...here's a look at WV today:
Cliche: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. In that order.
THE GOOD. One WV bright spot is state Senate President Jeff Kessler's initiative to promote economic diversity and revival in the southern coalfields. Here's a supportive editorial from the Beckley WV newspaper.
THE BAD. God (and the gas industry) only know what kind of toxic crap is being generously shared in WV's northern gas lands. We owe our lack of knowledge of such things to that universally beloved benefactor of the human race, to wit, former vice president Dick Cheney.
THE UGLY. That's easy: WV elections, where truth is the first casualty.
Showing posts with label senate president Jeff Kessler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label senate president Jeff Kessler. Show all posts
October 25, 2014
October 16, 2014
More on the southern coalfields
Lots of people even beyond WV are starting to track the situation in the southern coalfields, where mining jobs have been dramatically declining. Something about this piece by environmental writer David Roberts in Grist rubbed me the wrong way, at least a little.
It looks like I'm not the only one. Two people I think highly of responded at some length, Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo and WV native Jeremy Richardson with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
On a more positive note, WV Senate President Jeff Kessler announced the formation of a 13 member senate task force on the southern coalfields going by the acronym SCORE (Southern Coalfields Organizing and Revitalizing the Economy), which will hold listening sessions with coalfield residents and develop legislative proposals to assist the region. SCORE is modeled in part on Kentucky's SOAR (Save Our Appalachian Region) program.
Some ideas the group will explore include
It looks like I'm not the only one. Two people I think highly of responded at some length, Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo and WV native Jeremy Richardson with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
On a more positive note, WV Senate President Jeff Kessler announced the formation of a 13 member senate task force on the southern coalfields going by the acronym SCORE (Southern Coalfields Organizing and Revitalizing the Economy), which will hold listening sessions with coalfield residents and develop legislative proposals to assist the region. SCORE is modeled in part on Kentucky's SOAR (Save Our Appalachian Region) program.
Some ideas the group will explore include
Increase funding for tourism advertising and development.
Education and workforce development and retraining initiatives.
Dedicating monies for viable redevelopment projects.
Agribusiness and rural development opportunities.
Increase Broadband access.
Expanding and supporting intermodal transportation.Explore development of coalbed methane reserves.
Support clean coal research and development.Kessler and his fellow senators deserve a lot of credit for taking this on. You can find more about SCORE here and here.
October 10, 2014
Who knew? Three thoughts on WV and marriage equality
1. Let yesterday's WV marriage equality reversal be a lesson to everyone, including me, that things that are impossible are impossible until they aren't. It's another reminder that we live in an open universe where all kinds of wild and unexpected stuff that we didn't see coming can and will happen.
2. Deja vu. Yesterday, I spoke on the phone with a friend about WV Governor Tomblin's statement on the issue, which I thought was short, to the point, and hit just the right notes. We both agreed that it reminded us of a statement of another WV governor, one of our heroes, at a similar moment, i.e. when the US Supreme court ruled on school desegregation in the 1954.
While many southern politicians used the decision as an opportunity to demonstrate their bigotry, Gov. William C. Marland basically said that we would comply with the law of the land. At a press conference that included the state superintendent of schools and representatives of WV's African American community, he pledged that the state would do "whatever is right and proper under the Supreme Court's decree," adding that "I rather think the people of West Virginia will accept the decision and carry on the best they can."
(Marland, by the way, had some reversals in his time. He tried to get the coal industry to...horrors!...pay its fair share in severance taxes and was hounded for it. After his controversial term and struggles with alcoholism, he was discovered to be working as a taxi driver in Chicago. His fortunes later improved, although he died prematurely of cancer in 1965.)
3. It's only fair to recognize another state leader, WV Senate President Jeff Kessler, who for years has been a true leader in advocating for equality and an end to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Kessler issued this statement yesterday.
2. Deja vu. Yesterday, I spoke on the phone with a friend about WV Governor Tomblin's statement on the issue, which I thought was short, to the point, and hit just the right notes. We both agreed that it reminded us of a statement of another WV governor, one of our heroes, at a similar moment, i.e. when the US Supreme court ruled on school desegregation in the 1954.
While many southern politicians used the decision as an opportunity to demonstrate their bigotry, Gov. William C. Marland basically said that we would comply with the law of the land. At a press conference that included the state superintendent of schools and representatives of WV's African American community, he pledged that the state would do "whatever is right and proper under the Supreme Court's decree," adding that "I rather think the people of West Virginia will accept the decision and carry on the best they can."
(Marland, by the way, had some reversals in his time. He tried to get the coal industry to...horrors!...pay its fair share in severance taxes and was hounded for it. After his controversial term and struggles with alcoholism, he was discovered to be working as a taxi driver in Chicago. His fortunes later improved, although he died prematurely of cancer in 1965.)
3. It's only fair to recognize another state leader, WV Senate President Jeff Kessler, who for years has been a true leader in advocating for equality and an end to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Kessler issued this statement yesterday.
