Q&A: House candidates for Monroe & Summers counties Roy Cooper and James McNeely talk transportation, housing and jobs

Transportation and affordable housing were the concerns frequently mentioned by residents who talked with Mountain State Spotlight in September.

Running for reelection is Republican incumbent Roy Cooper, who was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2012. The Democratic challenger is longtime Monroe resident James “Jim” McNeely, who previously served in the House in the 1970s.

Here are their responses to the questions, edited for length and clarity:

MSS: The lack of transportation options was one of the top issues I heard when I talked to residents of Summers and Monroe counties. Residents who don’t have access to their own vehicles often can’t get to medical appointments or run basic errands, including going to the grocery stores. It has also prevented folks from working because they’re unable to travel. If elected, what will you do to provide transportation to meet the needs across the district?

Roy Cooper: I never heard of such a question.

You’re saying that an elected official is going to be responsible for providing transportation to someone to work? I voted to fund all the roads and fund all the remaking of all the roads. And we’ve brought business to the area so people can have jobs. So I guess that’s what I’ll continue to do – is promote business and job opportunities, and folks, if they want to work, will just have to do what I did, figure out how to get there.

I’ve never heard that as an issue and I’ve been here for 79 years. No one – none of my constituents have ever walked up to me and said, ‘Hey, I need a ride.’

James “Jim” McNeely: I think that really gets to a broader issue, which is the lack of funding for community services by the state. And many years ago —- we’ve actually gone backwards — they had what’s called Monroe Mobile, which was a transportation system throughout Monroe County. And I think Summers had the same thing. It was partially federally funded, partially state-funded. And the state has gone away from that, and there’s an underlying issue that kind of resonates through all this, which is the state of West Virginia keeps declaring it has a surplus.

You read about that all the time. In fact, they had this clever thing they did where they will reduce the personal income tax when there’s a “quote, unquote” surplus. But how do they create that surplus? Well, they create the surplus by underfunding or not funding services to West Virginians, and transportation is an absolute example of that. There’s no question, over the last 20, 30, years, you’ve gone backwards, and there is much less transportation available now in Monroe County than, frankly, there was 50 years ago. And so the answer is that the state needs to change its budgeting priorities, number one. And number two, it needs to quit claiming – because it’s political theater really – they have a surplus because they can’t have a surplus when community services, education, etc, are so underfunded or non-funded in West Virginia.

MSS: Affordable housing was another concern frequently mentioned. Housing, especially rental options, are either in low supply, too expensive or both. What can you do to help increase the number of affordable housing options in the district?

Cooper: Well, that’s an issue I know a little about since I used to be in the rental business. I had some rental property, and I had about eight or nine units, and half of them were empty all the time. So I’m not sure about the housing, but I do know that housing is an issue now that most people depend on government-subsidized housing. A lot of people do, and there is a shortage of that. And we have got programs already in place to help finance those kind of places. We, right now, have in my district six different low-cost subsidized housing units, and I’m sure there’s a need for more, or that there’s going to be a need for more because there just always seems to be.

We will make sure that there’s some kind of a financing option for people who want to, number one, buy a home, or for the folks who want to become entrepreneurs and build those low-cost housing units and put them in the Rental Assistance Program. That’s what I would think we would continue to do. I don’t see any of that on in the future, but I know if it comes up, it’s something that most everyone I know in the Legislature would support.

McNeely: I think the answer is sort of the same. In other words, there needs to be a change in focus by the West Virginia Legislature and the fact that its focus is concentrated on creating false surpluses to lower personal income tax, which mainly affects upper-income West Virginians. The state simply does not seem to be committed or even interested in those kinds of community problems. Now it’s not to say the state has to fund it completely itself. Obviously not, but the state can be much more aggressive, be much more forward-thinking in terms of supporting programs that can bring affordable housing. As long as you have the frame of mind present in the West Virginia Legislature today, none of these problems are gonna be seriously addressed because they simply are not interested in addressing them. So it’s sort of the same answer because it all goes to community services.

MSS: Folks also brought up the need for well-paying jobs, saying that many residents leave the district and sometimes even the state to work. What can you do to help bring high-paying jobs into the region?

