By Tina Alvey
Register-Herald Reporter
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS —
The state’s Republican legislative caucus was on the menu during a blistering speech delivered by Greenbrier CEO Jim Justice at Friday’s breakfast session of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting.
The caucus recently fell afoul of the resort’s owner when members voted nearly unanimously to block the transfer from one state account to another of $1 million allocated to support the recent Greenbrier Classic golf tournament.
In his Friday morning speech, Justice characterized the Classic as “the greatest public relations, economic impact thing that ever happened to West Virginia,” citing the 220 countries with access to the television broadcast of the PGA TOUR event, plus the 750 media kits distributed. The economic impact of the tourney and its attendant publicity on the state was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, he said.
“West Virginians have been the brunt of a lot of tough jokes over the years — some of them are pretty funny. A lot of the time, we’re beat down. I wanted us to be proud of ourselves,” he said, pointing out he put $8.5 million from his own pocket into the Classic.
PGA officials advised Justice during the planning stages for the event that, typically, states containing host sites for tournaments of this caliber contribute between $8 million and $10 million to the tourney. With that information in hand Justice went to state officials with a request for $1 million.
“The governor said, ‘Great!’” Justice recalled. “But the Republican caucus said — now get this — ‘We’re not going to fund a golf tournament.’”
Noting he is a Republican himself, Justice said he later had the opportunity to talk to West Virginia House Minority Leader Tim Armstead about the issue. Armstead asked Justice what message he wanted to send to Republicans in the Legislature.
Justice said he responded, “My message would be ‘shame on you’... because the thinking — maybe it’s political wrangling — it’s wrong.”
Speaking at a chamber symposium Wednesday, Armstead told his audience that the legislature needs to “send more tax dollars back to the private sector,” seemingly contradicting his party’s earlier action.
Friday, Justice recounted another recent conversation he had with a politician whom he did not identify. When Justice expressed dismay over the state’s chronic ranking at or near the bottom of most lists of positive accomplishments, the politician became defensive and said West Virginia is at the top of at least one list — “We’re first in the nation in railroad track safety,” the man told Justice.
To general laughter, Justice concluded his story by saying, “I’m talking to a moron, an absolute moron.”
He said, “If you’re not tired of being 50th, 49th, 48th ... then there’s something wrong with you. I’m tired of it. If you don’t think there’s a disconnect, then you’re out of your mind.”
Following Justice’s Friday speech, which concluded with a sustained standing ovation by chamber members, Greenbrier County Delegate Tom Campbell, a Democrat, said, “We’ve got to take bold initiatives and engage in big picture thinking. The fact they (the Republican caucus) take great pride in taking this small allocation away from one of the biggest events in the state’s history — it just boggles my mind. What’s happening here in Greenbrier County, what Jim Justice is doing, is so positive, I’d think the state would want to tap into it.”
— E-mail: talvey@register-herald.com
