Transcripts For CSPAN2 West 20240704

Ladies and gentlemen the governor of thef great set of West Virginia the honorable jim justice. [cheering] [applause] [applause] okay, sit down you look like you are getting tired. [laughter] and you have got to clap a lot tonight. I will get to the meat and potatoes in just a Second Period but i want to thank s you. I want to thank you from all of us. All of my family in every way for all of the years and all the time we spend together. Bickering at times but hopefully loving each other in the end. An absolutely loving West Virginia, no matter what. Now, if i could make some incredible introductions here. And it is just this. I woulde like to introduce my family, especially kathy who has to put up with me all of the time. Please give kathy and jill, and jay a big round of applause. [applause] okay the members of my cabinet, i really do not see any need going through each secretary but in thinking about it, maybe i should. Because of all of the great work they do all of the time. We have three new secretaries the secretary of health, the secretary of Human Services and the secretary of health facilities. If sherry young, cynthia and mike would stand up . I may be if you would give them a round of applause. [applause] enow we have new interim secretary of revenue in larry pak and god knows you all know larry, youve known him forever. Our secretary of administration, mark scott or secretary of homeland security, our secretary of transportation jimmy, our secretary of veterans assistance ted diaz. Our secretary of Economic Development ms. Carmichael please give them a round of applause. [applause] now, this man demands uniqueness beyond belief. Smith. Ator randall reed [cheering] im going to hustle longer because it got a lot left to talk about tonight. Our secretary of tourism chelsea ruby, secretary done a phenomenal job, harold and her secretary of commerce james and bailey please give them a round of applause. [applause] are added to general, general bill crane and our command sgt major james jones. Our chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education policy commission sarah tucker and our commissioner of a bureau of thef Senior Services denise. And last but not least our director of our Herbert Henderson office of minority affairs,on jill, please give thm a big round of applause. [applause] now do not hit your hand your hands get sorghum blame that on me later on. But think about this just a second, please comment my staff. My staff has been with me for a long, long time and they have done so much good work. They have to put up with me with that periodically may be a come to jesus meeting or they have to put up with me when i would have a net fit or whatever it would be. And there are timesre i could be dead wrong but please give them a big round of applause. [applause] now our Supreme Court our chief Justice Tim Armstead justice beth walker, Justice John Hutchinson justice haley von and Justice William b wooton please give them around of applause. [applause] thank you. I have to tell you this, John Hutchinson looks so innocent, doesnt he . [laughter] now just think about this. We were practicing basketball at Woodrow Wilson in the year i believe, i believe i was a sophomore and john was a junior. Sir john is way, way, way older than me. But in all of that we were lining up at the center circuit that Raleigh County jump ball there were five sophomores on the team we ended up winning the state championship. But with all that being said those five sophomores one of 15 were just ground fodder. Absolutely, we just got run over every single r day and in this situation i truly did because as the ball was thrown up john wheeled around at warp speed and hit me right in the nose with his head. My nose and broke and three places, blood was going everywhere and the coach was screaming justice get off the court. So anyway, brother john and i will never forget that. [laughter] our constitutional officers from our left, our attorney general Patrick Morrissey please give him a big round of applause. [applause] our state auditor another round of applause. Our secretary off state Michael Warner please another round of applause. [applause] our commissioner of agriculture cans, same it. [applause] our state treasurer riley moore. [applause] and our stated superintendent of schools michelle. [applause] well, it has been easy up until now. But just think about this. Seven years ago, seven years for some i am sure has gone really, really fast. This is my last state of the states. Seven years my gosh it seemed like an eternity when it all started. For a lot of it has gone really fast and i am sure for several of you it has gone really slow. [laughter] but along the way i have tried to do this. I have tried to give wisdom. Wisdom that i was taught mostly from my dad. Wisdom about dont confuse effort with accomplishment you cannot get it done in 24 hours a day youve got to work nights. Dad wouldht have said as i stood in front of him and said dad there wasnt anything i could do and as the desk exploded as he jumped forward and grabbed me as an 18yearold around my shirt and slamming another desk and said darn you but he didnt say darn you he said you best better always remember this there is always something you can do any darn well ought to always remember that. That is how i have lived my life. Thats all there is to it. I believe that. I believe that if you give it to god above you give your best in andyour best like nobodys business, good things will happen. Im going to give you one more bit of advice right now. I gave the same advice to that bunch of young ladies right up there. Thats my Basketball Team. A bunch of kids that are the best of the best. I said to them, there is no substitute for being there. Absolutely, always showing up. Always giving your best. There is no substitute for being there. Now, with all that being said if you could focus just a second on being there let me tell you something and i just came up with this probably yesterday. I looked at the mileage deal on my vehicle. This is for five vehicles into this. 248,000 miles right now. I totaled up the vehicles over the last two years that i have been your governor. I am approaching driving a 1 million miles in the state of West Virginia. 