Digging out of a very deep hole

 May 2021

These days, West Virginia’s country roads are carrying more people out of the state than they’re bringing in.

Census figures released in early 2021 showed the state’s population dropped almost 3.2 percent over the past decade, the largest decline in the nation. The loss was significantly greater than the two other states that showed declines, Mississippi at 0.2 percent and Illinois at 0.14.

How can it be explained? The Mountain State’s nearest neighbors all made gains, so the decline isn’t regional. Other mid-Atlantic states were more in line with the overall U.S. increase of 7.4 percent: Maryland was up 6.99 percent, Virginia recorded 7.9 percent.

Most people blame West Virginia’s ongoing losses with the accelerating decline of coal mining. The state is losing out on the rapid growth elsewhere of the technology sector, and it shows few gains in manufacturing, notwithstanding the new Proctor & Gamble plant near Martinsburg and the e-commerce fulfillment and warehousing/distribution centers mushrooming along Interstate 81. 

It faces tough competition in the contest for tourist dollars. It’s a “regional” destination for residents of the Washington, D.C. area to the east, and Pittsburgh to the west. But it doesn’t have many of the five-star attractions that draw people from more distant addresses.

The state isn’t doing much to improve its image, either. Its drug problems, fueled by nearly intractable poverty, continue to fester. The nostalgic glow of innocence that John Denver’s 1970s song gave the state is gone. And its overwhelming -- and still growing – fealty to right-wing dogma hasn’t helped. It has the fifth-highest level of registered guns in the United States, surpassed only by Montana, Wyoming, Alaska and Idaho.

But the news isn’t all bleak. Three weeks ago Gov. Jim Justice launched a unique and innovative “Ascend West Virginia” campaign, inviting remote workers to take a “permanent vacation” in the Mountain State. Newcomers who are accepted in the program will receive a one-time incentive package worth more than $20,000, including $12,000 in direct cash payments and a year’s worth of outdoor recreational opportunities.

 Within 36 hours of the program’s launch, more than 55,000 people from 38 states had inquired about the 50 spots available in the host city of Morgantown, Justice said. And about 2,000 had completed applications.

Application windows for the program’s sister cities of Shepherdstown and Lewisburg will be announced later. You’d expect Shepherdstown, given its close proximity to the Washington area, will be a particularly popular destination. The fact that Maryland already extends its MARC commuter line into Martinsburg will be an important selling point.

Justice and the West Virginia legislature this spring failed to agree on another incentive, a deep cut in the state’s income tax, but they did hammer out a bill to update the state’s corporate income tax laws to help attract remote workers from across the country.

“That, in combination with our broadband (expansion) efforts, will bring so many more people to West Virginia — we hope and pray at least,” he said.

The state got another boost late last December when the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve was established by Congress.  The whitewater canyon and the spectacular highway bridge 876 feet above it – the longest steel arch span in the Western Hemisphere and the third-highest bridge in the U.S. -- are a five-hour drive from the Washington area. West Virginia may not have mountain peaks as high as those in the Rockies, or crevasses as deep as the Grand Canyon, but the raft ride down the New River can’t be matched in many other places.

Why should the social health of West Virginia be important to Maryland and Virginia? The three states share long, common borders, the Potomac River and, to a growing extent, intertwined economies. The Free State and the Commonwealth have long recognized their joint interests and have labored to make the District of Columbia area function successfully. The inclusion of the Mountain State would combine the three into an even stronger force for the benefit of all their citizens.