way, going the wrong way. And lo and 24 behold, we have a graduate now, Mountaineer Challenge 25 Academy South. His name is William Barton []. He is 17 17 1 years old. He just got appointed to West Point. His 2 parents are right here with us tonight, Dave and 3 Rhonda. If you would stand, I don’t know where you 4 are. Oh, right here. 5 (Applause) 6 Now not one can spend a whole lot of time 7 is critical, but I truly believe in telling the 8 truth. When somebody is going the wrong way, I don’t 9 believe that you should just pamper them. I believe you 10 have got to tell them, “You are going the wrong 11 way.” That is all there is to it. I really believe we 12 don’t get out of the holes where we don’t know where we 13 are in the hole. I believe the Biden Administration is 14 absolutely driving me at least crazy. That is all there 15 is to it. I think the situation today with inflation 16 and especially what is going on at our borders, what 17 happens internationally with Afghanistan and whatever it 18 may be, if that the trouble, I think absolutely again he 19 is not really thinking right. 20 But in all of that, this border situation 21 has caused a big problem. Fentanyl, over and over and 22 over, it is killing people in West Virginia right 23 now. But tonight, I am directing our Department of 24 Homeland Security and also the Center to do everything 25 in their power, I don’t know exactly what all they can 18 1 do, but to do everything in their power to communicate 2 across borders with every state, all of the way to the 3 Texas border, all of the way to whatever border it may 4 be to do any and everything that they can possibly do to 5 help stop the terrible securing because it is killing 6 people. That is all there is to it. 7 I would also — I would also welcome 8 anything that you folks can come up that says for a drug 9 dealer that comes into this state and peddles stuff that 10 is going to kill our people, absolutely you can’t come 11 up with anything that is absolutely — you can’t come up 12 with anything that is too strenuous for me. There is no 13 way. You just can’t do it. That is all there is to it. 14 Our Jobs & Hope program is doing all kinds 15 of neat stuff, we have touched 1400 individuals that 16 have now gone out and gotten jobs in West Virginia and 17 there are 1600 more people that are in the program. It 18 is really good stuff. 19 We want to recognize a young lady here 20 with us that has battled an addiction and a problem for 21 25 years. Her name is Katie Everly. Imagine that, she 22 out of nowhere got into our Jobs and Hope program and lo 23 and behold of all things today, do you know what she is? 24 She is a heavy equipment operator. And you know where 25 she is working? She is working for our West Virginia 19 1 DOT. She is going to get a promotion right soon and she 2 is with us to nature and she is on our her way, she is 3 with her children, she is absolutely on her way with a 4 new life, a life away from terrible addiction. Where is 5 Katie? 6 (Applause.) 7 Great job. 8 Okay, we want more people back to work in 9 West Virginia. We had a few extra dollars from the 10 remaining CARES Monday, the original CARES money. We 11 started a thing called Jobs Jump Back 12 Program. Basically, it is just an incentive to be able 13 to get people to go back to work even though our 14 unemployment level is super low, get more people back to 15 work because our businesses need them. And they need 16 them really bad. 17 We are going to give those people $1500 if 18 they can stay on the job eight weeks. It doesn’t sound 19 like much. It doesn’t sound like much at all, but 20 really we have got to some way get them back because 21 they are sitting on a porch somewhere right now a lot of 22 them that are absolutely willing and able, and we need 23 them back. The federal government is doing their thing, 24 but I think what we should do is try any and everything 25 we can possibly do to get them back. 20 1 We are also hiring a resiliency officer 2 that is going to work in our office that is going to 3 work all of the programs, help them every way you could 4 possibly help with all of the different areas of the 5 programs to help them. This program really is working, 6 you know. I’m not promising you that it will work here, 7 but I surely think it is worth a shot. 8 Here is really neat news. Our old — and 9 all of you all probably know what exactly what old fund 10 means. Our Workers’ Comp. is over. At one time we had 11 a 3.5 billion dollar deficit. For all practical 12 purposes, nobody would like to come to West Virginia and 13 do business. Today and tonight I can announce now it 14 has — the deficit is completely eliminated and we have 15 a positive balance of 57 million dollars and it is over. 16 (Applause.) 