West Virginia: The diamond in the rough

Since I took office, more than $6.2 billion in business investments have been made in our state. We have welcomed growth and job announcements from Virgin Hyperloop, MHIRJ, Procter & Gamble, N3 (Accenture), DataRobot, Infor, Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia, DST Innovations Ltd, among many others.

Just last month, Business Facilities magazine named West Virginia a “rising star” and among the top 10 best business climates in the United States.

According to Workforce West Virginia, our state’s July unemployment rate fell to 5%, the lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate since January 2020, and lower than the national average!

Connecting West Virginia households and businesses to reliable and affordable high-speed broadband is a top priority of my administration, and our investments will support future growth and economic development. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic showed us the importance of reliable connectivity to meet the educational needs of our kids.

The pandemic has driven people to West Virginia, where they can work remotely and live in paradise. I am committed to working with our legislative leaders to continue investing the dollars it will take to help us bridge the broadband divide that so many West Virginia families and businesses face today.

In recent years, we have made significant education reforms to provide parents the freedom to choose the best education path for their kids and give them the tools to make those choices a reality, and I am the only governor to provide back-to-back salary increases for our hardworking educators and school service personnel.

Additionally, our West Virginia Invests program covers the cost of attending our community colleges and technical schools for any West Virginian. And as we all know, our flagship land-grant universities like Marshall and WVU, as well as our many other public and private colleges and universities, are consistently producing the next generation of well-trained, hardworking professionals.

There is no more significant issue facing job providers than a skilled and drug-free workforce. My Jobs & Hope West Virginia program has saved so many lives and given so many West Virginians a second chance and hope that they can live a rewarding life with a promising career.

Jobs & Hope is a beginning-to-end program that allows an individual to receive free addiction treatment while, at the same time, receiving career training and technical education. In addition, it offers employers who hire graduates of the Jobs & Hope program incentives and tax credits.

At the heart of Jobs & Hope is my vision of providing West Virginians in recovery the opportunity to overcome obstacles that prevent establishing career success such as expunging low-level offenses and reinstating driver’s licenses. This will allow participants to achieve their dreams while accomplishing the primary goal of putting West Virginians back to work.

As a business guy, I understand the importance of good infrastructure and investing in state resources that attract people to the Mountain State to live, raise a family, and start a business. My Roads to Prosperity program, which provides nearly $2 billion for roads, highways and infrastructure, is the centerpiece of my vision for West Virginia’s economic recovery.

In addition, I led the effort to invest $100 million in our state parks and tourism to draw people to the place we all call home: Almost Heaven. As a result, our tourism numbers are off the charts and setting incredible records, with over 3 million visitors to our state so far this year!

I know that the past year has been really tough on all of us, but I applaud all of you who have done everything in your power to keep our people safe and keep our economic engine running. We are close to beating COVID-19 for good, but the one thing we need more than anything is to get all our people vaccinated. The vaccines are safe, and they work, so if you won’t do it for yourself, Do It For Babydog!

At the end of the day, West Virginia has proven herself to be the diamond in the rough that is outshining all the rest. I am so proud of this great state, and of all of you for all you do. Let’s keep moving forward together!