Featured Issue: Economic Development Strategy Economic development in West Virginia is a joke. Cronyism is rampant. Venture capital is almost nonexistent, and what little we have is offered by the state first-come-first-serve to coal companies who get huge tax breaks and then pass on the capital to subsidiaries or supporting companies. Coal was West Virginia. Now, coal is killing West Virginia. Coal has never provided much in the way of tax revenue, and we have depended too much on what little comes in. Coal strangles economic diversity. The non-coal mining areas are the most diverse and prosperous, but they are being held back by our obsession with propping up the coal industry. I oppose the spread of gambling as an economic alternative, for it only leads to political corruption and the destruction of families and communities. I support repealing the Capital Company Act, reforming and increasing venture capital, giving tax breaks to small businesses rather than the coal industry, freeing up absentee owned land for economic development, redirecting the business schools of WVU and Marshall toward support for diversity rather than coal, making loans available to young entrepreneurs, using coal's final days in our state as a tax revenue cash-cow, and creating high-tech parks in older buildings like the Weston Hospital. I'd like to see West Virginia lead in the development of alternative agriculture - free range farming and new crop cultivation -- and alternative energy -- the manufacture of solar power and hydrogen fuel cells. A healthy economy is not a planned economy. No one could predict that Vermont would become a leading ice cream producer, but two guys started Ben and Jerry's as a small business and it grew from there. West Virginians can do the same things if we have the tools -- venture capital, small business tax credits, and land. There is no reason for us to lag behind in ideas. Ideas are free, and they create the economy. Back to Top