17 I am delivering to you tonight for the 18 fourth year in a row for all practical purposes in every 19 way a flat budget. We have absolutely — we don’t have 20 any reason to dip into the Rainy Day Fund. We 21 absolutely do not have any reason to grow 22 government. We absolutely need to watch the store every 23 single day. 24 You will absolutely see a flat budget, 25 with some minor, minor increases for pay raises or 21 1 whatever it may be, but we can cover that with our 2 surplus. 3 I encourage all of you, we absolutely look 4 as we possibly can with the CARES money. Now we have 5 the ARP money. We need to work through all of the good 6 ideas. We need to be super respectful of one another 7 and we need to absolutely manage those dollars in the 8 very best place possible. It is another real 9 opportunity for West Virginia. 10 We have government reform going on and I 11 am a real believer in streamlining government and 12 cutting ways to do all of the different things we can 13 do. You know, I am proposing bills to further 14 streamline our Department of Art, Culture, and History, 15 DHHR, the DOT and the Division of Corrections and I want 16 to show you just something. And I don’t know where it 17 is and everything, but where is it, Jordan? Are you all 18 going to bring it out here. Here we go. 19 I want you all to look right here. You 20 will not — there is no way that you could possibly 21 believe this. This is the flow chart in the state — 22 you all can stand right in front of me, that would be 23 good. Come stand right here. It goes all of the way 24 over here. This is a flow chart that shows the process 25 of getting a contract through our state purchasing 22 1 department. 2 Now I want you to look at this. And I 3 want you to imagine, that was created so we would — we 4 would not wait. Honest to God. That’s the 5 truth. That’s why it was created, so we would not wait. 6 It is the beatingest thing I have ever seen. Toyota has 7 been an incredible partner to West Virginia, have they 8 not. And Toyota Production Support System, they are 9 surely one of our business partners in the production — 10 the Toyota Production Support System is a world leader 11 in efficiency has agreed to help us streamline this and 12 try to come up with some way that it isn’t this. 13 (Applause.) 14 You all can just stand there. You all 15 need to leave. 16 We need a new lab in West Virginia. We 17 absolutely need a new lab and need it really bad. We 18 need a new lab and we can put it all under one of and we 19 can have a public health, a law enforcement, and an ag. 20 lab under one roof that is state-of-the-art and 21 state-of-the-art beyond belief. We can use ARP money to 22 fund this, but we desperately need a new lab for our 23 medical examiners, our State Police, and our ag. 24 department. Please let’s absolutely move forward and 25 get this done. 23 1 (Applause.) 2 Man, you all clap a lot. Okay. Okay, our 3 State Police, now just think about this. We need to 4 commit dollars to locality pay. That is all there is to 5 it. Our State Police continues to have dwindling 6 numbers. We have had three cadet classes since I walked 7 in the door and who knows before that we didn’t have 8 any. Now we are on the brink of having our fourth cadet 9 class and we are still underwater, maybe to the tune of 10 700 to 800 State Policemen. We absolutely need to move 11 forward with our cadet class. We need to move forward 12 with locality pay and we need to absolutely support, the 13 very, very people that support us. How again, and I 14 don’t mean to step on anybody’s those, how again could 15 anybody have come up with the idea in life we are going 16 to defund the police? Where on God’s earth did that 17 come from? 18 (Applause.) 19 Think about what tourism is doing in the 20 State of West Virginia today. You know, we have a 21 Secretary of Tourism, Secretary Ruby, who has done an 22 incredible job. Chelsea is stuck on all of the time and 23 absolutely lives, eats, and breathes ways to bring more 24 and more folks to West Virginia. I have been an 25 absolutely believer and supporter through and 24 1 through. Without any question whatsoever, the very 2 first day that I walked in this door, I have been a 3 believer in diversification and a believer in tourism 4 and, being an absolutely tremendous leader in West 5 Virginia. I said over and over, and you might think, 6 “Oh, gosh, why does he say these things?” 