Cooper: Monroe and Summers County – we have several jobs. There are always openings out at the — we call it the BF Goodrich plant, but it has another name here in Monroe County. There’s always job openings out there. The starting pay is $23 an hour. Somehow that doesn’t seem like a bad starting wage.

Our local McDonald’s pays $12 an hour. The farm store where I buy my farm products pays $11 an hour just for people to load and unload trucks, and they can’t find enough help. So, we always need better-paying jobs and they’re coming. Not so much factory jobs in my district, but we do have several businesses. We have several carpentry crews at work, and they pay from $18 to $26 an hour for their help. Those are pretty good-paying jobs. Maybe what we really need is more people looking for a job that’s willing to take those jobs because I know more jobs are open than there are people to fill them, even in my district, but statewide, we have put in business after business.

In other counties – over in Mercer County, we’ve put in a concrete prefabrication plant making slabs of concrete for prefab buildings to be erected on site. Over in Jackson County, we’ve got the steel recycling company called Nucor. We’ve got Form Energy up in Hancock County. And they haven’t filled all jobs yet because there hasn’t been enough people to show up. So, I don’t know who you talked to, but everybody I know that wants to work is working, and they’re making a good wage.

McNeely: Emphasize economic diversification, and that’s —- I was in legislation a number of years ago, and we argued it then, we argue it now. West Virginia tends to rely on specific extractive industries. It’s like they’re a one-horse buggy. Years ago, it was coal, not so much now. It’s natural gas, and it seems to be one extractive industry after another. Well, the problem is that it creates two things. One is a boom and bust economy. The other is – areas of the state that are not in the boom suffer, and Monroe County is certainly one of those. So the answer is that West Virginia needs to put much more state resources and emphasis into economic diversification to attract small businesses and light industries into West Virginia.

And also, and I stress this, to improve West Virginia as a place to live. Now let me add, many areas of the state have diversified. The Eastern Panhandle being a good example, but that’s not because there’s a state program, that’s because normal economic trends have done that.

MSS: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Cooper: The state of West Virginia is so much better off than it was 12 years ago when I first took office. We have excess money. We run surpluses in our budget. We’re turning money back to the people. Right now in my district alone, we have got two different sections of highway being paved, three big bridges being replaced, and that’s just off the top of my head. The state is diversifying its economy to the point where if you lose a job in a coal mine, you can go right down the road and find it as a carpenter and so on.

Our tax structure is being revised and revamped. Our natural gas industry is selling a lot of natural gas, and they get natural gas severance taxes filling our bank accounts with money, and because of that, we can pave more roads, build more housing.

The farming community here has sold produce all summer to the Mountaineer Food Bank for distribution to the folks who can’t afford to buy food. That’s all going on within my district, and I’m kind of proud of it.

Context: Severance taxes, which are collected on natural resources extracted from West Virginia —- this case natural gas —- have contributed significantly to the large budget surplus state officials often talk about. However, policy experts have cautioned the state from becoming too reliant on the tax because severance taxes can be highly volatile.

McNeely: I think that the area that I’m quite distressed about is the education system. We have seen the Republican Legislature basically cut, cut and cut on higher education. I’m not as familiar with public education. My guess is the same thing is true. If we don’t stress higher education, community colleges, four-year colleges, to West Virginians, they end up in relatively low-paying jobs that are in – unfortunately where many West Virginians end up today –  in timbering, in mining, in construction and those are some, as you probably know, of the most dangerous occupations to work in, a very high percentage of work-related injuries.

Context: Between 2013 and 2020, state funding for the state’s higher education institutions decreased by 14%, according to an analysis by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. And since 2010, the average tuition and fees at a four-year public college in West Virginia have increased by 33% or $1,855 . This continuous decrease in state funding significantly contributed to the $45 million budget shortfall West Virginia University faced for the 2024 fiscal year.

Q&A: House candidates for Monroe & Summers counties Roy Cooper and James McNeely talk transportation, housing and jobs appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight , West Virginia's civic newsroom.