MORGANTOWN — The leaders of the Legislature’s minority party gave an overview of the 2022 session goals during a Thursday morning press conference.
This is an annual event for whichever party is in the minority, and on Thursday Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, and House Minority Leader Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, spoke during a Zoom/Facebook meeting.
Baldwin cited some comments singer Bette Midler made last month, calling West Virginia a horrible state with its residents “poor, illiterate and strung out.”
He said he’s joined a Facebook group called Transplanted West Virginians, with 44,900 members.
“There are thousands of West Virginians who long to be back in state with us,” and the state wants them.
But they don’t return for a number of reasons, he said, including that they don’t feel welcome, can’t find jobs and can’t access essential basics here, such as broadband.
So he views every bill through this lens, he said: “How can we bring those folks home and how can we keep our kids from leaving.”
While more people moved here than left in 2021, the state still suffers from a low birth rate and high death rate.
Baldwin and Skaff both listed some of the same priorities: available and affordable broadband, adequately funded quality education at every level up through higher ed, nondiscrimination laws so people of all types feel welcome, more jobs, and cost of living raises for state workers and retirees.
Baldwin talked about meetings he’s had with Child Protective Service workers. “I left those meetings depressed as I could be.” Thousands of kids are in foster care or being raised by grandparents. Greenbrier County’s CPS has a 70% staff vacancy rate, because of tough working conditions and low pay.
That affects the kids, he said. “Those children are going to grow up and remember, ‘This is a state that didn’t value me.’”
The proposed 5% raise for all state workers won’t be enough to solve that problem, both said.
Skaff said landing the Nucor plant in Mason County was a great win for the state, but it also needs to look after businesses that are already here and supporting the economy.
The Legislature needs to create a fair tax climate for those businesses, he said. He and Baldwin hinted that a proposal for just that will be coming out next week.
Under the pandemic, Skaff said, nurses and other health care workers are leaving in droves and the Legislature needs to figure out why they are leaving and what incentives can be offered to keep them here.
The pandemic taught us the value of flexible workplaces, Skaff said, and legislators need to address how to assist in providing for more flexible workplaces without hurting the small business owners.
On the topic of broadband, Skaff said expansion plans must ensure open access for small providers so the monopolies can’t cut them out and cut off access for hard-to-reach places in the process.
A bill to accomplish that last year died, he said. “We had the chance last year. The monopolies won that battle.”
TWEET David Beard @dbeardtdp
EMAIL dbeard@dominionpost.com