7 I said, you know, any frog who is not much 8 proud of his pond is not much of a frog. And forever, 9 forever, we must have not been real proud of our pond, 10 not proud enough to put some dollars into it. You look 11 at the investment we have made in tourism and what 12 happened in this state. It is absolutely unbelievable, 13 what I am telling you, Jim Justice, he is telling you 14 just right, you are still just getting it partially 15 outside the plate. The meat and potatoes are still 16 there. Absolutely if there is ever a place on this 17 planet people would want to come to if they really 18 understood what we are all about, what we have, is 19 tourism in West Virginia. 20 So — 21 (Applause.) 22 Think about the other ATV park, good 23 gracious, all of the different things for travel, all of 24 the different things that are happening. Think about 25 all of those publications all over the place. They are 25 1 now ranking West Virginia at the top — in the top 25, 2 whatever it may be. You know, tourism magazines to be 3 perfectly honest, most of it had never heard of us 4 before. You couldn’t imagine that they would pick West 5 Virginia. But they are all picking West Virginia. It 6 is unbelievable. Chelsea, please, stand, incredible 7 job, incredible job. 8 (Applause.) 9 I talked about that frog being proud of 10 his own pond and I am going to tell you this and I 11 promise you to God above this is a fact. You know, a 12 lot of people will sit here with teleprompters and read 13 to you and I — you know, I think I speak the most 14 common language and I talk about frogs and I talk about 15 Baby Dog and everything else under the sun, really and 16 truly you know that I am talking to you just like we 17 were sitting in your house talking to you. Not talking 18 down to anybody, I don’t believe in it. 19 Absolutely believe that of all of the 20 frogs, I am proud. Now, there may be somebody that 21 isn’t proud, but I love you and I love the state 22 more. So many different people throughout all of the 23 different land and everything have thrown rocks at our 24 natural resource industries, our coal miners and gas 25 workers, really makes me mad. The reason it makes me 26 1 mad is all that these people have given, good gracious 2 sakes a living, they have given so much. And we owe 3 them so much. The same way with our great factory 4 workers, our craftsmen wherever they may be, our 5 teachers, all of the people that are doing the work in 6 this state, people have thrown rocks. 7 I frankly don’t like this either. And you 8 know, I am going to probably get in trouble about this, 9 but I will just get in trouble. I have been in trouble 10 a lot. But, you know, I don’t like the fact whether it 11 be our financial institutions or whomever it may be that 12 they come out publicly and say, “Oh, no, we don’t 13 believe in making loans or whatever to the energy 14 industries. We are not doing that.” Well I think it is 15 their prerogative in private business people without any 16 question, for God’s sake I don’t know how you exist in 17 the State of West Virginia and turn your back on the 18 very industries that made this state and still continue 19 to do so. So I think all of those, whether it be our 20 healthcare people, our first responders, I truly love 21 you. I am the proudest frog. So I’ll just go with 22 that. 23 The Beckley Veterans Nursing Home, we have 24 talked about it for the last 100 years and truly we were 25 right on the verge of being able to pull this off, but 27 1 when we got the quotes all in, the quotes came in a 2 little higher to pull it off than what we wanted to have 3 happen. So we got — we have got to make a 4 decision. We can phase it down. We can phase down from 5 120 beds, 90, 80, and maybe we can get by. And I am 6 going to tell you this as point blank as I can fell you, 7 these people have given us every single thing we have 8 had in life. Absolutely we have got to find some 9 money. I expect you to do that with us and absolutely 10 go arm and arm. We have got to get this done right 11 here. That is all there is to it. 12 (Applause.) 13 Okay. I am going to keep moving here. We 14 are starting a new thing that is really spawned from 15 Ascend and it is, you know, that Brad Smith and Alys 16 [spelling] have come up and helped us with that 17 program. Can you imagine that program, Brad, you know 18 this, we had 10,000 applicants I think and 2.5 million 19 visits to our web site, unbelievable, through the 20 combination of you guys, through the combination of WVU, 21 through the combination of our tourism folks and 22 everything else, 2.5 million people visited us and said, 23 “We have an interest in West Virginia.” We have got to 24 build houses, people. That is all there is to it. 25 So I am going to try some way to create 28 1 something called build West Virginia, some level of tax 2 credit, a tax credit for builders to incentivse them to 3 go out and build homes. Again, I thank Ascend for all 4 that they have done and we have a young lady with us 5 tonight that is one of those that has come to West 6 Virginia. Of all places she came from an 800 foot — 7 800 square-foot apartment in Chicago, Illinois, her name 8 is Quintina Mengyn and I think I am pronouncing this 9 correctly. Her boyfriend, her dog, and herself, all of 10 them have moved now to West Virginia. They supposedly 11 love it. Baby Dog has talked to the dog and the dog 12 loves it, too. So where is she. 13 (Applause.) 