Despite ills, Justice does not have a remedy

Jan. 9—If you have come looking for a preview of what Gov. Jim Justice may say tonight during his State of the State address, we would lay our money on custom — a self-congratulatory pat on the back, some nonsense about an economic rocketship ride to the moon and criticism of the Biden administration's handling of the southern border (some 1,500 miles from Charleston) while touting an "America First" agenda. He may choose to entertain with a white board presentation on personal income taxes and enough "Jimisms" to keep everyone's eyes rolling and the Mountain State the butt of jokes for a good while longer.

Odds are even that Babydog, the governor's portly English bulldog and constant companion, will make an appearance while "Big Jim" delivers his address from a four-legged wooden stool in the well of the House of Delegates.

What will be missing, what has always been missing, will be serious policy fixes to some of all that is broken in West Virginia — and those fragmented lives are spread all across these hills and hollers we call home.

We do not expect to hear any plans to appropriately fund social service agencies that tend to our most vulnerable populations, both young and old. Nor are we anticipating any fresh takes on cleaning up our prisons even though 25 inmates at Southern Regional Jail have died or been killed in the past five years. When the governor addresses both houses of the Legislature and invited guests, he will not have a plan to create a steady revenue stream to fund PEIA insurance despite premium hikes now overtaking pay raises. The governor has had years to fix all of this and yet the erosion of services grows wider and weakens the foundations of tending to our own.

He is, by all measure, bored with the job.

An idea, any idea, to support West Virginia University, the state's flagship public university at Morgantown, would be a welcomed conversation, but do not expect it — nevermind that the once proud school of higher learning may never recover from a $45 million budget cut this past year, a gap that may widen to $75 million in the next couple of years.

Understand, we are dealing with a populist tycoon whose vast business interests are more important and urgent to him than any little problem out here in the real world. He is a debt-ridden coal magnate who leaves industrial and financial messes for others to clean up. He is a veritable tax scofflaw, delinquent on property taxes across southern West Virginia counties year after year. Financial institutions have sought to garnish the governor's salary, and creditors have accused his companies of fraud.

Our governor is facing federal lawsuits — plural — over "inhumane living conditions" in state prisons and "chronic and systemwide failures" in the state's massively mismanaged foster care system.

Now, seven years into his governorship, Big Jim has no secrets. We know who he is.

He is a chief executive who likes big projects, like his Roads to Prosperity bonding plan. But that was from way back in 2017. Anything since?

Nothing that he has engineered.

He is not deep into policy. He is a marketer in chief, a salesman and a carnival barker — remember the plate of manure and switching political parties at a Trump rally? — someone who likes and apparently needs attention.

What we will hear on Wednesday is that Big Jim has stopped the migration of young people from the state, that state coffers are flush and that roads and bridges are being built all across the state, gun rights are being protected along with "the rights of the unborn."

We will get a campaign pitch — for his run for the U.S. Senate.

Fixes for broken lives and state agencies?

Sorry. That's not in the governor's plans.