I’m at WV Independence Hall in Wheeling for the Governor’s town hall, it starts at 12:00. 🧵
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@FolkReporters #folkreporter
There was someone waving a “Trump Won” flag on the corner outside.
This is a lot fuller then the Amendment 2 town hall he held here in November. In terms of notable people here that I’ve spotted, we have Randall Reid-Smith, the superintendents of both Marshall and Ohio County Schools, and the Mayor of Wheeling.
It’s noon now. No Governor yet. Now we start the clock at how late he’ll be.
There is a lawn chair next to the governors stool. Methinks that Babydog will be here!
Dave Hardy, Secretary of Revenue his here and speaking now. Talking about the financial hole we were in when they started. Now moving on to the surplus, talking himself and Gov. Justice up.
Hardy says that our state income tax is higher than our neighbors (will have to fact check that later).
Hardy says that we will cut the income tax this year by 30%. Wishful thinking that the Senate will consider it, being as Senators have said it’s DOA.
Hardy says their plan includes $700 million in backup funds for 3 years to make sure the tax cut is sustainable. Doesn’t say what we’d do if it turns out it’s not sustainable.
Hardy says that they will not be cutting the budget one dime. Which is true because adjusted for inflation we’ve cut the budget by many many dimes.
Also says that next year’s revenue projections account for a recession. Low balling estimates?
Gov. Justice and Babydog are here. Excuse me for a moment while I fangirl over Babydog.
Governor is awarding Distinguished West Virginian to someone (didn’t catch her name).
Gov. Is reminiscing about his time at Wheeling University.
Now moving on to the tax cut. Says we’re 2/3 of the way there.
“I don’t know how to tell you anything but the truth.”- Gov. Justice
If we got rid of the income tax, people would come “beyond belief”, attributes people living in surrounding states and not WV to the income tax. Ignores every other problem.
Someone asked if we can afford to cut taxes and fix PEIA (which Wheeling Hospital is dropping soon), and help k-3 Ed.
Gov. Says “our budget grows” (not true), talks about some new monies for ed in this years budget.
Gov. Says there is currently no fix for PEIA.
Someone asked about funding public ed. gov. Responds with talking about what we’ve done already.
Former Sen. Owens Brown is raising concerns over the tax cuts, suggesting the surplus would be better spent raising the pay of state workers, and talks about where PIT repeal failed in Kansas, asks what they learned from that.
Gov. More or less says we tried on pay raises with corrections officers and it failed in legislature.
Hardy now talking about the PIT cut failure in Kansas.
Hardy says that in Kansas that the legislature mangled their governors tax cut proposal and took out the safeguards the Governor proposed.
I asked what WV would do if in a few years the tax cut proved to be unsustainable. The Gov. Justice, appeared less than pleased with my question, already appearing irritated with former Sen. Brown’s question.
I didn’t get a real answer. He said that this tax cut will drive growth, that his numbers are sound, and more or less that it won’t fail.
He goes on about how Charleston would spend it on “pet projects”, it’d be wasteful spending with no growth. In other words there is no plan.
Someone else asked a question about early ed. Goes back to the fix all is the tax cut. Talks about how it’ll cause a population boom, and that’ll fix everything.
Someone else pushing on the early Ed question asking how we’ll increase daycare funding if we cut taxes. He’s irritated again.
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