Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the governor of our great state. After trying all summer to obtain an interview, my persistence finally paid off.
When I first arrived at the Capitol, I was a little nervous. I took one of my friends, and we really had no idea where we to go. I had been told to check in at the Governor's reception room, but there seemed to be three of those. When we found the right one, we checked in with the receptionist, who was the very helpful. As soon as she saw me, she knew who I was and what my purpose was.
Once I was directed to a seat, I felt like royalty. Every 10 minutes, someone would stop by and ask if I needed anything. I truly felt special.
After a good 30-minute wait, we were met by one of the Governor's press secretaries. He was extremely nice and told us what to expect.
We were told the interview was going to be in Gov. Manchin's office. His office is not your typical office. First of all, it's huge! It has a huge TV screen, intimidating looking chairs and a lovely fireplace. His desk is massive.
When I sat down, I felt like I was about to be interrogated by the mafia. However, Gov. Manchin definitely wasn't that intimidating after all. He is one of the nicest men you will ever meet. He answered all of my questions thoroughly, taking the time to make sure I understand his response. He even stayed afterward for a picture session.
Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome of my interview. I hope you guys enjoy the Q & A session as much as I did.
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Q: Besides the possibility of having to pay back the Promise, will there be any changes in the scholarship's requirements in the future?
A: Every year, the Legislature and the Promise Board look at the overall performance in the state, looking to see if we've achieved what we had hoped to by having our best and brightest go to school in West Virginia. We're just monitoring that now to see the effects of how many are staying in the state, how many are finding jobs, and how we can better place them.
My concern has always been that unless we're able to keep the best and brightest we've invested into, it will be hard to diversify the Promise, to get the growth that's needed in order for us to diversify. Without that, it's going to be hard to put in the investment to create new jobs. We've got to have a sustainable work force -- an educated sustainable work force -- if we want to grow.
Even before I was governor, there have always been adjustments made because of the money concern. And there's been a debate over should there just be a flat rate that every student that wins the Promise gets X amount of dollars and can use them any way they want to in the state of West Virginia at any school or does it pay no matter what? They have looked at a lot of our tuitions and seen that they have gone up tremendously. The perception has been because [the universities] know that with the Promise Scholarship [they're able to do that].
There are so many other people in need, in hardship, though. If you don't get a Promise Scholarship, then it raises the price as far as tuition goes, and it makes it very, very difficult for people who didn't get the Promise to go to college.
So it's just a balance. They're looking at that. I haven't seen any recommendations. We've always weighed the recommendations and we will do that before the Legislature convenes next year.
I think the Promise will be reviewed every year. I don't think people have to worry about Promise going away. We've committed X amount of dollars, actually over $40 million a year now. It started out at $19 million and it's up to $40 million now. They're watching it very carefully along those lines, but making sure that students are hopefully staying. Are we recruiting the best and the brightest? Are we connecting with all the job opportunities we have in our state? Those are all things that need to be done. And most of all, are the four-year colleges in WV being careless in their increases of tuition?
Q: If you go to school out of state, but have intentions of coming back to work, why doesn't the Promise cover that?
A: The whole of the Promise and the money that comes from the Promise is the video lottery, an illegal procedure that was going on in West Virginia for a long time. And so that was one piece of public policy that the administration before me were working on at that time, and then trying to find the best cause for the resources that would come from that.
With that, the Promise was designed around a lot of other states. It wasn't something we invented. A lot of states have this. It's basically all we have to promote our own state schools anyway. It was a way to reward young people who have done well and maybe set certain criteria. The Promise is a way to get the money in West Virginia, but most importantly, keep the best and brightest in the West Virginia school system.
But with that being said, I would assume that the public policy that they adopted back then was to take a procedure that was illegal and use the resources from it in the best manner for society.
That's something they should look into though. Let's say you qualify for the Promise. The tax credits could become available to you when you come back. When you come back with an education and are working, you should be working at a higher salary than a non-educated person.
