CONTINUED
ON THE WEB
Promising
Perspectives
Hope is a fragile thing.
It’s the foundation on which we plan for the future and the
action we take when the odds are against us. When hope is
abundant, great things can happen. When it is in short supply,
the drive for progress can be easily thwarted.
In West Virginia, despite desperate efforts to find something in
which to hope, confidence is withering as expectations of over-
coming an economic impasse dwindle. Day by day, West Virgin-
ians do what they do best: find a way to survive. But West Vir-
ginians deserve more than mere survival. They deserve a thriving
economy with policies that promote progress. They deserve a
prospering present as much as a promising future.
Two West Virginia nonprofit organizations are doing their
part to fight for the Mountain State’s future through important
research, data collection and reporting. The Cardinal Institute for
West Virginia Policy is dedicated to researching, developing and
communicating effective public policies and acting as a voice for
free market, and the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy
is a policy research organization that supports informed public
dialogue and policy. Through the information these two indepen-
dent organizations provide, policymakers gain knowledge, per-
spective and guidance to assist in facing the great task at hand:
finding a solution to the ongoing budget deficit by jump-starting
the economy, creating jobs and diversifying the state’s industries.
For the economic development issue, West Virginia Executive
(WVE) magazine invited the executive directors of both organiza-
tions to discuss their lifelong connection to the Mountain State, the
important work their organizations are doing in an effort to guide
the state past these turbulent times and the solutions they recom-
mend for addressing some of the state’s most pressing challenges.
JENNIFER JETT PREZKOP
TRACY TOLER
WVE: Tell us about your background and your personal
mission.
Garrett
Ballengee
Executive Director,
Cardinal Institute for
West Virginia Policy
70
WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
GB: I am a native West Virginian, born and raised in the Park-
ersburg area. After receiving a master’s degree in financial eco-
nomics from Ohio University, I moved to Washington, D.C., to
work in the policy research nonprofit space. I was there for about
five years before I decided to move back to West Virginia to lead
the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy.
My personal mission is to help turn the lives of West Virgin-
ians around through economic growth and change the prevailing
narrative about my home state. I have abundant hope that things
can turn around in West Virginia. There is nothing cosmically
pre-ordained that says West Virginia must always be among the
least prosperous states in the country and an object of ridicule.