WVGOP Think Tank coming to the Potomac Highlands

The WVGOP Think Tank is the official think tank of the West Virginia Republican Party, and is visiting the Potomac Highlands to get your input. The WVGOP Think Tank is dedicated to gathering and sharing the ideas and visions of Republicans across the state as we work to develop a plan for victory in 2010 and beyond.

It is dedicated to including the thoughts and ideas of all Republicans who wish to attend the meeting. Our energies will be devoted to working with all Republicans, and increasing Republican influence in government.

Republicans can, and will, legitimately disagree. The goal of finding common ground in battling our opposition and winning the hearts and minds of West Virginians.

We invite you to join us in those efforts. April 22nd, 2009 at 7:00 at Grand Central Business Center, 2nd Floor Meeting Room, 1 E Piedmont St. Keyser, WV 26726. Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP by calling (304) 788-6554 or (304) 788-2513

Exporting Coal eliminates West Virginia jobs

Think about it. Think about what happens to every truckload or trainload of coal that leaves the state. Where does it go? What is it used for? For the most part it goes to power plants in other states, but why?

For years our state politicians have been trying to increase our coal exports to retain jobs in the coal industry, but at what expense? That expense has been the loss of new jobs and tax base of the state of West Virginia. The fact of the matter is we can use our coal to both retain jobs in the coal industry and to create new high paying jobs in the coal consuming industry.

When a trainload of coal leaves the state it goes to a power plant in say Arkansas, Michigan, or Georgia it took our jobs with it. Those power plants employ workers and they pay those workers well. Instead of sending our coal and jobs to Arkansas, Michigan, or Georgia lets keep our coal and jobs, and send them electric power. The reason this is possible is because the entire country is wired into a power grid. This grid is a big web that distributes power throughout the country, and within reason the grid doesn’t care where the power plant is, so lets put new ones in WV.

Let us create new jobs in West Virginia by building power plants in the state. We already have one major advantage; we have the coal here. That gives WV a cost advantage to the power companies to build here. There is already an example of how this works in Mt. Storm, WV. The power plant in Mt. Storm sits close to the coal, thus reducing coal transport cost making the coal cheaper allowing the power company to generate cheaper power here, than say a plant in the tidewater Virginia area where coal must be trucked in.

Let’s encourage our state to government to overhaul the tax code to create incentives to build here. This will continue to pay us back for years to come through construction jobs, workers at the plants, contract maintenance jobs all of which will increase the state and local tax base.

We as West Virginians should work with and encourage our government to use West Virginia’s resources to the advantage of West Virginia. Next time you see a load of coal leave the state, think of it not just as load of coal leaving, but as WV jobs leaving.

A healthy dose of Capitalism is needed in West Virginia

Location, location, location are the three most important things for any business. Looking at the state as a business, we have one of the best locations of any state. We are located in the center of 2/3rds of the US population, so why do we rank 47^th real GDP growth?[i] The simple reason is we no longer practice capitalism in West Virginia, we practice mercantilism. For those that forget their history, mercantilism imposed by the British crown was one of the primary reasons for the Revolution, but we did this to ourselves.

In order for West Virginia to take advantage of our location we need to reduce government’s interventionism in the economy. Businesses large and small must be free to make decisions based on profit and loss. Currently they are held hostage to the state by policies not conceived in sound economic principles, but by political prejudice and special interest.

A proposed increase in the minimum wage law is a good example of government interference causing more harm than good. During the 2006 session I had a conversation with Senator Jon Hunter about the proposed increase. Jon thought this would be good for the states lowest paid worker giving them a pay increase, but that is not the reality. The reality is many of the states lowest paid workers will lose their jobs. Simple economics is the reason. As wages are artificially increased without a corresponding increase in business growth or productivity, then the simple solution for any business is to compensate by cutting the work force. This creates additional unemployment. Instead of getting a pay increase, the lowest paid workers loose their jobs. These jobs will be gone until market forces come back into balance which is when the economy can actually support the new minimum wage.

I believe the answer to bringing capitalism back to the state is through education. I have known Jon for a long time, and he is a smart individual, but you only know what you have been taught. I doubt Jon was ever taught how capitalism works. I, myself, am a product of the West Virginia school system, and at no time can I ever remember being taught capitalism. Even in college, the focus was on business law, corporate responsibility, preparing a balance sheet, etc. I learned capitalism on my own. In the different systems of the world this is unusual. In the days of the Soviet Union, and in modern Cuba communism is taught in their schools, France a socialist county, socialism is taught, but we live in the most successful capitalistic nation and capitalism is not taught in our school system. By 8^th Grade Cuban students can tell you who Karl Marx and Lenin are, can a West Virginia 8^th grader tell you who John Locke and Adam Smith are?

The key to a thriving future West Virginia economy is education in our own capitalistic system. A populous with a working knowledge of free market capitalism, and sound economic principles will see that government interventionism is a bad thing. Through the process of education we will create a class of entrepreneur that will use our resources to create jobs and grow the economy from within the state.

[i]Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Department of Commerce, 1997-2004