1 million miles. I do it on my dime and i do it proudly because i really think i am here to serve. Now just think about it, what is a million miles . Do you realize if we left here right this minute we headed to the Pacific Ocean and california i could have done that 500 times. 500 times on the mileage i have spent traveling all across this unbelievable state. Now, if i would absolutely tell you just this along the way maybe i am different. Maybe i am the guy who is not crazy about spending your money. Maybe i am the guy who is really not crazy aboutab having a party every other night. Maybe i am the guy that is not crazy about flying in your aircraft. Can you imagine ive been in your helicopter one time, one time . I am crazy about just this i am crazy about serving. Our forefathers stepped up and i think an awful lot of you are doing exactly the same thing. Youre on the cusp right now of being away for n your family sml practical purposes for 60 days what you are paid is nothing. Absolutely at the end of the day i cannot thank you enough. Now i will tell you this job at times can be pretty doggone tough. There are days that it is plenty lonely. There are days that you are tired, you feel beat up low and behold out of the Clear Blue Sky theres more and more days that you see families that are devastated with floods or whatever it may be and theres not may be anything you can do. You absolutely see our heroes. Our heroes out of the first that we all call that maybe we have lost you said briefing after briefing after briefing and you read the names of 7000 plus people that was lost. We dont read the names, do we . We read the age the sex and the county and it was terrible. Absolutely terrible. Because i know so well what each and every one of those families were going through it was really tough. I see the pain at times that my family has. And i would tell you just this a thousand, thousand, thousand times over i would do it again. And a thousand, thousand, thousand times over they would too. Now, let me just read a couple lines to you. When the first time you saw me i stood before you pledging to fight for the soul of our states. We were staring down a dark tunnel our state was bankrupt. Our jobs and our people were leaving and our spirit was broken. Do you remember those days . Do you remember what that was like . T . Now i would also tell you that often times things calm and odd looking packages and i admit. [laughter] you know youve got a big guy for crying out loud and hes got a bulldog to with all of that being said the big guy brought whiteboards in the beginning sweat was running off of him in every direction was running back and forth to get this written in this writ in this written. The big guy is created and the guy is big, big, big big, big dreams. I do have a ton of energy that god has given me and a lot of enthusiasm. I believe that there was real hope, and i believed it. I believe first and foremost, overwhelmingly, that god above was out playing in all of our hearts right here with us each and every day. It didnt matter to me that we were absolutely the benefactors of decades after decades on who was going to be 50th in this country. It didnt matter to me. I knew just how good you really are, and i knew it and i believed it. I ask you to close your eyes add to that point in time a way back into think of the place thats within two thirds of the population with all these Natural Resources and the real treasure you the greatness of the people. I will ask before im done tonight to close your eyes one more time. The first state of the state, think about this just one second. We need to make education our centerpiece. We need to grow tourism and diversify the economy. We need to never, never forget our coal miners, gas workers and fossil fuels. We need to absolutely change our standard of life. We need to pass roads to prosperity and change our image. Nothing changed. Nothing changed. From the first crack out of the box, nothing changed. Wewe absolutely stepped up to te plate regarding education and weve got a long way to go. Weve got parents and now that can choose where they want toy o and what they want to do. Absolutely, we have run tourism off the chart, and every dollar you put in tourism you dont put enough and you dont put enough because every dollar you put in it comes back to us instantaneously. Absolutely ive said diversify the economy. We could not just depend on one industry all the time. My family has been in the coal business forever but we couldnt depend on the one industry all the time, but we dont forget, do we and you know what happened becausepe of us putting another stake in the sand saying we are not going to forget our fossil fuels and for those that are out there f in lala land. Go back to your crazy stuff. I dont want to start. [applause] when youre thinking about standard of life, youve got to thinke