WVE: Which of West Virginia’s current challenges do
you find most concerning?
TB: The insatiable drive toward austerity is one of the state’s
gravest challenges. As we continue to underinvest in higher edu-
cation, infrastructure and our local communities, the state will
likely continue its decline as more people leave the state, more
towns shutter and the quality of life deteriorates.
As our recent analysis in the “State of Working West Virginia”
report showed, West Virginia tends to lag behind other states
because of its low post-secondary educational attainment, outdated
job skills, unhealthy population, lack of economic diversity, inad-
equate physical infrastructure like broadband, rugged topogra-
phy and low population density. Along with these factors, West
Virginia has a low-wage economy that doesn’t produce enough
demand for stronger economic growth. None of these problems
can be solved by trickle-down approaches to economic devel-
opment that squeeze the middle class, which is the principal
driver of economic growth and business development. A strong
middle class can provide a stable source of demand for goods
and services, which motivates businesses to innovate, invest and
hire. A strong middle class also incubates entrepreneurs and in-
novators and helps hold government more accountable through
political participation.
WVE: Where do you see opportunities for West Virginia
to turn itself around?
TB: There are enormous opportunities in West Virginia for the
expansion of agriculture; the high-tech industry, like aerospace;
tourism; cleaner energy; and biomedical research and develop-
ment, among other things. However, it will be very difficult to grow
these sectors without significant investments from the public and
private sectors and a concrete vision grounded in best practices.
West Virginia does have a comparative advantage to other states
in its low cost of living, strong communities and rich abundance
of natural assets and resources. To embrace these opportunities,
policymakers and other stakeholders need to put improving the
quality of life in the state at the top of their agendas if they want
to attract outside investment and retain more of the state’s youth
that tend to leave for better opportunities.
WVE: How do you think the issue of the state’s
shrinking population should be addressed?
TB: While West Virginia is losing residents to other states, it’s
not losing them at any amount greater than any other state loses
residents. Combined with the fact that West Virginia was one of
only two states with more deaths than births in 2015, you can
see that the state isn’t necessarily struggling to keep people from
leaving. It is struggling to bring them in.
The best way to attract and retain our youth is to improve the
quality of life in the state. This means providing more recreational
opportunities, cleaner towns, better infrastructure and a world-
class education system and making higher education as afford-
able as possible. We also need to include more young people in
the political process at all levels.
Well Deserved.
At Nelson Mullins, we actively seek out leadership, and
when we discover it, we stop at nothing to retain it. We
are honored to have Marc Williams on our team and are
very proud of all of his accomplishments.
Congratulations on being named a member
of the Lawyers & Leaders Class of 2017.
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people
where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”
Rosalynn Carter
In Huntington, West Virginia and across the United States
(304) 526.3500 (800) 237.2000 www.nelsonmullins.com
This is an advertisement, Robert Massie, Responsible Party
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