CHARLESTON — In his first State of the State address seven years ago, Gov. Jim Justice spread his arms wide, moaned and gave his formal audience an impression of Frankenstein’s monster — his version of the shambling financial beast that had stalked the state’s budget.
“I always thought, if you got caught by Frankenstein, you deserved to die,” Justice said at the end of his address and inspiring the laughter of delegates, senators and Supreme Court justices.
“Let me tell you just this. If we don’t do anything, if all we do is kick the can down the road and all we do is fight then we deserve to die.”
It was the new governor’s dramatic way of calling for urgency up against a flat economy and an anticipated budget gap estimated at $500 million.
He called for a big tax increase to start that session, then vetoed the cost-cutting budget passed by the Legislature by using a platter of cow byproduct as a prop, went into a special session and finally allowed a budget to become law without his signature to avert a shutdown.
It was a rough start.
Now, diving headlong into the final year of his second term, Justice is on more stable footing.
At the midway point of the current fiscal year, revenue collections are $406 million ahead of estimates — which are held low intentionally to keep budgets flat. Last year, state officials felt such confidence in the state’s finances that they moved ahead with a 21.25% personal income tax cut with an estimated financial impact of $817.8 million.
During tonight’s State of the State speech, Justice is likely to reflect on coming full circle, from the Frankenstein finances to the big tax cut now in effect.
The annual speech in the House of Delegates chamber starts at 7 p.m. and can be heard in a variety of media, including MetroNews radio stations and affiliates.
During a regular news briefing last week, Justice hinted at his frame of mind, discussing the state’s financial journey from his first address to this one.
“When I first signed on to run for governor and we pulled that off, I really thought there’s no way, no way that I’ll actually ever run for re-election,” Justice said last week. “But absolutely, watching day by day how we’ve changed and we absolutely became an economic powerhouse in many ways.”
His comments described net inbound migration in the most recent round of U.S. Census data, more solid state financial figures, continuing diversification of the state economy and work to improve infrastructure like roads.
“More than anything, we changed our image,” Justice said.
The governor asked West Virginia residents to tune in to his final State of the State address.
“Tune in because there will be some exciting stuff that we’ll talk about the future. We’ll talk about the achievements to where we’ve gotten to in West Virginia,” he said.
“But absolutely, my feelings are just this. If you love West Virginia, if you love West Virginia a fraction as much as I do, and it’s great, great people, we want to use the goodness we’ve been able to build in to absolutely propel us to more and more greatness.”
His preview of the address concluded with Justice using a grammatical flourish to reflect, “Who would have thunk it that in West Virginia, where we were versus where we are.”
