What I will say is we are very committed to providing options
for our students, parents and teachers. We are absolutely positive
that our children, our parents and our teachers are as gifted,
talented and blessed as any other Americans. We should not
be at the bottom in rankings; we can do so much better. And
we are not coming up with some wild-haired, crazy idea to
move our state forward. We are utilizing best practices that
have been implemented in other states and bringing forward
those ideas and concepts to West Virginia to provide more
incentives for our students to do better.
WVE: What types of legislation do we need to pass
to be able to diversify our economy?
MC: We have passed legislation that creates innovation zones
or opportunity zones that incentivize entrepreneurial activity
within those enterprise zones. We can also expand our infra-
structure projects to make sure we have available business
parks and developed land readily available. Senate Bill 1 is the
centerpiece for ensuring a diverse economy. A big aspect of the
bill was ensuring that programs funded through it were ones
we had an economic need for, seeing the types of businesses
we can attract and growing and trying to steer our workforce
in that direction.
WVE: What were some of the low points of the
2019 session?
MC: The first thing that comes to mind is the aspect of not
obtaining the final passing of the comprehensive education
reform bill. I guess I don’t characterize it necessarily as a low
point as much as I do an opportunity to continue working
on it. One always wishes he or she could have achieved it
earlier and quicker and all those kinds of things, but I think
we are moving in the right direction.
One low point for me was certainly the failure to pass a bill
that implements an intermediate court of appeals. West Virginia
is one of a handful of states that does not have an intermediate
court of appeals, and that’s one of the areas of our civil jus-
tice reform initiatives that must be achieved at some point. As
one looks back over the past year, a lot of monumental things
happened as it relates to the impeachment process with the
Supreme Court. Those are low points, but I think we handled
them in the most expeditious, efficient, professional manner
possible. Hopefully we made the people of West Virginia proud
in the manner we did it.
WVE: How can West Virginians play a bigger role
in the legislative process?
MC: I think West Virginians need to make their views known
to their representatives. What has transpired in the past is that
our state has been heavily influenced by special interest groups.
The best thing that can happen for West Virginia is for our
citizens to say, “I’m going to keep myself informed on these
things and develop my own opinion.” West Virginia can be
the greatest state in America. We have all of these unique and
special advantages, and yet we are held back by the old-style
status quo mentality. We know we can be better.
WVE: What opportunities do you see for West Vir-
ginia, and how can we embrace them?
MC: We have so much opportunity here, and we are sur-
rounded by prosperity in Pittsburgh, Columbus and Charlotte.
All we have to do is get our policies, regulatory schemes and
tax structure on par with the surrounding states, and we will
climb the economic ladder to success. The focus is going to need
to be on high-tech jobs and continued growth in our manufac-
turing industry, construction industry and health care fields.
WVE: Are there any bills that didn’t make it through
in 2019 that will be a priority in 2020?
MC: The mechanisms to deliver the services of state govern-
ment. One of the things we are not doing a good job on is our
roads and transportation network. The people of West Virginia
are justifiably frustrated with the condition of our roads, and
we must do a better job of managing that delivery of services
as it relates to roads and transportation. The governor’s office
is responsible for making it happen while we are responsible
for funding it and ensuring the rules and regulations about
how those services are delivered are competitive and that the
workers can do their jobs. It’s an extreme focus for us that we
take care of the roads.
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