14 The DNR police are with us tonight, Bobby 15 Cales, our colonel is here, 125-year celebration for how 16 many years they have been with us and protecting our 17 natural resources in this state and now they have got a 18 new motto, is it called “Protecting the Wild and 19 Wonderful.” Where are you, Bobby? Where are you? 20 Please, you all stand. 21 (Applause.) 22 We are similar any losing an incredible 23 friend, incredible guy who has done an amazing job with 24 our DNR, Steve McDaniel. Steve has done absolutely 25 wonders and Steve and I have been going off on one 29 1 another like you can imagine. I love the outdoors and 2 you know really and truly I am broke up a little bit now 3 and to be perfectly honest, he is, too. And with all of 4 that, but I have honestly almost walked up and down 5 every mountain in this state. I have chased a bird dog 6 all over kingdom come and I have chased every wild 7 turkey you can possibly chase in this state. I have 8 crawled on my belly countless hours, days, weeks with a 9 little five foot fly rod with a fly I would shoot on the 10 water and a three and a halfway little native brook 11 trout stream, to catch a little native brook that big 12 about that I thought would look like a tarpon. I love 13 it. Steve McDaniel, the job that he has done is 14 unbelilevable. We have added 85,896 new acres in West 15 Virginia. The hunting and fishing licenses are off the 16 chart. we have absolutely stocked our fish the right 17 way and made an ungodly improvement in that and brought 18 more and more and folks to West Virginia. We have spent 19 $151 million on our parks. The absolute occupancy in 20 our parks is off the chart. 21 We are 52 percent higher income on — in 22 our DNR today than we were the day I walked in the 23 door. Steve McDaniel is here with us somewhere and he 24 deserves the lion, all of the credit wherever he is, 25 Steve. God bless you, man. Thanks for all you have 30 1 done. 2 (Applause.) 3 Let me tell you just this. There is no 4 question we can make education better and better all the 5 time. There is no question we put a stake in the sand 6 right off the get-go and said, “Make education our 7 priority,” did we not? Things started to change. We 8 have done many, many things and we are on a journey to 9 make it better and better and better and 10 better. Tonight, I want to propose really three 11 different things. I want to propose that we make the 12 penalties for somebody that is a school employee that 13 abuses a student so tough that they will know that I am 14 sitting on their chest. And that is pretty bad, isn’t 15 it? 16 (Applause.) 17 Unless you all are wanting to be here all 18 night long, you are going to have to slow own on the 19 clapping. I want to prepare tonight to the legislature 20 that we fully, fully cover the cost of college classes 21 for our high school students. I think we could do that 22 and then when they leave high school, you know, go to a 23 community college or technical school, they are 24 absolutely covered. You know, but with that we need to 25 encourage more and more and more of our students to 31 1 continue on with their education. 2 I also — let me see. I also want to 3 propose a bill to make computer programming and coding 4 classes mandatory in middle and high school. All that 5 you will see really soon and this just helps us in every 6 way for the next generations to come. 7 We have a young lady with us tonight — 8 I’m sorry, a young man with us tonight. He is the 9 Teacher of the Year. His name a Brian Casto. Brian is 10 an eighth grade teacher and teaches West Virginia 11 studies at the Milton Middle School in Cabell 12 County. You know, absolutely it is amazing what great 13 work that our teachers do every day. But also we have 14 our Service Personnel Person of the Year, and that is 15 Kathy Miller. Kathy is a cafeteria manager at Wayne 16 High School in Wayne County, absolutely good. You 17 government can you give these people an incredible round 18 of applause. 19 20 Just stay up there just one second. Let’s 21 follow it up with a special thanks to Highmark, the 22 Horace Mann Insurance Company, the West Virginia 23 Lottery, Toyota, and all of the others that made all of 24 this good stuff happen, as well. 25 (Applause.) 