MORGANTOWN — The Dominion Post met with candidates for the House of Delegates 50th District to hear their views on various issues.
For logistics reasons, the Democrats and Republicans attended separate meetings; unaffiliated candidate Jon Dodds was unable to attend for work reasons and is set to be interviewed at a later date.
Today’s report features the two Republicans.
Incumbent Guy Ward is seeking his second term. He is also mayor of White Hall. “I think the important thing in this election is the economy, or jobs,” he said.
The Republican leadership has been making advances in those areas. “We’re creating an environment that’s business friendly and is bringing a lot of jobs to the state, has kept taxes low and is making a lot of improvements. The state’s going in the right direction and that’s pretty much where I want to keep it going.”
He is pro-life and endorsed by NRA he said.
Challenger Phil Mallow, of Fairmont, said, “I’m pro-God, pro-life, pro-gun, definitely pro-jobs.”
He worked 36 years for United Parcel Service, where they carefully monitored spending and finances. “I think we need to as a state be more aware of where our dollars go … and we need to spend it more effectively, more efficiently.”
Citing recent jobs and economic growth, he said, “These conservative Republican principles work, and ultimately that’s our job. I’m for the average everyday person. It troubles me when we have a conversation and folks say, ‘I didn’t know that.’”
Each candidate listed his top three priorities.
Ward would like to see the state adopt a software program used by the U.S. Department of Defense and on the verge of adoption by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The software would enable unification of healthcare records from various providers.
He plans to introduce a bill to require the state Department of Health and Human Resources to look into it. “We have the opportunity right now to start out with it right now and not wait four or five years when the states are going to be forced into it.”
He wants to decrease the severance tax on gas and coal. Keeping taxes low has put more money circulating in the economy, he said, to where we may see a $400 million surplus next June.
We have the highest severance tax in the three-state Marcellus-Utica three area, he said. “The gas industry is wanting to come more here to West Virginia and they would if we cut our taxes.
He also wants to make the longtime home rule pilot program permanent and open to all four classes of municipalities.
Mallow is focused on the intertwined issues of jobs, education and the economy. “We have to remain competitive to the states around us.” That means dealing with coal, gas, infrastructure and retiree pensions. It means fostering public awareness and involvement and politicians’ awareness of the needs of the public.
People are getting educated here and moving elsewhere to find jobs that aren’t here, he said. We need to make the state more attractive to business and communicate the value of the state to the rest of the country.
Both support the state’s medical cannabis program, to different degrees.
Mallow said, “How about if you had someone in your family that had seizures and you knew that the [cannabis] would help that person, then you’d have a whole different way of looking at that thing.”
But it’s federally illegal and the state treasurer won’t accept application fees or tax revenue.
He’s also concerned that people who created the program have already decided, by setting high fees, who will get the licenses. Instead, we need to make the program more conducive to outside investors coming in.
Many people don’t know enough about the benefits of medical cannabis, he said, but when it becomes personal, “the way you see medical marijuana and the potential thereof will absolutely change.”
Ward said he supported the bill creating the program after it was revised to removing smoking and edibles. “I do believe that there is some good that can come out of marijuana.” But ultimately it’s up to feds to take it off Schedule I (no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse) to allow pharmaceutical companies to fully test it.
Ward said the state will have to create a state bank and put the treasurer in charge of it until the feds loosen the restrictions. He expects to see the banking problem resolved this coming session to be ready for the July 1, 2019, program launch.
There are lots of chemicals in cannabis and not all of them are beneficial, he said. “It’s still a dangerous drug.”
And legalizing recreational marijuana won’t be a cure-all for the economy, he said. Most of what Colorado earns goes back into prevention education and policing the industry. “We’ve got to be wise about this. We can’t just jump into this.”
In the light of recent monthly budget surpluses, both addressed the question of how to keep the state operating in the black.
Ward said most of the state’s extra revenue is from severance taxes, and the sales and income tax generated by job growth in those industries. That’s good, but “we’ve got to diversify too.”
We should look to high-tech jobs, and manufacturing – particularly petrochemical.
“That’s why I want to keep taxes low. It makes a business friendly economy here. You don’t increase your revenue by raising taxes. You increase you revenue by broadening the tax base.”
Mallow noted the state is perpetually 49th and 50th in most measures. “It troubles me that we haven’t gone to another state that’s Number One and asked, ‘What are you guys doing?’”
The state should use the money from coal and gas taxes to diversify. “We need to use the money form the things that we have to develop the things that we need. … We don’t need more taxes we need more taxpayers.”
Neighbor states can afford lower severance tax because their economies are more diverse and can absorb fluctuations, he said.
And the state needs to do better promoting itself nationwide. “We dropped the ball on tourism.”