about two things, about people coming to West Virginia, how are the schools and the roads. Over and over the same thing. Granted the schools have got a way to go. But you should never forget this. All the time. Why would i tell you anything about the truth . I challenge the media every day over and over and over, find a something that knowingly ive told you it isnt true. Politicians do it nonstop. Find a something the justice told you is not true. He cant do it. Now with all that being said, think about the standard of life and our schools. Heres the nextt thing i will challenge you to do. I dontt care what the school i. Pick the middle school, elementaryar school, go to scho, walk into the fourth grade class. To do this, please walk into a fourth grade class and ask ms. Lily to come out in the hall and go back in and say to the kids what do you all think of ms. Lily and i bet you overwhelmingly they say we love her. And then go out and ask what she ythinks of her students and you will gethe the same answer. Then go downtown and say what do you think of cameron elementary school, what do you think if the answer we love our school. It meanso everything to our community. Weve got stuff to improve. But for gods sake, if the kids love the teacher and the teacher loves the kids and the community loves the school, weve got a lot going on in a good way. The roads to prosperity and we had, whether you like it or didnted like it, we had to chae our image. Today of all things, and if i could say it in slang, who couldve ever thought it, think about it in world travel magazines, in countries so far away we dont even have any idea who they are they are saying West Virginia is the place you want to go. Youre seeing it all around you. Absolutely a different place today. What happened, then the rocketship took off, didnt it . Now i want to read a couple more lines to you. Weve climbed that mountain together. The view from the top is breathtaking. If i could touch on just a couple more it all started like i said with the roads to prosperity program. Our roads are anything go to buo justt steel and concrete. The roads absolutely are arteries that are dumping life pumping lifeinto the towns and. Every mile we pave is a mile closer to new horizons into jobs and jobsthat are coming home any families that can stay home. Speaking of families, we stepped up for our teachers and public servants. We absolutely stepped up when they were having aou tough time and delivered pay raise after pay raise. Our schools now have new life. Our streets are safer and or state runs like a well oiled machine at this time pumping out friday and not desperation. Remember the taxes we paid. The regulations that burden our businesses. We put them together, we cut through the red tape and what happened . Ybusinesses are absolutely booming and jobs are multiplying. West virginia has become a magnet for dreams, not just. The revenue surplus nobody could have ever dreamed of. Thats all there is to it. Its not all about dollars and cents. What it boils down to is about the soul of this state. We protected our coal miners, gun rights and our unborn babies. I couldnt be more proud. [applause] we fought for our faith, did we not, our families, our freedoms. The world is seeing the grip that weve got. My dad would say to me over and over again at one time believe it or not i was skinny and have hadhair and was a golfer. I went all over the place playing a tournament after tournamente with sam that was something. He actually thought i was a prettyoo good player. All that being said, my dad would have said to me a thousand times son, the only shot in golf that matters is the next shot. If your last shot went to bed in the middle, what could you do about it . Of the last shot wins a holeinone, what does it matter . The only shot in life in many situations is the next shot. So with that being said, i will say to you we are a long way from being done in West Virginia. We have to create and enhance, so lets make this last year that i have and then the decades to come better and better and better. Please lets do justea that. If i can talk a second about Economic Development, heres what i would say to you. How does it feel to go to the plate today and every single time you go to the plate, you are hitting a home run . That is how it feels. You cant imagine the businesses that are calling over and over and opportunities for jobs and other states had to that had. Of these are numbers that ive been given but numbers since 2017 we created 12,591 jobs. We have retained 20,000, 155 jobs, and theres 240 companies in the mix somewhere. We do have a seat at the table now. And in my words, we are the seat. Do you get that . For god sakes, West Virginia is the seat. We are competing on that world stage and we are winning. Others six new businesses im going to pronounce into go through them pretty quickly. The sale coming to the bridgeport area with an investment of 64,000,000. 