Latest / Commentary - TJ Meadows / Mason Tax Rollback Offers Important Context in Primary Election

Transcript

Mason Tax Rollback Offers Important Context in Primary Election · Commentary - TJ Meadows

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's a pure success story textbook. Really, Mason County just
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: did something every taxpayer understands. Officials voted to roll back
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: levy rates by nineteen percent. Why because growth made it possible.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: New investment companies like Newcre expanded the tax base enough
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to lower the burden. And the timing, well, the timing
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: is something. This comes just ahead of a Republican primary,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and it highlights a growing divide in philosophy. Call the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: players whatever you want, the Morrissey wing and what strategist
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Greg Thomas on talk Line called the West Virginia faction.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Most people know it as the Tacubo faction. But the difference, well,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that's simple. One approach leans passive, build the conditions, improve
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the infrastructure, and let opportunity come. That's the Morrissey faction.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: The other faction, the Tacubo folks. They like to hunt.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: They chase, employers, recruit, compete. New Core is a win,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a big one for West Virginia. And as John F.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Kennedy once said, victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: is an orphan. No candidate from either side is going
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to oppose a project like New Core speak ill of it,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: especially Now that's not the question anyway. Here's the better one,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: especially for those running per Senate. Do you support the
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: team West Virginia Model. House Bill four thousand and one
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: was designed to create a nimble, state wide nonprofit focused
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: on site development, partnerships and aggressive business recruitment. It was
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: modeled after Jobs Ohio, a program so successful it has
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: at times pulled businesses out of West Virginia. The idea
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: is straightforward, take economic development out of the slow lane
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of politics and put it into a focused, mission driven
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: organization built to compete. Supporters, including Marshall University President Brad Smith,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: see it as a way to land more new core
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: type wins. He and those supporters are exactly right. So
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: as voters head toward the primary, the contrast is clear.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: One path has already delivered lower taxes, new jobs. The
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: other feels more wait and see. So the question becomes
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: which one makes more sense