He better do Justice to roads: Governor hard at work to ensure his re-election by owning this issue

Given how essential it is to repair and maintain our state roads, it’s dismaying that we’re playing politics with that issue.
Last week, Gov. Jim Justice vetoed several road bills, including legislation to  update funding formulas and create a special  road repair fund.
The latter bill, SB 522, is similar to the governor’s ideas about using pay-as-you-go funds intended for paying off road bonds.
It also featured a component to post financial information about Division of Highways contracted projects on the state’s spending website.
Another bill, HB 3044, would have updated spending formulas to reflect increased funding where there is increased traffic.
For the record, our newspaper supported both these bills and saw such legislation as just another way to address infrastructure needs.
Most of the time we don’t give a lot of credence to what legislators say off the cuff about the failure of their bills.
However, we have come to realize that Gov. Jim Justice’s actions are more in line with publicity — and his re-election — than solving problems.
We typically don’t buy into what sponsors say about their bills in defeat. It’s human nature to not always take failures and setbacks gracefully.
Still, when Sen. Randy Smith, R-Tucker, said  “I’d looked for it to be vetoed because Jim (Justice) wasn’t going to be one-upped by anybody,” we don’t doubt him.
We also question Justice’s decision to enter the fray about roads after the legislative session.
Following the session, Justice began making promises to fix the roads as well as excuses why they’re in the condition they’re in.
The two bills he vetoed only represent ones the Legislature advanced to the governor. Nearly a score of others failed to get that far.
Numerous legislators on both sides of the aisle worked together on bills to improve road conditions during the recent session.
Yet, they got little to no input from the governor, outside a wrong turn he took  in his State of the State Address, and is still driving on.
Then once the session ends, he suddenly wants to fix the roads without the Legislature’s input?
We remain skeptical of how the governor will address the massive wish list of road projects recently handed him. After all, 15,000 projects along 36,000 miles of roads is one long order.
We’ve almost grown accustomed to a wait-and-see approach to improving our roads.
But it’s clear now, this is going to be the issue that decides the  2020 campaign.