203 jobs, clean a sneeze is coming to quincy with 40 new jobs within investment and we have an expansion with the county thats spending 70 million of 500 jobs. At the technologies are coming to the county with 40 new jobs, im sorry, with 40 jobs, 100 detainedtm and the mountaintop f average is coming to morgantown with 220 million of investment, 100, 210 retained and 140 that are being added. Please give these folks our heartfelt applause. [applause] amazon is coming to West Virginia again, but this time amazon is coming and we cant even run the internet without. Are you here . Theres kim, please give her a big round of applause. [applause] think about this, and you deserve so much credit. Tax cuts. Weve cut taxes in West Virginia 23 times since i walked in the door. On and it delivered on the biggest tax cut in state history hands down. I will tell you just this the faster we can get rid of the taxes on the individuals, the better we will be. [applause] we cant doo it all on day one. Weve got to mind the store properly. Thats all there is to it. Weve got to mind the store properly. We cant do it all on day one. But it doesnt mean that we wont see the begin and we dont drive ourselves there. As fast and as hard as we can possibly go to get there. Tonight i am proposing two more. I am proposing the total elimination of Social Security tax on all. [applause] i am proposing a independent care tax credit for folks are struggling with daycare and at least write them off the taxes against the revenue. Leaning into this and we need to this very badly and right now. [applause] as far as the budget goes weve absolutely had a flat budget. I dont want to sound braggadocios about anything, but my administration does not believe in growing government. My administration does not believe in dipping into the Rainy Day Fund and using the Rainy Day Fund. We use surpluses and earnings to absolutely make choices to do projects to grow the state but weve got to do it while minding the store is all you prefer to all the time. Tonight i have a few things that im adding based on earnings out of dollars weve got and these few things are just this. We have the doctor here with us, and if you can please stand. [applause] absolutely that is one in my books, and ive absolutely grown up and cut my teeth from a business standpoint rather than the operation that grew and grew, we need a stateoftheart bag lab and im preparing we put 50 million in a new stateoftheart bag lab at West Virginia state university. [applause] we need to stand behind. Im proposing 3 million for crisis pregnancy centers. We need to stand beside our seniors. Absolutely the very people that brought us to the dance, the very people that often times we run away from and we think they will be okay. No, it wont. A 20 million to our Senior Centers. 15 million to the state parks. 5 million to absolutely never forget our firemen, our ems and their agencies. We need to fund them. [applause] its a pile of money but we have grown the state to have a pile of money so instead of just sitting there starting a pile of money, lets get to work and make the money work for us. 2 million for the very people that we owe everything in life two. To the states veteran home, 5 million for seed money to start charter schools. 150 million is a gigantic investment to the School Building authority. 50 million for floods resiliency. Ive gone over and over and have seen bad, bad things happen and maybe it didnt cost all the money in the world and the folks absolutely didnt qualify for fema and there they were at the end of the street picking up all their memories and everything and thrown in the back of a dump truck and off they went. Really tough and when youve got to sit there and put your arm around them and say theres nothing i could do, then i think about dad. Absolutely theres always something you can do and this will help a lot of folks. In our West Virginia hospitals all across the land, stepped overdose over and over and over. I know this is not all the money in the world, but i want to propose that we spend 100 million, listen to the hospitals. And you can make three dollars go from here to texas and back. Where this leaves us today you might think my gosh, all this money. 310 million from the Income Tax Fund and a billion, 200 million in the Rainy Day Fund. 1,000,500,000,000 in this state still leaves us right where i said. Mind the store. So i want to put 10 million back in the fund because we have now spent 9. 5 million of the 10 million we had last year and someway, somehow all of you have got to realize and all youve got to do is go with the justice and communities and schools. Go and be with the kids and what youre going to see is a lot of situations that maybe just maybe it may be the parents fault but the kids are suffering. The kids are hungry. Go somewhere to a Senior Center to see somebody thats really having a hard time, they are having a hard time getting food. We have got with all our bountiful harvest god above has given us, weve got to stop hunger in this state. So i tell you this. Theres a man with us tonight. His name is larry. He works the food bank where my uncle he was a coal miner and after he retired from the coal mines for 30 years, he died when he was 94, for 30 years he worked the food bank at the creek [inaudible] 39. [laughter] is that larry . Stand up, please. [applause] larry has the rains and has been there a long time himself. He knows what hunger is all about. Weve got to stop it. I am proposing an acrosstheboard 5 pay raise for the fifth time for all of our teachers and Service Personnel and all those in government. To cover the extra cost and with all that at the end of the day what we want to do is not to cover. We want to cover and those folks put the money in their pocket. [applause]e] the ems answer the call initiative, think about this. In 2021, 542, in 2023, 900. It is amazing. Amazing so many westst virginias are now working. We need them and we have needed them so badly. We have a gentleman with us tonight. I am proposing that 10 million to where we can continue funding this through my budget into this program is unbelievable. There is a fellow with us tonight his name is darren and i absolutely want