November 13th, 2024 by WCBC Radio
The November interim meetings of the West Virginia Legislature have wrapped up, with sessions held from Sunday through Tuesday this week. As the first gathering since the election, there was plenty of congratulating friends across the aisle and buzzing speculation about the changes the Morrisey administration may bring.
On Sunday we had a presentation on school safety, specifically from a company called Shooter Detection Systems. The company provides sensors that detect and report the location of a gun shot in a building and relay that information automatically. The more sensors the more accurate the information. The system was set up in the West Virginia Culture Center adjacent to the capitol and multiple blanks were shot from a real handgun to demonstrate. Many questions were asked. One was on cost, and it will be very high to implement. The other was on effectiveness, it was expressed that the system would struggle to detect a suppressed 22 long rifle shot. A 22 long rifle is the most common caliber weapon used in a crime. We are going to continue to investigate this and other systems.
The joint committee on Finance met and had several presentations. One that we have each month is on the state’s finances and we are hitting our estimates and the fiscal outlook for the state is strong. With Trump returning to office, we expect energy production to increase and prices to drop spurring more economic growth. Secretary of Tourism Chelsea Ruby presented on the state’s tourism industry, and it is booming with a 27% increase in West Virginia vs 9% nationally. Tourism is now over a $6 billion industry in West Virginia and that is raw numbers, not adjusted for impact. People traveling to West Virginia to vacation is making us more attractive to locate businesses here. When they visit, they know us, and when companies expand their people have been here and have a favorable opinion of the state for business location.
The state made two major investments in education over the past year. The first was with WVU to fund the National Cancer Institute, enabling WVU Medicine to expand cancer treatment statewide and participate in national clinical trials for new treatments. During a recent presentation, Albert Wright, President and CEO of WVU Medicine, confirmed that these trials won’t be limited to Morgantown—Mineral County will also have access to advanced cancer treatment trials, which is excellent news for our community and Potomac Valley Hospital.
The second investment went to the Cybersecurity Program at Marshall University, which will be one of only two such programs in the nation, alongside one in Texas, with significant federal involvement. Multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, will be directing hundreds of millions of dollars toward the program. This will drive Silicon Valley-type investment in the Huntington region, attracting both large and small tech companies. These initiatives represent tremendous progress for the state.
The Joint Committee on Government and Finance which is the leadership committee of the legislature also met, we had the same presentation as finance on the state’s fiscal health, and approved January and February interim meetings for 2025.
My final meeting was the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Tourism. We had a presentation on the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) on how to foster economic development and tourism through their grant programs. There are many projects that Mineral County could work on individually, but so far has not. There are also projects that could be worked on jointly with Maryland as ARC prioritizes some multistate initiatives.
I did set up additional meetings for Wednesday outside the normal interims that will be used to foster economic growth in the state, as they come to fruition, I will report on this in the future. In the meantime, if you have any questions, need help with a state agency, or just have an idea that you think would make the state better, please let me know. My contact is Gary.Howell@WVHouse.gov, and my phone is (304) 340-3191
