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Pack’s Having an Agenda is Good · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: State Treasurer Larry Pack rolled out his legislative agenda Monday
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  Speaker 1: in Charleston, then joined Dave and Me on togline to
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  Speaker 1: walk through it. His top priority protecting the universal expansion
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  Speaker 1: of the Hope Scholarship coming in twenty six twenty seven.
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  Speaker 1: Pack says school choice has worked for West Virginia and
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't be rolled back. He's also calling for major teacher
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  Speaker 1: pay raises, a fifty thousand dollars minimum salary and a
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  Speaker 1: two thousand dollars bump for anyone already above that, plus
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  Speaker 1: more local control for schools. And he wants to eliminate
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  Speaker 1: the state income tax on tips in overtime to match
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  Speaker 1: new federal policy, calling it a worker's tax cut for nurses,
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  Speaker 1: wait staff, and construction workers. Now, most Republicans aren't bothered
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  Speaker 1: these ideas are traditionally conservative, but a small circle of
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  Speaker 1: politicos is grumbling that a state treasurer shouldn't be rolling
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  Speaker 1: out an agenda at all. Pack acknowledged that past treasurers
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  Speaker 1: didn't take this approach, but said he intends to lead,
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  Speaker 1: not set on the sidelines. And here's important context. Pack
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  Speaker 1: isn't some political lightweight. He's a CPA, who built multiple businesses,
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  Speaker 1: including stone Rise Healthcare, the post acute care company he
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  Speaker 1: co founded that grew to roughly seventeen facilities statewide and
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  Speaker 1: was valued by one industry outlet at about six hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars when it was sold in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two. Luck helps, but competence matters more, and Pack's
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  Speaker 1: record shows it. So why the pushback simple rumor mill politics.
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  Speaker 1: Some think Pack might challenge Governor Patrick Morrissey in the
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  Speaker 1: next GOP primary. Those who fear that possibility don't want
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  Speaker 1: to hand him any policy wins. But it's only a rumor,
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  Speaker 1: and whether he runs likely depends on whether Senator Jim
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  Speaker 1: Justice jumps in. Bottom line, there's no downside to the
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  Speaker 1: state treasurer offering ideas. Especially this treasurer. He doesn't get
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  Speaker 1: a vote. His proposals face the same legislative gauntlet as
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  Speaker 1: anyone else's. If lawmakers support them, they move, If not,
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  Speaker 1: they die. Silencing a statewide elected official because he might
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  Speaker 1: run for governor, that's not a good reason. As for
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  Speaker 1: whether he's actually running, we'll see. Maybe I should just
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  Speaker 1: ask him, or maybe I should call Jim Justice first