to read it to to you aquote that he said and e on this is getting me but i will hold it here. It says i am so thankful to be a part of Something Like this, to see tax dollars going to the betterment of West Virginians. We do this because we love West Virginia and we love our communities. This training has helped me in so many ways. It gave me a career in great integratehealth benefits for myy wife and my three children. This was very rewarding and it taught me that i could learn again. Please give a great big round of applause to begin one of the heroes. [applause] think about nursing, think about what we did. We decided because we had extra dollars we figured it all out and we put 48 million into an absolute situation to be able to trainai and retain and attract. It worked, didnt it . It worked. We had 810 new nursing students enrolled in the first year. Im proposing that we add 30 million to this Great Program and continue the funding. And i think it is genevieve lane johnson with us tonight if you can give her a round of applause, she is a graduate working. [applause] she graduated five months early. I cant ever say that i graduated five months early. With a lot of report cards people are talking about as and bs. I was very fortunate to make an a or b. Sometimes it wasnt an a or b. The foster care system needs us to continue to step up, thats all there is to it. The kids need us so badly. We made a move in dividing up. We have three great secretaries now. Theres still tons of work to do. We need to cps workers. We need more dollars. Theres been real improvements made. Weve gone from vacancy numbers of 33 down to 17. Weve gone from workers from 45 needed that were vacancies to nine. Sounds great, doesnt it . But theres so much more to do. At the end of the day, we need to do all we possibly can to help these families into these kids, and we are going to do it. Its the same kind of story. First started out with the jobs and hope and everything. Theres been 5,024 that have gone through the jobs and hope program and have gotten jobs. In 1765 of god and their drivers license back. At 1244 are not on the snap payments anymore. If theres a fellow with us right here tonight. His name is james. James is a graduate. James founded a solar the design installation company. A graduate and founded a new company in the state and hired two other additional people that went through jobs and hope. James, please stand. [applause] corrections. Corrections were in the paper all the time. We all know weve got work to do there. We all know the simple, simple thing that happened. I mean, for god sakes, lets call it like it is. What happened was absolutely everybody said maybe subconsciously weve got to do this and weve got to do this and this and those folks did bad stuff and really at the end of the rainbow, maybe they were the last the got fed. Weve got to do stuff, and so we have. Weve tried to step up and weve tried to do an amazing work right now. We have recently graduated 227 graduates that can now work in our jails all across the state. We are as we speak downsizing the National Guard in our facilities, and its my hope beyond belief that by the end of the summer the National Guard will be out of our facilities and we will have solved this problem in many ways. Theres a corporal with us tonight. His name is james hamilton. And absolutely i congratulate him in many, many different ways. He worked at mount olive, he was in the National Guard. And then decided the pastor is greener somewhere else because of lots of different factors. Then all of a sudden we had to pay raises and we pushed the right buttons here and there and hes come home. So hes doing great work, and absolutely hes been honorably discharged, he is working fulltime at mount olive and hes with us tonight so please stand, wherever you are. [applause] do this while you are standing and everything, i want to hear you at the top of the rounds from thef standpoint of just showing your appreciation and your love and thanks for the National Guard. It is unbelievable what they do. [applause] ive told you this a million times, but ive said over and over we owe every single thing we have, everything we have first and foremost to god above but secondly to our veterans. And all those that are serving in the active military today. The world today is a spooky place. Thats all there is to it. But we have two people that absolutely came back and sought education and came back as veterans to West Virginia. Jamie is enrolled at marshall right now and heads up the student chapter. Why did they come back or why did they pick rather West Virginia, i tell you why they picked West Virginia. They see us on the pathway to eradicating the income tax on them. Weve made a big move and 21 and a quarter. We need to continue to make more and more moves and if they chose us. They could have gone anywhere. Absolutely as they propagate this message through all the grapevines, it brings more and more super qualified people to us and our veterans. Please stand. [applause] im going to stick with the veterans here for a minute. But i am announcing a bill tonight to give, im sorry, to give all of our veterans nobody is goingng to pay outofstate tuition. We are going to pay instate tuition in the state of West Virginia. In addition to that, two more initiatives. I want to spend 5 million to supercharge the Ascend Program in West Virginia, and 2. 