That's interesting! That's something to write down and check on -- throw it by the Promise Board because that might kind of dovetail into our "Come Home to West Virginia" effort. It's not just people who are retiring. We want young people to come back. And if for some reason the best and the brightest leave and did not use any of their money, we can offset some of that for personal tax credits if they come back. Let's say that you owe $5,000 to the state of West Virginia, we might have credits of $20,000, and that would give you a balance of $15,000. This is all something to look into.
Q: What is the state doing to provide jobs for the future of West Virginia?
A: First of all, I know we need to have more utilization of technology. We need more people literate in technology. And we need all of that state to have wireless broadband high-speed Internet. I made a commitment in the 2005 State of the State Address that by 2010 we will have it statewide, and we're doing some great things.
We have to diversify. We've relied forever on extraction of coal, gas, oil, and heavy manufacturing jobs. And it's a changing market. West Virginia has a tremendous work ethic and they're very loyal people and they're very committed and dedicated to their families, which is why most people want to stay in West Virginia. And we've always been able to enjoy that.
Now, with that being said, are we creating the opportunities? I think your job market, the opportunities you're going to have in the job market, is going to be tremendously different than ours. But you need to be wired in. If you're not wired in, you're not going to be able to compete for a job anywhere around the world. You should be able to do it from right here in the state. So we're preparing ourselves for that new world and new state of economy.
Q: How are you working to combat West Virginia's obesity problem, especially among children and teens?
A: First of all, we identified that in my very first State of the State Address. We knew we had child obesity. We can teach the students how to read or write, but are we spending any amount of time or effort to teach you how to take care of yourself, to eat nutritionally, to exercise, and why it's so important to do that on a daily basis? Then, we started looking at whether we really know where you are, as far as in your health.
This year, West Virginia asked for a wavier to use our CHIPS money -- which is the Children's Health Insurance Program -- to screen every child coming into kindergarten, second, fifth and eighth grades to try to keep them on a healthy lifestyle path. If we can teach them, watch them, monitor them, and show them the results of where they are and what direction they're going in and where they're going to be in life, they may either change or continue to be like that. So we're trying to intervene. The state is working extremely hard because we think it's that important. Intervention and prevention are by far the best for all parties concerned.
Q: Charleston was recently named one of the top 10 dying cities in America. As the head of our state, how do you feel knowing that the Capital City is considered to be non-progressive?
A: I'm not sure that that's a fair evaluation; I really am not. I say all the time that I see this as a great city, and I've been watching it grow. I've also been watching what's happening with all the venues that are coming in and all the artists and performers that we have. We have to have a vibrant public arts community for them. FestivALL, Multifest, the Clay Center -- all the different venues that we have help Charleston to really diversify itself.
With that being said, we have lost a number of manufacturers. If you look at Charleston 20, 30, 40 years ago, manufacturing was at the heart of the city. Now, the manufacturing is gone. That's a tremendous loss. It's not just happening here; it's happening all around the country.
But we have not died. We've dwindled in size because of the good-paying jobs we've lost, but we're rebirthing ourselves if you will. We're doing everything in our power to fix it.
Q: Why is it that gas is sometimes 10-20 cents higher here than in Kentucky and Ohio? Is it the difference in taxes?
A: There's not that much difference in taxes, first of all. Taxes are not what are doing this. The problem is supply and demand and delivery and refinery. It's absolutely the most baffling thing that I've dealt with. I truly believe a lot of it is how oil is traded on the international market. But to explain the local variances, states that border us, it's been explained to me that it's because of the refineries that our gas is more expensive. We only have one refinery in the state, and that really hurts us.
Q: What can we do to change the nation's negative perception of the state?
A: We're working hard trying to educate people on who we are. We're one of the few states right now that have been so positive with our financial situation. We've got a good financial picture; we've reduced our taxes, paid down our debt, and got our finances under control. We've got a long way to go, but everything in the state we have is moving positively. We just have to keep up the positive perception to people who haven't taken the time to evaluate where we come from and where we are. It'd be one thing to say the negative perception; it's another thing to say the facts are this. This is where we were 5, 6, 7 years ago, this is where we are today. It's still not where we want to be or need to be, but we've gone from there to here. We haven't gone down, we've gone up. We just have to continue to work. This didn't happen overnight, or as quickly as I would like to see it, but the state is moving.
