Gov. Justice an hour late to his own briefing, questioned on punctuality

Gov. Jim Justice was an hour late to his weekly media briefing on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Screenshot from Gov. Jim Justice’s briefing)

Gov. Jim Justice has until Wednesday, March 27, to sign or veto bills from the 2024 regular legislative session. Bills that he takes no action on will automatically become law.

There are 279 bills on Justice’s desk for consideration. So far, 88 bills have been signed and only one has been vetoed — funding for neuroscience research at West Virginia University.

House Bill 5014 would have provided $2 million in funding to the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute for its work on the use of ultrasound technology to cure Alzheimer’s disease and treat patients with severe obesity, binge eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. The bill would also have appropriated $4 million for other hospitals seeking research funding.

The money from this bill was leftover from the state’s fiscal year 2024 budget that had not been appropriated, meaning it wouldn’t affect next year’s budget, which is a mess that will require an upcoming special session to fix (but more on that later).

“While I wholeheartedly support our hospitals and medical centers and the advancement of vital medical care for the citizens of West Virginia, these two appropriations direct the grant of large sums of money with little context or direction for the use of such funding,” Justice wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Mac Warner explaining the veto. “The language of this bill is ambiguous as to the Legislature’s intent and just what types of research may be funded and no context or background has been provided to my office.”

Looking at the bill, there isn’t much explanation, other than $2 million will go to “West Virginia University Health System for the Federal Food and Drug Administration Pilot Program” and $4 million will go to “Hospital Grants and Research Programs.”

During Justice’s media briefing last week, Steven Allen Adams from Ogden Newspapers asked him why he chose to veto the bill.

“We did a bunch of things for a few,” Justice said. “And we left out an awful lot of our hospitals all across this state.”

Justice said when the special session is called, the funding for the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute will be put back on the table for discussion, but he doesn’t want other hospitals to be neglected and not get any money.

“I proposed $100 million in my deal for all the hospitals and we just kind of went out and just picked a couple of winners,” he said.

Except, as noted above, the bill he vetoed used money from fiscal year 2024, and his proposed $100 million for hospitals was part of his fiscal year 2025 budget.

Justice signed the budget earlier this month, but said that he will call legislators back into a special session — possibly as early as next month — to amend it. The governor said lawmakers needed to pass child care tax breaks, a homestead tax exemption on property taxes for low-income seniors, and that the state will be “in a mess” with the budget lawmakers approved for the Department of Health.

Also during last week’s briefing, MetroNews reporter Brad McElhinny questioned Justice about the state’s tax department filing seven liens for unpaid sales taxes owed by The Greenbrier Hotel Corp., and if he thinks the owner of The Greenbrier should pay those taxes. Justice owns The Greenbrier resort , but named his daughter president of the company in Sept. 2016.

“I really don’t know anything about this at all,” Justice said. “This is brand new news to me, but I’ll check it out.”

The Greenbrier owes $3,521,047.49 for sales tax not paid to the state from July to November 2023, according to MetroNews.

Randy Yohe from West Virginia Public Broadcasting asked Justice if his legal and financial entanglements will affect his ability to serve in the U.S. Senate.

“When I walked in the door, you know, I know, we all know, our state was bankrupt,” Justice said.

The state was not bankrupt when Justice took office.

“I have kept my focus a thousand million percent on West Virginia,” Justice continued. “Our businesses continue to move right along and do quite well. There is a lot of folks that want to throw rocks, and do whatever it may be, but someway somehow our businesses continue to move along…

“I don’t think that this will be a distraction in any way at all. None. And if I did, you know I wouldn’t do it. I mean, why am I doing it? Am I doing it for me? I mean, are you kidding me? At the end of the day, the only reason in the world that I absolutely decided to run for governor, the only reason in the world that I absolutely decided to run for the Senate, is nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with any of my businesses. Nothing to do with me in any way. I just want to serve and to try to help and that’s exactly what I’ve done as your governor.”

You would think that a man whose focus was “a thousand million percent on West Virginia” would be on time to his job, but I can’t remember a single instance he’s been on time to his own weekly briefing. Justice was an hour late to his own briefing, leading Yohe to ask Justice what he has to say to voters who are concerned about his time management.

“I can tell you that if there is a vote that has to be made at a specific time, someway or somehow I always make it,” Justice said.

The governor doesn’t have any voting power and has no reason to be on time in state government for a vote.

“And really and truly, I had our folks notify you guys that we were going to be a little late today,” Justice said.

Only reporters who had signed up to ask questions were informed that the briefing would start at least 30 minutes late. There were no notifications on the governor’s official X or Facebook account for the public who may have wanted to watch.

“We all may have a little shortcomings. I apologize all the time for the fact, if we’re late. But I do think the wins surely outnumber the losses.”

I wish Justice would have explained what those wins are. He’s said he isn’t happy with the budget that was passed. There was no movement to help West Virginians with child care, a much needed school discipline bill wasn’t passed , funding for state services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities was cut , and many other issues weren’t addressed during the session.

Justice needs to understand that he must be more involved, present and punctual to get the outcomes he wants in government.

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