July 23, 2014
A ground game
I'm in the midst of traipsing up, down and across the state of West Virginia these days going to and presenting at a series of regional policy workshops organized by the Our Children Our Future Campaign to End Child Poverty in West Virginia. Over the last two years, our campaign has won quite a few victories, which just leaves us hungry for more.
Here's some coverage of the campaign and policy workshops by WV Public Broadcasting. If you take a look, you'll notice that the campaign got some pretty powerful endorsements from state Senate President Jeff Kessler and House Speaker Tim Miley, both of whom have been champions on many of our issues.
In a nutshell, the campaign tries to work on winnable issues that are impactful and engage those families most affected by the policies in question. It's nice to be part of an effort to build a statewide ground game that can make its presence felt as needed any time, whether at the capitol or in the community. But it does require that you put in the time. And the miles.
Here's some coverage of the campaign and policy workshops by WV Public Broadcasting. If you take a look, you'll notice that the campaign got some pretty powerful endorsements from state Senate President Jeff Kessler and House Speaker Tim Miley, both of whom have been champions on many of our issues.
In a nutshell, the campaign tries to work on winnable issues that are impactful and engage those families most affected by the policies in question. It's nice to be part of an effort to build a statewide ground game that can make its presence felt as needed any time, whether at the capitol or in the community. But it does require that you put in the time. And the miles.
July 08, 2013
Of policies, the personal and the political
There is a saying around here that "In West Virginia everything's political except politics and that's personal." I have a feeling that may be true of other places as well.
A political/personal shakeup has helped build momentum for an idea that I've been working with allies for years to promote, i.e. creating a permanent mineral trust fund, better known as a Future Fund.
The planets began to shift when House Speaker Rick Thompson resigned to take another post in state government. Former House Judiciary Chair Tim Miley was elected to take his post. The Future Fund was championed by Senate President Jeff Kessler but didn't gain traction in the House under Thompson's leadership.
(The fact that Kessler ran for governor against Thompson using the Future Fund as a platform plank may have had something to do with the former speaker's lukewarmness to the idea. Miley, by contrast, has no such baggage and is from an area where shale gas drilling has taken off. He seems to get it.)
We're a long way from there yet, but the tea leaves are encouraging. Here's some coverage from the WV News Service. Two other articles have recently run in the Beckley Register Herald. In chronological order, they can be found here and here.
ONE FOR THE ROAD. Here's a good item from WV Public Radio about Breece Pancake, my homey and IMHO WV's best writer.
NOTE. I'm trying to take some time off this week so posts may be irregular. Next stop...Montreal!
GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED
A political/personal shakeup has helped build momentum for an idea that I've been working with allies for years to promote, i.e. creating a permanent mineral trust fund, better known as a Future Fund.
The planets began to shift when House Speaker Rick Thompson resigned to take another post in state government. Former House Judiciary Chair Tim Miley was elected to take his post. The Future Fund was championed by Senate President Jeff Kessler but didn't gain traction in the House under Thompson's leadership.
(The fact that Kessler ran for governor against Thompson using the Future Fund as a platform plank may have had something to do with the former speaker's lukewarmness to the idea. Miley, by contrast, has no such baggage and is from an area where shale gas drilling has taken off. He seems to get it.)
We're a long way from there yet, but the tea leaves are encouraging. Here's some coverage from the WV News Service. Two other articles have recently run in the Beckley Register Herald. In chronological order, they can be found here and here.
ONE FOR THE ROAD. Here's a good item from WV Public Radio about Breece Pancake, my homey and IMHO WV's best writer.
NOTE. I'm trying to take some time off this week so posts may be irregular. Next stop...Montreal!
GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED
January 31, 2012
An idea for the future
The WV Center on Budget and Policy has been making noise for a while now about how our state can position itself to benefit for the long haul from extractive industries by creating a permanent mineral tax trust fund.
The basic idea is pretty simple, although it could be done in many different ways: set aside a portion of severance taxes for the fund, allow it to build over time and use the interest to fund vital projects. Several states, mostly out west, have already done this and are reaping the benefits.
As a new report from the Center on the subject argues,
A bill to do something like that has been introduced in the state senate, where it was sponsored by senate president Jeff Kessler. Here's hoping the bill makes it. Forward thinking like this is long overdue in West Virginia.
As I've said before in an op-ed for the Gazette, if WV had done something like this decades ago with coal, the southern part of the state might look like Shangri-la by now.
The basic idea is pretty simple, although it could be done in many different ways: set aside a portion of severance taxes for the fund, allow it to build over time and use the interest to fund vital projects. Several states, mostly out west, have already done this and are reaping the benefits.
As a new report from the Center on the subject argues,
Without a permanent fund, the economic benefit from the natural resource extraction will decline along with the natural resources themselves.
A bill to do something like that has been introduced in the state senate, where it was sponsored by senate president Jeff Kessler. Here's hoping the bill makes it. Forward thinking like this is long overdue in West Virginia.
As I've said before in an op-ed for the Gazette, if WV had done something like this decades ago with coal, the southern part of the state might look like Shangri-la by now.
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