5 million for the joint Initiative Recruitment of the big bases all across the land to bring more veterans to West Virginia. Did you know, we truly, truly do love and appreciate orbits and absolutely West Virginia has made the contributions that stepped up more than any other per capita state in the land. We absolutely owe them so please support those initiatives. In all fairness we started on the path where there wasnt money to do anything and when they gave me the books the first go round we were halfway through the year. What if the governor got something halfway through the year and was told 217 million short, what are you going to do . What are you going to do . You have a constitutional amendment to have a balanced budget. What in the world is this about and then they say thats not the bad news. The bad news in the first year deserve so much credit. Thats all there is to it. Ththeres a wealth of people behind but im telling you and you can put it in the bank if you believe anything he tells you in the world, you Better Believe this. Ive been in school after school after school and ive seen it work and work and work. Theres a fellow with us tonight named will madison. He was at Huntington High School not long ago and his dad was a nurse at the county ems. His dad died and he probably didnt know where to turn. Things were not going well at all. All of a sudden, they reconnected. Today hes a marketing major at Marshall University and today he is with us and the other thing hes done that will blow you awayha is as soon a c got there, he loved it and went to the department and told them he could take all the pictures of these athletes and today he is looked on and counted on as one of the shining stars in the Athletics Department so wherever he is, please stand and give him a great round of applause. [applause] im calling and asking for you to continue to fund this effort. 10 million is a drop in the bucket for the amount of kids that we have touched in this program. Theres call after call every day ofof schools wanting a doll. Absolutely you may not think its much, but it absolutely commits us to nurturing and learning and lots of ways. I can tell you the story real quickly and if this doesnt touch your heart i dont know what does. I think the kid is in elementary. He hasin real problems. Real, real problems. And everything. In a wheelchair, didnt want to come to school. We were losing him in every way. He started coming to school and he would read to the dog. This is a kid in elementary school. Then someone came to him and said he would hardly talk and someone said to him how is your day today and you know what his words were . Best day ever. To do a lot of good stuff. [applause] our teacher of the i year is wih us tonight. Sharon cole is a 34 year veteran educator and shes teaching the second grade at elementary and it is the first time we have a winner fromm wayne county. If she could stand please give her a round of applause. [applause] our 2024 school Service Personnel winner is with us. His name is gary and hes from cavanaugh county, hes a School Bus Operator and im telling you if you dont think for a second that we need our Service Personnel, you are out in left field. These peopleth are educators, ms and dads, everything to our kids. Where is gary . [applause] in the gallery we have sponsors, Blue Cross Blue Shield and toyota. Are you here with us anywhere . We are clapping for you anyway. [applause] now i am moving along and i dont have very far to go. But i would tell you just did this, and im going to be serious with you and you know me i dont blow smoke at many people. I dont have time to do it and i dont knowow how to tell you ths anymore point blank them just with this. High School Sports is really important. It binds communities together. It does all kinds of really good stuff. I know with the transfer into everything that you were trying to do the right thing because we want a choice. We want choice for our parents. Butt if you dont watch whats going to happen and you have to listen to a guy now all that is a coach, i tried to tell you before but absolutely when you have teams that are losing 93 to seven and 86nothing in football, its got to stop. And we have made this situation to where we are absolutely if we dont watch out we are going to ruin, and i said ruben high School Sports in West Virginia. Today i am absolutely pleading with you to figure it out. To get this back on the right kilter. Its important. You may not think for a second one in the world for crying out loud my kids are grown and gone, mine are too. Ive grown to be a coach because before i tried to tell you, i dont go on vacation. I dont go anywheree because i think that we live in the greatest place on the planet. Thats all there is to it. You dont have to send me on trips. I dont need your dollars, i dont need to go anywhere. I love West Virginia and all the greatness that we have all around us. Someway, somehow, weveve got to result of this and stop this. If this isnt enough, i dont know what is. Those kids had to go to school the next day. You realize that . He went on the field and got 937. What do you think that they were saying to those kids . Kids can be tough. They really can. Weve got to fix this. [applause] helping kids, dual enrollment, 6500 students have utilized. I am proposing 1. 