WVE: Give us your perspective on the current state of the economy in West Virginia.
WT: Our current situation is not good. You can see that when you measure categories, and we are 50th in category after category. We can do dramatically better. I think we suffer from a self-esteem problem— we don’ t recognize how good we can be.
One of our biggest challenges is the fact that we are losing people. The good news is I totally believe we can turn this thing around. One of the keys that attracts businesses to areas is quality of life, and that is one of the reasons people live in West Virginia— the quality of life is second to none.
I think we need to focus on those bright spots. We still have a great workforce. No question about it, a lot of folks have picked up and left, but our high schools turn out good graduates every year. If we have opportunities for them, they’ ll stay here and work or ideally come back. At the core of it, West Virginians are great workers, and I think if we can provide opportunities for them, we’ ll see good things happen.
WVE: Based on these observations, what goals have you set for the commerce department over the next four years?
WT: One of my goals is to dramatically change the economic landscape of West Virginia. That’ s a pretty significant goal, but it’ s nothing less than that. In order to do this, we must dramatically increase the number of employment opportunities within the state, and to me, it’ s all about jobs. My job is to bring in jobs, and I have a variety of venues to do that. In the short time that I’ ve been in this role, I’ ve seen a lot of opportunity. Everything from manufacturing to forestry to tourism— there are all kinds of areas where we are not performing to the level we could be.
Thrasher delivering a commencement address in May 2017. Photo by West Virginia University.
WVE: What do you believe must be done to resolve our financial crisis?
Thrasher speaking at the Bidell Gas Compression announcement in Weirton. Photo by WV Department of Commerce.
WT: If we’ re going to change things, we’ re going to have to do something dramatically different. I think, to some extent, being rich in resources has led to a certain level of complacency within state government. We have not diversified our income or our sources of industry. We’ ve tolerated the removal of our resources and watched them leave the state. I think it is mandatory that the department of commerce refabricate our economy. I think we do that through diversity, whether it’ s bringing broadband to small communities, which will allow them to attract businesses, through automotive manufacturing or taking advantage of the shale gas initiatives. In the end, we’ re the ones who should be responsible for solving the problem of how we diversify our economy and move up in the rankings.
WVE: What does West Virginia need to do to be more competitive with surrounding states?
WT: I think we have laid a great foundation to be competitive. The right-towork bill, workers’ comp bill and judicial reform have all resulted in West Virginia being able to finally have a seat at the table. That’ s the first step, but it’ s not the only step. I think some of our legislators are misguided when they believe that all government needs to do is get out of business’ way. While I agree with that, there is a second very important component. We have to be able to incentivize businesses to come to West Virginia. We have to have the capital to be able to generate sites, train the workforce and set up entrepreneurial coaching if we’ re going to be able to compete.
WVE: What initiatives is your department working on to improve the business climate in West Virginia?
WT: We’ re doing a bunch of exciting things that cover all of the different divisions throughout the department, including the Division of Natural Resources, tourism, workforce and forestry, and certainly at the center of that is the development office. We really want to not only be reactive to businesses that are interested in West Virginia, but we want to be proactive. We want to go out and identify those businesses that we stand a good chance of recruiting. To do that, we need dramatically more staffing. We’ re very excited about a new initiative called the EXCEL program, which will recruit loaned executives and retired executives to help with our staffing. In that way, we’ re going to be able to go out and target a whole bunch of industries and cover a lot more bases than we have in the past.
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