A governor for all his companies: Justice’s pleas of fiscal woes in lawsuit to beleaguered state falls on deaf ears

So what the heck was Gov. Jim Justice doing at the Governor’s Mansion last week?
It’s not like he lives there or anything, despite the state Constitution requiring him to do so.
Though he has remained all but invisible at the state’s seat of government since his Jan. 9 State of the State Address, he was there Friday.
Yes, he was also there last week to quell the uproar over the failed education reform bill and to lobby for his own “clean” pay raise bill for teachers and others.
But he had far more to say and apparently has had far more to do with he and his family’s business enterprises than his elected office.
Many were under the impression that Justice turned his business interests over to his family long ago.
Yet, a story in Sunday’s newspaper raised a lot of questions about what connections he still maintains to his business holdings.
By all appearances, Justice has an active interest in those companies and an off-and-on interest in being the state’s governor.
The gist of the MetroNews’ story in Sunday’s The Dominion Post was that companies he and his family own filed a federal lawsuit against insurers.
Their legal action comes in response to what the lawsuit describes as foot-dragging by insurers on claims filed following the devastating June 2016 flooding.
As a result of the insurers allegedly not promptly paying off those claims it caused cash flow problems to his business holdings.
We have no reason to doubt the governor and his family did suffer financial problems following that flooding, which claimed the lives of 23 West Virginians.
Not to mention destroyed and seriously damaged thousands of homes and businesses, few of which were covered by flood insurance.
What we found so disconcerting though about the governor describing his and his family’s lawsuit is that’s his problem.
To elevate his and his family’s fiscal problems to a greater and graver problem than those who lost a loved one or their home is misguided.
Not to mention that many of us have fiscal problems, some just paying their mortgage. Others for in-home care for an elderly parent or day care for a child.
Yes, we realize Justice’s companies provide hundreds of jobs and we’re all a little prone to tell others our problems.
Yet, Justice is the governor of West Virginia, which despite the hype about Roads to Prosperity and economic rebound, has far more problems than his companies.
When we hear the governor elaborating about fiscal problems we would like to think he is fixated on those in our state, not his and his family’s.