6 million of additional funding. I commend fairmont stayed for stepping up and helping with our foster kids, giving the ability of High School Students into everything to come to fairmont stayed. Over and a over so many people e stepping up. Im really proud when we signed West Virginia to have three community college. Since that time, 4,500 students have worked with that grant. Its good stuff. I talked to you one second about dilapidated structures. We passed senate bill 368. Weve gotten rid of 500 structures that were just eyesores and problems and whatever it may be. In total i think it is projecting that we will do another 1500 or have 1500 total. I dont know which exactly it is. By the end of the summer of 2025. M weve got a lot more. I got to talk to you just a second about tourism. Good gracious, i could talk until thehe cows come home. I said to you earlier anytime youre thinking about it, any time you had the opportunity to spend a dollar on tourism with the great secretary chelsea ruby at hand, if you could spend a dollar on tourism, do it. The world is a weekend to all that is going on. Just think when i said close your eyes, think of the unbelievable seasons and the fact two thirds of the population of the country can drive to in a day. Think about the money we have spent on the state parks and did it work . Are you kidding me you can hardly get in the state parks, and tota think about the celebration of the new state park that we have, absolutely right there in summersville. So much going on. It is unbelievable. There were four straight years of tourism spending dropping in West Virginia and has that ever changed. Wherever you are, thank you so much. Keep it up. [applause] we have got 40 more all the way toir West Virginia. How about that . That is the really good news. There is some bad news with this and this is not good. But one of our folks was down there and i dont know exactly what they were doing. I dont know all the details, but i wasnt going to bring t ts up but ive got to tell you this. One of our folks is down there getting ready for transport and had a tranquilizer gun and someway somehow ended up shooting himself in the leg. Thats not a good day because it is a 500pound animal and you just took a tranquilizer dart and you may weigh 150 pounds. Not a good day at all. We were scared to death we were going to lose it. We really thought we were going to lose it. And now i think i can report to you hes doing pretty good. And i think that he is going to be okay. [applause] before i close, let me go back to this. I want to talk to you just a second about roads. When i first walked into the Governors Office and they handed me those books, and they were tough, really tough and i dont know many things in this world but im aes business guy d i know when somebodys bankrupt and if we went bankrupt, i would tell you you were crazy. Literally from that, and this is where i really, truly believe that god always shows up. It may not be on our timetable, but some way and somehow he always shows up. Block this out of your mind, bun i was in the shower [laughter] we are good with that of being way out of your mind. I thought what are we going to do, what in the world are we going to do and it then it hit me i said i wonder what it would cost every breathing West Virginia if we let every job we had even remotely on the books if we let them all go tomorrow what would it cost and thats where the idea of roads to prosperity started and off we went and with that, whether it be the bridges of wheeling because you couldnt get there without tearing your car up before, its unbelievable. Think about this number. In five years, we had done roadwork to 485,333 miles of road. The roadss to prosperity we had done 1200 thought projects. Its unbelievable. Before i leave i would tell you again absolutely we just approved another award today. We are getting really close. Finish it and absolutely finish the expressway. Finish them. [applause] the expressway and the highway will bring southern West Virginia the world and linking up to dc and all the populations and everything willl bring us jobs like you cant imagine. Think about this for just one second. In 2017, we courageously said we are going to spend 1,400,000,000 and in 2020 another 5. 1 million and by the end of 2023 it stood at 11. 5 billion. In 2024 we are representing that we are going to spend another 2 billion in projects. These men and women from the Highway Department and to bring you something out here. They have a banner. But then get this, so in total that is 13. 4 billion in cumulative Infrastructure Investment during the administration [applause] ive been good up until now except a little kid at pineville elementary. Let me tell you this now, i couldit probably use your prayes a little bit because r this is tough on me right here. Ive got a story to tell you but ive got this to tell you and this is where we end this. I am a real believer just like i said that god always shows up. Ive been blessed how in the world dide i come up with the idea of roads to prosperity, how on earth did i come up with it and do you think in any way hes come up with that idea, no way. In all honesty, i was given that idea. Absolutely weon have been blessd beyond all good sense and we should also never forget that. Let me a tell you a story real quick. My Basketball Team up there, you all stand up. [applause]. It just so happened woodrow has a number one seed inso two and three had a play each other. We played princeton at our place. We were the two seed but we put themem in our place before we hd one really big wood but we played a really close game with princeton. Long ago it was at princeton. So, they came in a played a really nice name and we lost. And gosh, i wasgo just fit to be tied im probably all of them are pretty sad. You note this is hard to believe but for the most part we are on the floor with one junior, whole bunch of sophomores, hold your freshman and thats what weve got. Last year a lot of them were sophomores now are freshman