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 ] [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct privilege to welcome this evening his exlen seicelle the honorable james c. Justice. [ applause ] okay. If yall dont want to be here all night, sit down. They got me wired every way you can wire somebody up, which is good. You know, the first thing i would tell you is its 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. You know, before we go any further, id like to recognize my family. You know, i havent seen you and catherine since you got here. But my beautiful wife kathy, daughter jill, and her husband adam, daughterinlaw catherine, and our son, jay. [ applause ] without going long, you know, i would surely introduce my cabinet. And im 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 its off the chart. I had the opportunity to appoint three of these judges. Theyre good people. Theyve done lots and lots and lots of great stuff for our state as has our other two justices. So, at the end of the day, i salute you. I could never thank you you have in. I mean, really and truly, we were in a storm and youre pulling us out of it very proudly. Thank you so much. [ applause ] now, because i dont 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 HealthCare Coverage which is why today im asking the legislature to advance initiative that he has championed. And that is to ensure that the people with preexisting conditions in this state, even though you may have loved obamacare or maybe you didnt, surely all of us can agree on one thing. And that is just this West Virginians should be protected against preexisting conditions, so please do that. And if Patrick Morrissey could stand wherever patrick is over here. Okay. [ applause ] our secretary of state mike warner is here, and mike has made a mission to ensure the integrity of West Virginians elections and protect them from Cyber Security threats. Matt is a champion at that and we know that. So, if our secretary of state matt warner could stand, please. [ applause ] our auditor j. B. Mccusskey. J. B. Has made one thing for sure and that is us to be transparent, transparent with all the states finances. We dont need to hide anything, and j. B. Secures the fact that we wont do that. So, give him a big round of applause. Commissioner kentley. We have so many opportunities in agriculture and he knows it. Every time i see him, hes 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. And our treasurer john purdue. John sis a friend. Hes 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. Its unbelievable. Hes done the job forever. Hes done a great job. Im very proud to call him a friend. John. [ applause ] now, im looking real hard, and i cant find craig blair. But i really wouldnt have been a bit surprised to have seen him here. I mean, hes a tough nut, thats 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. Hes a tough guy. Im really proud to call him my friend. And craig, if youre watching and everything, just know that everybody here just cant wait until you get back and theyre 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 have 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 youve made for nothing other than your love for this state. Please stand, all those. [ applause ] well, before i get into all the nittygritty, i want to just tell you just a little quick story thats more about me. You know, its easy to figure jim out. Im not a politician. I really dont 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. 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 here 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. Im a sportsman. I love the outdoors. The Second Amendment is engrained in me forevermore. There is no question about it, whether you love me or dont love me, its 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 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 theres no place for antisemitism in my watch. [ applause ] so, let me show you this. Youre going to say oh, my gosh, justice is doing it again. Do you remember this . Oh, i dont know where the other is. Hold on, now. I hope that wont 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 jessie, West Virginia, a little hillside nothing. And we went to the grave site, kathy and i, and we were leaving. For those of you that have forgotten, there was a lady standing at the bridge. There was a guardrail there. She had leaned up against that guardrail several fishing rods, some carhartt cover alls, she had this tackle box and this ax. Little daughter standing beside her didnt know where to turn. I stopped. I gave her 100 for that ax and 100 for this tackle box and put them in my car. Everywhere ive gone, even down here tonight, they rode right with me. Now, im telling you that lady looked at me and she said, mr. , youll never know how much i appreciate this, but you have no idea how bad im hurting. Now, let me just say this. When i walked in the door and if i could just drop this, so dont jump. When i walked in the door, things were pretty tough. And im not patting myself on the back in any way. Weve 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, weve 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, lets remember that lady. Remember her little daughter. And just remember how good and how strong we are today. You he deserve so much credit. I can 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 its growing stronger every single day. [ applause ] now, imagine personal income last year, in 2019, grew 3 billion thats with a b 3 billion in this state. Unbelievable. Revenue growth went up 511 million. Thats 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. 