32 1 I am going to ask you now to show your 2 real appreciation so I won’t get into all kinds of 3 trouble later tonight, but Cathy has really done an 4 amazing job with students. You know me, you know I’ll 5 horse around with you and smile and love to laugh, but 6 I’ll tell you the truth always, and I mean this from my 7 dying soul, if God above, and that is serious business 8 with me, if God above right there, I am telling you the 9 gospel truth, I have never seen a program, never ever 10 seen a program in my life that worked. It’s 11 unbelievable. And Cathy and I truly in all fairness 12 didn’t know much about this at all and we just started 13 down this path. We started with next to nothing and 14 then it has just grown. 15 It is the Communities In Schools is the 16 number one drop out prevention initiative in the nation 17 right now. They have been around for 40 years and truly 18 it works. The program is in 31 counties in West 19 Virginia. Get this, you don’t believe this, 171 schools 20 impacting 70,000 kids. There is story after story after 21 story. It is just truly amazing. But Cathy has got 22 some good help. They are adding Marshall County now and 23 we are on a quest absolutely together, but Cathy with 24 all of our great people, whether it be Vicki and Katie, 25 all of the different people, you know, Michelle, all of 33 1 the different people that work with it. They are on a 2 quest absolutely to be sure that the Communities In 3 Schools in every, single one of our schools before we 4 leave. Then it will be up to you. But if you don’t — 5 if you are me, you absolutely would make that happen, 6 with God above, and you are in as much schools and I am 7 in and you are as with as many kids as I am with, never 8 seen anything worth it. It is absolutely, absolutely 9 remarkable. 10 So with all of that, I would say to you 11 just this, I have got one more thing. We have — we 12 have an individual that was here, whose name is Connor 13 Cook. He is a senior at Woodrow Wilson High 14 School. Without any question, these kids really are — 15 have lost their way. Kids have so much going, we all 16 know it, but all of the different stuff, bullying, the 17 parents and drugs and everything that can be out there 18 that a kids have to face, to deal with, all of the 19 social media stuff, all of the stuff, my God and living 20 when I was growing up all we had to deal with who was 21 going to win kicking the can in the alley that 22 night. All we had to deal what was getting up, putting 23 on our school clothes, coming home and putting on our 24 play clothes and playing some kind of ball 25 somewhere. Kids have so much today to deal with. 34 1 There was a young man, like I said, whose 2 name was Connor Cook, Woodrow Wilson High 3 School. Connor was going way, way, way the wrong way. 4 There is a site here, her name Erin Boyd, [check] is a 5 long-time educator, has now worked with Communities In 6 Schools. And she recognized that this kid was a bright 7 kid but on the wrong path. A kid had given up in 8 school. Imagine this. Imagine this. Connor today is a 9 straight A student and what he is doing is 10 unbelievable. He was going to be here tonight and he 11 became ill. We don’t who if he got Covid or not, but he 12 was coming. But please give Cathy and all these great 13 people a tremendous round of applause. They have done 14 incredible work. 15 (Applause.) 16 Okay. To wrap up the education end, you 17 know, last but not least, I am proposing a 5 percent pay 18 raise to all service personnel, I mean all, all of our 19 state employees, teachers, our service personnel, all of 20 the people in the State of West Virginia that work for 21 the State of West Virginia, rather, and absolutely I am 22 also proposing my inflato scene, which is just a backup 23 for really trying to back stop this terrible inflation 24 that is going on, help them out a little bit there 25 because we can do exactly that. I hope that you will 35 1 take that and really, seriously consider both. We have 2 got a lot, a lot of folks in our state government that 3 are doing really good stuff. 4 (Applause.) 5 And, no, I am not — I was going to say 6 I’m almost done. But I have got to just say two or 7 three more things, say two or three more things to you 8 very quickly. What we have done with our roads in the 9 State of West Virginia is totally off the chart. Just 10 think about this. We have got Jimmy Riston with us, I 11 like to say he wears his tie a little unusual, but 12 Jimmy, Jimmy Bird’s []wife, a lot of people have really 13 put in a lot of licks. Again, and I mean it, I give the 14 credit to the Lord. How in the world could I have 15 possibly come up with the idea of Roads to Prosperity? 