yourself. and make up your own mind. with c-span's campaign 2020 brought to you as a public service by your television provider. now west virginia republican governor jim justice delivers his state of the state address from charleston. he spoke about education funding, health care, and investing in the coal industries in the state. this is an hour and 20 minutes. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct privilege to welcome this evening his excellency the honorable james c. justice, governor of the state of west virginia. [ applause ] >> okay. if y'all don't want to be here all night, sit down. they've got me wired every way you can wire somebody up. which is good. you know, the first thing i would tell you is, it's a great, great evening in the state of west virginia. and i bless you in every way and i thank you in every way for being here. you know, today is a great day. a great day in our state. before we go any further, i would like to recognize my family, you know, i haven't seen you, jay, you and catherine since you got here. but my beautiful wife kathy, daughter jill and her husband adam, daughter-in-law catherine, and our son jay. [ applause ] without going long, you know, i would surely introduce my cabinet and i'm just going to say my cabinet, without going through everybody, and now i would like to move on to our constitutional officers. you know, these people that are sitting over to my left have done something that is unbelievable in my opinion. they have restored honor and integrity to our court when the storm was pretty rough. and so if i could introduce our chief justice tim armstead, justice margaret workman, justice elizabeth walker, justice evan jenkins and justice john hutchinson. i have had the opportunity, which is so unbelievably rare, it's off the chart. i had the opportunity to appoint three of these judges. they're good people. they've done lots and lots and lots of great stuff for our state. as has our other two justices. and so at the end of the day, i salute you. i can never thank you enough, i mean really and truly. we were in a storm and you're pulling us out of it very proudly. thank you so much. [ applause ] now, because i don't know the seating chart here, our attorney general is somewhere. patrick morrissey. and before i have him stand, i would like to just say this. you know, our citizens of this state deserve good stuff. one of the things they surely deserve is affordable health care coverage which is why today i'm asking the legislature to advance an initiative that he has championed, and that is to ensure that the people with pre-existing conditions in this state, even though you may have loved obamacare or maybe you didn't, surely all of us can agree on one thing, and that is just this. west virginians should be protected against pre-existing conditions. so please do that. if patrick morrissey can stand, wherever patrick is. over here, okay. [ applause ] our secretary of state mac warner is here. mac has made a mission to ensure the integrity of west virginia's elections and to protect them from cybersecurity threats. he is a champion at that and we know that. if our secretary of state mac warner could stand, please. [ applause ] our auditor, j.b. mccuskey. j.b. has made one thing for sure and that is for us to be transparent. transparent with all the state's finances. we don't need to hide anything. j.b. secures the fact that we won't do that. so give him a big round of applause. [ applause ] commissioner kent leonhart. we have so many potential opportunities within agriculture in this state, and we know it. and he's after it. one thing that kent is, is he is stuck on on all the time. every time i see him he's just striving to do more and more and more. bring opportunities to our farmers within the state to where we can consume more of their products within our state. so please give a big round of applause to kent leonhart. [ applause ] and our treasurer, john purdue. john is a friend. he's been a friend a long time. john is the guy that looks after our money. it is hard to believe the magnitude of the money. $13 billion. it's unbelievable. he's done the job forever. he's done a great job. i'm very proud to call him a friend. john. [ applause ] now, i'm looking real hard and i can't find craig blair. but i really wouldn't have been a bit surprised to have seen him here. he's a tough nut, that's for sure. you know, just like all of us that are exposed all the time to different things, he had a bad, bad traffic accident. he could have no longer been with us. he's a tough guy. i'm really proud to call him my friend. and craig, if you're watching and everything, just know that everybody here just can't wait for you to get back and they're waiting on you. craig blair. [ applause ] all those that are either really smart or maybe they just got a little tired or maybe the circumstances or whatever it may be, all those that had decided not to run for reelection, if you would please stand, i surely would like us all to give you your due and give you a round of thanks and a round of applause for all the effort that you've made for nothing other than your love for this state. please stand, all those. [ applause ] before i get into all the nitty-gritty, i want to just tell you a little quick story that's more about me. you know, it's easy to figure jim out. i'm not a politician. i really don't want anything. now, i know this is probably not going to be real popular with some. but really, it is so easy, it is so easy to just watch me. you know, i do stand like a rock with our president in regard to things that he stands for like legal, and i say legal, immigration. i absolutely believe that sanctuary cities do not have a place in west virginia and i hope and pray they never come. i can tell you that without any question whatsoever, i stand with the unborn. i'm a sportsman. i love the outdoors. the second amendment is ingrained in me forevermore. there is no question about it, whether you love me or don't love me, it's just simple fact. the other thing i would tell you is just this. we had a thing happen within corrections. and in all honesty, what happened was not good. we had -- we have had lots and lots and lots of great things going on within corrections. and we got a lot of really good people. but i will promise you to god above, on my watch, there is no place for hate and there's no place for anti-semitism on my watch. [ applause ] so let me show you this, and you're going to say, oh, my gosh, justice is doing it again. do you remember this? i don't know where the other is. hold on, now. i