5 times the previous ten years put together. Unbelievable. Now, think about it. Since weve walked in the door, weve been able to put 113 million in the rainy day fund. Weve put 100 million in peia. Unbelievable. Were going the way we ought to go. Now, ive 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 weve been on that rocket ship ride. Now, i want you to be really smart. The one thing that i am is a business guy. And im 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 thats where we will go. Were underfilling and were building in what should be built in. Thats why tonight youre 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 and where we are today, where we are today with our budget, were okay. Were not knocking it out of the park in one way, but if you feel if you look at it and you say were comparing apples to what we did last year and last year was alltime record beyond belief, then we are knocking it out of the park. Weve still got a lot of people to help. Were still lots and lots and lots of stuff to do. So, i would say to you lets take off with the people that may very well be hurting the most. Our Medicaid Fund has grown way beyond belief. Were on a pace to have an excess in the Medicaid Fund of 309 million by year end. If we dont watch out, well spend it. Well come up with any way and every way to spend and spend and spend because thats what all of us do. What im 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 familys 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 could turn the table real quickly to jobs, jobs in this state are good. Theres no question that theyre moving in the right direction and theyre good. Heres 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 guide path to eliminate that tax if we can. [ applause ] we have to be careful. Theres counties to consider. Theres school boards. Theres people that we absolutely want to protect. Weve got to be careful. Weve got to be careful of where we are with our general overall finances. We have to be careful. Weve got to be smart. But i dont 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 had that job is a guy sitting behind me working at it every day, and that is president carmichael who came up with the idea to let our kids go to college for free. Its working. Its one of the ideas thats just working. Today we have an alltime high employment, alltime. It just gets better and better and better. Now, weve got to have those kids and you know weve got to have them. Weve got to get them trained, and weve got to get them prepared for the work force. We need more and more and more of them. The reason if i were to say to you this, lets just be fair and be real. What if i were to say to you this is nowhere in my notes. This is nowhere at all. Normally i wouldnt have any notes unless i was sweating and going to take a long time. But but heres 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 that theyve been in the last 25 years. And then i would say to you how do you think youre 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 weve been in 25 years. Nowhere on these notes. I just know it. And yet our states doing better and better and better. Tell you why. Tell you exactly why. Weve diversified. Were on the move. Weve changed our image. Theres all kinds 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 to promote more and more gas and everything . Absolutely we do. With the constraints and remember i said early on im 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 have to be absolutely aware of that all the time. Now, if in fact we had the best unemployment in a decade, theres a big reason for that and a lot of that reason is up here. And im not going to call names right yet, but i just want you to just listen. Adding additional 500 jobs, Procter Gamble is doing all kinds of great stuff, the Great Barrel Company is up and going, toyota has done great stuff, mark mar quest is doing unbelievable stuff, pierreto did i get that right . Cornerstone and ramico, unbelievable what youre doing. If i could just touch just one second on one of them, ramico, think about this just for a second. All of us think we cant burn anymore coal because the world is rebelling in every way, shape, form, or fashion against that. Ramico would tell you that coal get this that goal is too expensive to burn. You are wasting an opportunity when you burn it. I thought they were crazy when i was talking about that. Nevertheless what theyre 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 would be so perfect for us it is unbelievable. Wvu right now, i am announcing tonight and im sure everybody probably already knows, but theyre going to develop and open a Research Facility at wvu to Research Just this. And not only that, ramico is looking at the possibility of bringing one of these plants to southern West Virginia. Imagine that we [ applause ] imagine this just for a second. Imagi imagine, well, we understand you can do something extra with coal but how much would you use. Do you realize that in the state of West Virginia today were probably on a run rate in West Virginia today of about 82, 85 million tons. Probably a third of that is is metallurgical tons. Say weve got 50 million steam coltons. Do you know how many times are in america . 700 million. Do you know how many they can use in this process . 125 million tons. Its unbelievable. Its unbelievable. If, in fact, its real, its unbelievable what the researchers are doing, and theyre doing it, theyre making it. Theyre absolutely doing it right now in wyoming and theyre making it. So, now id like steve stallmaker to stand, marquest, irw irwin, max, rhoda steward, ed sparks, and craig zoglio i got that one and 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. Theyre our heart. Theres lots of things that make us really good. But the airports are everything to us. Ive got to brag just a second on an airport thats phenomenal what theyre doing. Weve put real dollars in yeager and theyre doing great stuff. Weve put real dollars in all kinds of different airports across our state and theyre doing great stuff. But there is no place like North CentralWest Virginia airport at bridgeport. It is unbelievable the opportunities and what theyre 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, buildi building another 50 acres on to it. Now, get this. Theyve 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 cant make a place fast enough that they dont have a tenant waiting to go. Its amazing. You know, pratton whitley Just Announced a new expansion. Theyre going to build a new modern i dont know what in the world it does. But its a new engine thats phenomenal. Theyre all just cooking. Its good stuff. Its great stuff. So if we can now recognize martin d. Frammio, david hinkle, county commissioner in harrison commissioner, and andy lang is the mayor of bridgeport. Please, theyre doing it. Give them a giant round of applause. [ applause ] ive got to pass kudos to a fella behind me roger hanshaw. His team came up with a concept called mountain impact. Its a mountain impact fund. Its basically just this it is you have a fund that becomes the bank that you can loan money and inspire people to invest within the state of