16 Where did it come from? Where in the world did it come 17 from? 18 A lot of people thought, “There is no way, 19 there is no way, it will cost us more money. We will 20 have to tax more. We will have to do this and that.” 21 You know what we did? We created ten of thousands of 22 jobs. We absolutely put ourselves on the pathway and lo 23 and behald it worked. Think about this, the ditches, 24 slips, all of the guardrail and everything else. In 25 2019 they did 30,000 miles in West Virginia. In 2020, 36 1 they did 39,000. In ’21, they did 47,000 miles. My God 2 to live, we are going to run out of miles. 3 1,000 road projects, West 4 Virginia. Before I leave, I absolutely want to see the 5 completion of the Nitro-St. Albans bridge. I absolutely 6 want to see us complete Corridor H or surely get it way 7 down the trail. I absolutely want to see us try to make 8 every inroad we could possibly make in the Coal Field 9 Express in the southern part of our state, and I 10 absolutely to God sake, surely to God above we can get 11 the roads paved in Wheeling. I mean, surely we can get 12 that done. 13 (Applause.) 14 Okay, I am coming to a close here. You 15 will probably be really proud, maybe you won’t of me, 16 hanging around here to the close, but, you know, we 17 together put a real stake in the sand not long ago. We 18 said and we need to hold up for our — we said we 19 weren’t going to stop until we had broadband in every 20 single house in this state. Did we not? For crying out 21 loud, we are on our way. We have started with a 22 billion-dollar program. We started down the 23 pathway. We have got lots and lots and lots of more 24 work to do, but we can do it, and for God sake’s above 25 let’s make it all happen now. Now is the time to make 37 1 that happen. We have got our people that need that. It 2 They drive business here. It will drive so many things 3 here. We need to crawl out of the dark ages a little 4 bit and connect every, single person we have got in this 5 state. Thank you so much about that. 6 (Applause.) 7 Now remember what I told you about the 8 Good Lord gave you the ability to smile and to 9 laugh. Did I not tell you that early on? I would like 10 you to do this. I would like you to take a moment, not 11 necessarily in prayer, but I would like you to take a 12 moment because we have had an individual retire and we 13 are going to miss him so much, Phil Kabler. 14 Now, so let’s just take a moment, okay, 15 that is long enough. We can move on from there, but, 16 nevertheless, on a more serious note, you know, I do 17 wish Phil the best in his retirement. And we are going 18 to miss him more than you can ever imagine and by me 19 saying this now, none of you have anything to worry 20 about. He will write about me every day now. 21 The last thing I have got, will tell you 22 just this, I know a bunch of you have asked about 23 it. This has been the year of Babydog, hasn’t it? So 24 she has got to come out here. Come on out here, 25 baby. Come on Babydog. Look at her. Stand up where 38 1 you can see. 2 I want to just end by just saying this: 3 We are getting to a point, are we not, you all can see 4 her before we leave. I have brought you a flat budget 5 again, record low unemployment, broadband becoming a 6 reality, tourism exploding, proud to never, ever forget 7 our coal miners and our gas workers and all of the fact 8 that we all should be so proud of who we are, record pay 9 raises, Communities In Schools doing phenomenal work, 10 streamlining and eliminating waste, combating drugs, 11 feeding the hungry, very, very just the essential 12 ingredients who we ought to be, building road after road 13 and surplus after surplus and made education our 14 priority and did so and the world began to know that we 15 are that diamond in the rough that everybody knew. 16 Now, Drew, if you can hand me Babydog. I 17 want to tell you all just this. And I mean this. I 18 told you a second ago, easy, Baby, you are hung up in my 19 jacket. I wanted to tell you just this. I told you a 20 few minutes ago, I am your proudest frog. Absolutely 21 people doubted us. They never believed in West 22 Virginia. They never believed in West Virginia, that we 23 could do it. They never believed that the Nucors or the 24 GreenPower or Owens & Minor, they never believed. They 25 never believed they would be here. They told every bad 39 1 joke in the world about us. And so from that 2 standpoint, Babydog tells Bette Midler and all of those 3 out there, kiss her hiney. 4 (Applause.) 5 God bless you all. God bless you. I told 6 you I’d make you smile. Thank you also much, in every 7 way. Keep doing it, West Virginia. You can absolutely 8 do greatness more and more and more to come. Thank you 9 so much. You are an incredible group of people. Don’t 10 become DC. Keep it going. Way to go West Virginia, 11 proud of you. 12 (Applause.) 13 (The state of the state address was 14 concluded at 8:28 P.M., 1-27-2022) ShareTweetForward |