then. Ex im on my way to charleston the next day i cannot get out of my mind how it went last night. It went terrible we were out of the whole deal then it was just gone, it was over. For a lot of these kids they felt like what in the world just happened . I walked in the office remember said a minute ago god always shows up. So i walked in my office and rebecca, who gives me a letter after letter after letter and lots of times theres no weight to keep up with reading a letter after letter after letter we try and we try to read everyone we can get. Soso rebecca said i dont have y idea who this is. But you may want to resist. Soap incomes this letter to the honorable jim justice. Its a dear coach i was recently on a run with my two sons they started complaining about being tired. When they asked if we could walk instead of run i told them to keep selling the wood. After we completed the run they asked me what did that phrase mean . While explaining it meant, this is small print from its hard for me too see it while explaining it meant to persevere through adversity by continuing to make steady progress i was reminded when i first heard you use that phrase. While facing a large halftime deficit in the sweet 16 tournament of the National Tournament against the team from ohio you told me on the rest of the virginia allstars to keep selling the wood. We played poorly in the first half the beginning of your halftime speech was one of only a few times i ever saw you express your true disappointment in our effort. However you reminded us we could come back just as we did if we just caps on the wood. We came back and won the game and went on to advance to the quarterfinal of the national aau tournament. Then heay says we won the specic game and many others the life lessons we learned while playing basketball for you were far more important than the outcome of the game. What i was at Army Ranger School or on a military deployment i reminded myself daily to keep selling the wood. Now i apply the Business World and is the father. Thank you for your leadership you provided during my youth. And more broadly for your leadership to the great state of West Virginia. In a few days or months left remaining as governor. I encourage you to keep selling the wood. Please send mywo regards to katy and jay and jill below is my current Contact Information if you like to contact me note i currently reside in germany. I have with us tonight a real American Hero one of many, many, many. A west point m graduate Matt Fitzwater and get this he served as an army officer in the Field Artillery branch he won the bronze star is awarded the bronze star the combat action badge the air assault badge it isis amazing. Ive not heard from Matt Fitzwater in 25 years. So for everything i stand for. I believe that god always shows up i believe in my life every last one of us try to make things better try to make things better everywhere you possibly can. If i am coaching a Basketball Team iga put my record up againt anybody anywhere anytime because we want to win just as much as anyone wants to win. I want to tell you right now and those kids leave me all i can give them is the ability to be able to dribble the basketball better than i havent done much. You absolutely can do so much for this great state. It is unbelievable. Somewhere it with us is a matt and his family, his mom and dad donna and randy of the roof to come off of this it is a great American Hero apps they do not know where you are meant wherever you are stand up. [applause] s. [applause] [applause] hello ragtag bunch of kids from West Virginia my son right here, unbelievable experience wasnt it . With all of that being said i will ask you right now to do it i asked you to do just a little while ago roy told you i was going to ask you to do. I want you to close your eyes for one Second Period just one second imagine that place those resources beyond belief like i said before its close to two thirds of the population of the countrys four unbelievable seasons and the greatest people on theut planet. Imagine a state thats a booming job after job, company after eycompany hope and belief, travl guides that say a West Virginia of all places is the place to be. Im not open your eyes and know that place is us. Its West Virginia. I would say to each and every one of you keep selling the wood god bless you, thank you. [applause] more state of the state address is coming up next. Virtually from henry at mcmaster speeches from tony devers and jared polis the governors of wisconsin in colorado. s easement issue unfiltered view of government funded by these Television Companies and more including buckeye broadband. Buckeye broadband support cspan as well as other elvis and fred was given a to democracy. Whats state department and pentagon officials testify about challenges in the red sea after yemens iran backed houthis rebel attacks on ships in the region. Watch a Senate Foreign relations subcommittee live sgt 2 15 p. M. On cspan2 spend our free mobile video app or online at cspan. Org. Cspans washington journal life form involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and public policy. From washington d. C. Discusses the latest on negotiations miles due on the Hudson Institute and increase in chinas nationals entering msnbc host political analyst joe and read talks about her new book i was a Detroit Free Press correspondent previous Michigan Republican democratic president ial primary. Cspans washington journal of joint in the conversation live at seven eastern Tuesday Morning on cspan, suspend our free mobile app or