hope it won't slide. and do you remember this? let me tell you, the reason i brought these is just this. i gave an inaugural address a long time ago. at that inaugural address, prior to that, on memorial day, i was at a cemetery for my grandparents in jesse, west virginia. a little hillside nothing. and we went to the gravesite, kathy and i, and we were leaving. for those who have forgotten, there was a lady standing at the bridge. there's a guard rail there. she had leaning up against that guardrail several fishing rods, some carhart coveralls, some reflector tape carhart cover alls. she had this tackle box and this axe. the little daughter standing beside her, didn't know where to turn. i stopped. i gave her $100 for that axe and $100 for this tackle box and i put them in my car. everywhere i've gone, even down here tonight, they rode right with me. now, i'm telling you, that lady looked at me and she said, mister, you'll never know how much i appreciate this but you have no idea how bad i'm hurtin'. now, let me just say this. when i walked in the door, and if i could just drop this, so don't jump, when i walked in the door, things were pretty tough. and i'm not patting myself on the back in any way. we've gone through lots and lots of stuff. and i want to say, without any question whatsoever, nobody, nobody does anything alone. you have been great. sure, we've argued from time to time. but you have been great and you should be very, very proud of what you have accomplished. in all honesty, the biggest thing that i cling to is maybe, just maybe, i was maybe the catalyst that brought hope. and that to me means everything. so before we go any further, let's remember that lady. remember her little daughter. and just remember how good and how strong we are today. you deserve so much credit. i could never thank you enough. and i would say as profoundly as i know how to say, ladies and gentlemen, the state of our state is strong and it's growing stronger every single day. [ applause ] now, imagine, personal income last year, in 2019, grew 3 billion, that's with a "b," $3 billion in this state. unbelievable. revenue growth went up $511 million. it's off the chart. off the chart. the biggest revenue growth surely by far. but in addition to all that, enough revenue growth that was 1 1/2 times the previous ten years put together. it's unbelievable. now, think about it. since we walked in the door, we've been able to put $113 million in a rainy day fund. we put $100 million in pei. it's unbelievable. we're going the way we ought to go. now, i've got to show you just this. when i walked in the door, i said i was going to take you on a rocket ship ride, like that. and we've been on this rocket ship ride. now, i want you to be really smart. the one thing that i am is a business guy. and i'm going to tell you nothing that remains on straight up or straight down is healthy. so at the end of the day now, what i want you to do is change. and i want you to become on this lightning bolt ride with us, because that's where we will go. we're underfilling, and we're building in what should be built in. that's why tonight you're going to see that the budget that i propose to you is very, very conservative. very conservative. because nothing goes just like this. that $511 million, where we are today, where we are today, with our budget, we're okay. we're not knocking it out of the park in one way. but if you feel -- if you look at it and you say, we're comparing apples to what we did last year, and last year was all time record beyond belief, then we are knocking it out of the park. we've still got a lot of people to help. we're still lots and lots and lots of stuff to do. so i would say to you let's take off with the people that may very well be hurting the most. our medicaid fund has grown way beyond belief. we're on a pace to have an excess in the medicaid fund of $309 million by year end. if we don't watch out, we'll spend it. we'll come up with any way and every way to spend and spend and spend, because that's what all of us do. what i'm proposing tonight is something that is maybe not never done before but is surely seldom done. i am proposing tonight that i want to announce legislation to establish the medicaid families first reserve fund. and i want to lock away $150 million to ensure that always, those that are the most vulnerable, and i have a hard time with that word, my secretary/executive assistant pam will tell you that, but i want to lock away those dollars to be sure that we will always have vital services for those that are the most exposed and need the most help. if i can turn the table real quickly to jobs, jobs in this state are good. there's no question that they're moving in the right direction, and they're good. here's something that i want everyone, just as i did last year, to know. the business inventory and machinery tax is holding us back in some areas. we need to try. we need to try to find a solution to where we can either get on a glide path or quickly get on a better glide path to eliminate that tax if we can. [ applause ] we have to be careful. there's counties to consider. there's school boards. there's people that we absolutely wanting to protect. we've got to be careful. we've got to be careful of where we are with our general overall finances. we have to be careful and we've got to be smart. but i don't want there to be anyone to doubt that i would like it gone. i would like it gone, at least gone in time. now, we have 20,000 new jobs today in the state of west virginia. one of the reasons we have those jobs is a guy sitting behind me that's working at it every day and that is president carmichael who came up with the idea, you know, to let our kids go to college for free. it's working. it's one of the ideas that's just working. today we have an all-time high employment. all time. it just gets better and better and better. now, brother mitch, we got to have those kids. and you know we got to have them. we got to get them trained and we got to get them prepared for the workforce. we need more and more and more of them. the reason, if i were to say to you this, let's just -- let's just be fair and be real. what if i were to say to you, and it is nowhere in my notes, this is nowhere at all, and normally i wouldn't have any notes unless i was sweating and going to take a long time. but here's the thing. what if i were to say to you, in the state of west virginia, your severance tax dollars are going to be the lowest, the lowest that they've been in the last 25 years. and then i would say to you, how do you think you're doing? think