They like to sit down with the prospective employer, ask what they want, try like hell to give it to them, and stand side by side with the business when they make an announcement.
Our current Governor, Joe Manchin is a slight improvement over Rockefeller, Caperton, and Wise as he seems to finally understand the folly of giving a business a wheelbarrow full of money to come to our state, but he still tries to create incentive packages.
By his own admission, it took years for Senator Rockefeller, and two West Virginia Governors (Wise and Manchin) to convince Toyota to locate a vehicle assembly plant in West Virginia. This week they finally announced that they are building a plant in Williamstown, WV. The net result? 80 good paying jobs.
Our state's illustrious leaders busted their tails for years to land 80 jobs, meanwhile Mingo and McDowell County will lose a net of 130 as the Ben Creek Mining Complex was recently sold by Arch Coal to Alpha Natural Resources.
Peabody announced they are getting out of West Virginia, and this announcement by Arch Coal seems to reflect a trend of them leaving the state, also. From all these companies, we keep hearing the same refrain: We are leaving Central Appalachia for the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Australia.
Alpha plans to operate Mountaineer as a three-section mine using continuous mining machines. The other mine included in the deal is expected to be depleted by the end of the year and Alpha has said it will be replaced with a new mine in January. Alpha expects to produce about 1 million tons of coal a year after it takes over.
The company has said it expects to retain about 150 jobs at the complex, which currently employs about 280, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Didn't our Governor just raise severance taxes on coal a few short years ago?
Building an economy where local economic authorities negotiate with every employer one by one, and luring businesses by waiving our state's restrictive taxes and regulations passed by a legislature dominated by Delegates and Senators endorsed by union bosses for the last 75 years is no way to turn things around here.
If prospective businesses didn't face the business and franchise tax, the inventory tax, a high corporate net income tax, and a strong regulatory burden, they would locate here without being held by the hand of our political leaders. Of course, maybe that's what the political leaders DON'T want!
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