September 13, 2000
Lack
of local ownership blamed for state's troubles
by
Brian Bowling, Charleston Daily Mail
For Mountain Party gubernatorial
candidate Denise Giardina, most of West Virginia's problems, such
as low education levels or meager job growth, are the effects of a
more fundamental problem -- out-of-state land ownership.
It's no accident that
the counties with the best economies have relatively few large tracts
of land owned by out-of-state companies, she said Tuesday in a meeting
with the Charleston Daily Mail editorial board.
"We have never had the
economy we should have, the diversity of economy we should have, because
of that," Giardina said.
In the Southern coalfields,
in particular, economic development is doomed before it starts because
more than 80 percent of the property is owned by a handful of companies,
she said.
The government can spend
as much money as it wants trying to develop entrepreneurship in those
areas, but it will be a futile effort until land ownership is broken
up, Giardina said.
"You can't develop businesses
in a place where no one locally owns the land," she said.
In some cases, the state
may need to target areas for economic development and use its right
of eminent domain to force the current land owners to sell the property
so it can be developed, she said.
Giardina, 48, was born
in Bluefield and grew up in McDowell County. She holds a master's
degree in theology from Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal)
in Alexandria, Va., and a bachelor's degree in history and political
science from West Virginia Wesleyan College.
She is a writer-in-residence
at West Virginia State College and has four published novels. She
was once a clerk for her Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Bob Wise,
D-W.Va.
On a questionnaire she
filled out before Tuesday's meeting, her list of community service
work includes "activist against mountaintop removal."
"I see no need to flatten
more mountains," she told the editorial board.
Giardina said that if
she's elected governor she would allow the existing mountaintop removal
mining operations to work out their permits, but she wouldn't willingly
grant any new ones until every site already mined had been reclaimed
and put to some economic use.
The problem with economic
development in the coalfields isn't the lack of flat land, it's who
owns the land, she said in coming back to her main theme.
Other than the state selectively
forcing the sale of properties so they could be developed, Giardina
said she would favor excess acreage taxes and other taxes aimed at
large landowners to encourage them to put land into production or
sell it to someone who will.
In another 20 years, coal
will be as outdated as an energy source as electric typewriters are
in this computer age, she said. The country will rely on a combination
of wind power, hydrogen fuel cells and other alternative energy sources,
she said.
While there are questions
about how and when this will happen, there's no question about whether
mining is on its way out in West Virginia, Giardina said.
In the interim, the state
should maximize the benefits it receives from the waning industry
while minimizing the damage it will leave behind, she said.
With regard to the election,
Giardina said her campaign has attracted considerable attention outside
the state partly because many colleges use her novels in their courses
and partly because Minnesota's Jesse Ventura has shown an independent
can win a modern gubernatorial election.
Ventura, however, had
at least two advantages that she doesn't have, Giardina said.
One was $300,000 in public
campaign financing that allowed him to get his message out to the
public. Giardina said she picks up voters every time she gets a chance
to talk to the public, so the financing is crucial.
"With $300,000, I could
win this election," she said.
Instead, she has spent
about $20,000, and most of her campaign contributions are considerably
less than the $500 and $1,000 contributions that Gov. Cecil Underwood
and U.S. Rep. Bob Wise are drawing in, Giardina said.
Ventura's other advantage
was a debate system that included him instead of focusing exclusively
on the Republican and Democratic candidates, she said. His performance
in those eight debates helped Ventura overcome the stereotypes that
plague third-party and independent candidates, she said.
If elected, Giardina said
she would staff her administration with people usually excluded by
the party-controlled appointment process. Instead of going through
the local Democratic and Republican parties to find the next crop
of public officials, she would advertise the positions, hold town
meetings and take recommendations from civic groups, she said.
"I think there are plenty
of people out there (willing to serve). They just don't have a chance
to get involved," Giardina said.
Due to scheduling conflicts,
other candidates for governor will meet with the Daily Mail at a later
date.
Published in the Charleston
Daily Mail