about it. think about it. from the standpoint of the general revenue, the percentage of general revenue, we are the lowest in comparison to one another, we've been in 25 years. nowhere on these notes. i just know it. and yet, our state is doing better and better and better. tell you why. tell you exactly why. we've diversified. we're on the move. we've changed our image. there's all kind of things happening within the state of west virginia. now, do we want to do any and everything we can possibly do to create another coal job? absolutely. do we want to do anything and everything we can do to promote more and more gas and everything? absolutely we do. with the constraints, and remember i said early on, i'm a sportsman, i love the outdoors more than good sense. the last thing on earth i would ever want to do is harm the water, harm our environment. we've got to absolutely be absolutely aware of that all the time. now, if in fact we had the best unemployment in a decade, there's a big reason for that. and a lot of that reason is up here. and i'm not going to call names right yet but i just want you to just listen. northrop grumman is adding additional 500 jobs. procter & gamble is doing all kinds of great stuff. the great barrel company is up and going in white sulfur springs, west virginia. toyota has done great stuff. marquest is doing unbelievable stuff. pietro florentini, did i get that? pretty close. cornerstone and ramco, unbelievable what you're doing. if i could just touch just one second on one of them, ramaco. think about this just for a second. all of us think we can't burn any more coal because the world is rebelling in every way, shape, form and fashion against that. ramaco would tell you that coal, now get this, that coal is too expensive to burn. you're wasting an opportunity when you burn. i thought they were crazy when i was told that. but nevertheless, what they're saying is, they can make carbon fiber out of coal that is -- let me get this straight -- is four times as light as steel and twice as strong. they absolutely have a way to do things with coal that can be an alternative use for coal that it would be so perfect for us, it is unbelievable. wvu right now, i am announcing tonight, and i'm sure that everyone probably already knows, but they're going to develop and open a research facility at wvu to research just this. and not only that, ramaco is looking at the possibility of bringing one of these plants to southern west virginia. imagine that -- [ applause ] imagine this just for a second. imagine, well, we understand you can do something extra with coal but how much would you use? do you realize in the state of west virginia today we're probably on a run rate in west virginia today of 82, 85 million tons. probably a third of that is metallurgical tons. so say we've got 50 million steam coal tons. do you know how many tons are in america? 700 million. do you know how many they can use in this process? 125 million tons. it's unbelievable. it's unbelievable. if in fact it's real, it's unbelievable what the researchers are doing and they're doing it, they're making it, they're absolutely doing it right now in wyoming, and they're making it. so now, i would like, with heno motors' steve stallmaker, to stand. mark west,erwin osling, from pietro florentit, max embrosy in for cornerstone, ed sparks and craig zoglio and with ramaco, randy atkins. they are everywhere up here and give them a monstrous round of applause, please. [ applause ] okay. now, if i can switch channels just a little bit and say just this. i believe airports are our heart. they're our heart. there's lot of things that makes us really good. but the airports are everything to us. i've got to brag just a second on an airport that's phenomenal, what they're doing. we've put real dollars in yeager and they're doing great stuff. we've put real dollars in all kinds of different airports across our state and they're doing great stuff. but there is no place like north central west virginia airport at bridgeport. it is unbelievable, the opportunities and what they're doing. you know, they brought a presentation in to me and i immediately said go. they took that presentation and hit the ground running, in building a new terminal, building another 50 acres onto it. now, get this, they've got 1,200 employees from 22 of our counties up there right now. and they are going to grow and grow and grow and grow. they can't make a place fast enough that they don't have a tenant waiting to go. it's amazing. pratt and whitney just announced a $30 million expansion. they're going to build a new engine, i don't know what it does, it's a new modern, a futuristic engine that is phenomenal. bombardier and mitsubishi and aurora, they're all just cookin'. it's good stuff. it's great stuff. so if we can now recognize martin d. premio, i believe, david hinkle, county commissioner in harrison county and andy lang is the mayor of bridgepo bridgeport. and please, they're doing it. give them a giant round of applause. [ applause ] i've got to pass kudos back behind me again to a fellow, roger hanshaw. roger hanshaw's team has come up with a concept called mountain impact. it's a mountain impact fund. it is basically just this. you have a fund that becomes the bank that you can loan money and inspire people to invest within the state of west virginia and you can give all kinds of great return on their money that they invest. and you can bring money to our state like you can't imagine. it is an ingenious idea and i absolutely will fully support it. and roger, i thank you for it. y'all can clap, that's a big thing, guys. [ applause ] i've been with our president many times. i am looking for more and more and more and more jobs. at the end of the day, that's what you elected me for. that's what we are doing. i've been with our president on these occasions. we want to try to attract any federal agency that wants to get out of the craziness in d.c. and wants to find a good place to come to that has four unbelievable seasons and absolutely has good people and is within a rock's throw of d.c. and has all the greatness that we have, it's right here waiting on 'em. you see, this is true. we have changed ourselves from the state that was backward and having a tough time, dingy and dark. we have changed ourselves to become the diamond in the rough. the diamond that they thought they missed. and really now they're trying to find us. now, let me tell you one more thing. there's a company from wales. we talked about them before. they're an illumination company. they have a lighting concept that