From A Third-World State. . .To A First-Rate State
The Platform Of Bob Henry Baber
Taxes, Fiscal Responsibility, and Jobs
No Reduced or Free Lunches For The Outside Corporations
I support the elimination of the food tax. I am opposed to new taxes on the middle class and small businesses and favor tax relief. As Governor my number one priority will be to reclaim West Virginia for West Virginians.We must diversify our economy and give our children and grandchildren the opportunity to stay in our beautiful State and make a difference, not move to Charlotte or Columbus. We never could afford to lose "our best and our brightest." That's truer now than ever in the computer era. Naturally, we must also take into account our large unfunded retirement and health mandates and find ways to start paying them down. We need to reduce subsidies and increase taxes on the energy/extraction industries (coal, gas, oil, and timber) to relieve the burden on those least able to afford it-families and the working poor. None dispute: way too much has been taken from West Virginia, and not nearly enough put back. The evidence is everywhere we look-especially in the southern coal producing counties. I propose raising the coal severance tax from 5 to 7.5% (just slightly above the rate that conservative Wyoming, which produces three times as much coal as us, charges.) This would bring in an additional 200 million for economic development, promotion of tourism ("WV: Closer than you think, far better than you could ever imagine.") broadband, growing small businesses, assisting students to go to technical schools, community colleges and/or four-year institutions, augmenting research and development, building low-income energy-efficient housing, and restarting summer jobs programs for youth.
Marcellus Shale
After decades of stripping for coal on peoples' homeplaces, the West Virginia Supreme Court many years ago outlawed the practice of 'ruin and run' coal mining on "Broad Form Deed" lands-parcels on which the deed holders "only" own the surface. The court ruled that these antiquated century-old deeds were made at a time when the signers could not have foreseen the new technology of stripping-and therefore they nullified that practice and banished the carnage. Too bad the justices at the time couldn't have foreseen (just like the deed signers couldn't) the barrage of fracking. Had the court known the future, they would certainly have nullified fracking on surface (only) owned land as well. At this very moment, history is shockingly repeating itself as landowners and citizens are being subjected, against their wills, to fracking and the threat of fracking throughout West Virginia. Mineral owners (only) also need to have their rights protected against forced takings.
The wild, but unwonderful Marcellus Shale gas rush, already underway, is unregulated and thus poses an imminent and grave risk to all West Virginia water and to our air-and thus to everyone and everything living in the State. Land and house values, our property tax base, schools, tourism, in-migration of retirees and others, and our very way of life are threatened.
Thus far, the State of West Virginia is chasing a train that roared out of the station two years ago. Currently there are nearly 60,000 active wells overall for which the WV Department of Environmental Protection has less than 20 inspectors. This does not take into account new fracking wells which, when compared in the size and scope to the wells of old, are the difference between a convienence store and a Super Wal-Mart. Furthermore, DEP inspectors current pay doesn't even come close to competing with what people in the fracking fields are making. This further complicates the protection of the people and the environment. All of this must immediately change. We, who are gathered here, and thousands of concerned citizens who could not come today because they are working-- but who we represent, have united here to demand action from the legislature, the Governor, and the courts to protect our homes, our communities, our wells, our rivers and lakes, and our economic future. Earl Ray Tomblin's "Emergency Measure" announced July 10th is the equivalent of taking a garden hose to a forest fire-it's way too little and way too late. The public legislative hearings, while laudable, have yet to produce any tangible changes.
"It's high time we moved beyond 'concerned' rhetoric and hand-wringing and grapple with the challenges of Marcellus Shale. My plan clearly addresses protection of private landowners, tourism, economic development, and the environment.
Key Marcellus Shale points:
1. A total and permanent ban of fracking on surface owners (only) land unless they expressly grant permission--at least within two miles of homes. (Such permission can only be granted after consultation with independent lawyers and/or experts designated by the State and paid for by the developers (to protect senior citizens and other citizens unaware of their rights.) At this time surface owners have virtually no protection or say in how their land will be used.
2. A minimum environmental permitting fee, not of $600, but of $40,000 or 1% of the total cost of the well (whichever is greater) will be assessed (the average well currently costs between 4-6 million). This fund will be used by the DEP to hire new inspectors at industry-competitive salaries. It will also be utilized to mitigate environmental damage. To put this in perspective, this fee is only half of the 2% food tax all West Virginians currently pay.
3. Severance taxes on natural gas will increase to 7% + $0.095* per MCF from the current low rates instituted nearly a quarter a century ago. *(Based on Oklahoma's model; Oklahoma is the # 3 producer in the country.) The increased excise tax revenues will be used exclusively for economic development & diversification, and education.
4. Complete transparency on a public permitting process not to be less than 60 days, on water sourcing, on waste-water disposal, and on the use of chemicals in the fracking process. West Virginia Rivers and water impoundments must be pre-tested and protected from excessive "takings" and potential pollution.
5. No fracking will done within 2 miles of a municipality, a municipal water plant, a municipal water in-take valve, residence, commercial building, church, historic site, public park, or cemetery and vapor capture equipment will be manditory on all wells.
6. Pre-tests, at company expense, of landowners' wells.
7. Comprehensive bonding mechanisms, and appropriate violation penalties, will be put in place to ensure environmental compliance.
We will create a special ten million dollar grant pool for small struggling towns and cities to actualize their dreams of economic revitalization and to promote tourism and culture.
It is high time we assessed once and for all the true value of the coal, gas, oil, and timber reserves and tax them according to the same standards that the average family pays. This will bring in millions of additional new dollars for our resource-rich region. If a coal property sells for a billion- taxes should be paid on that real-time valuation. Acre for acre, dollar for dollar, the typical family is paying four times the rate of the large outside corporations. That's socialism for the rich and cutthroat capitalism for the poor. It's not fair-and is no formula for moving WV into the 21st century. We've had a hundred years of this nonsense and look where it's landed us-in a three-legged race with Mississippi to see who can be the poorest State in the country. Campaign money from extraction industries has corrupted the electoral process from the Governor on down to the tax assessors. That is why we need election reform and campaign spending limits.
As a former member of the Laborer's Union, I support unions and realize that they create the baseline for pay scales that many non-union workers are the beneficiaries of. Unions provide safety in the mines. Last year 48 miners died in the US, 47 of them were non-union. What more needs said?
West Virginia is currently getting only 50% of what Mississippi gets from private foundations. This is unacceptable. When I become governor I will hire ten grant writers to link private giving with state needs such as economic development, health, early education and after school programs, social programs, elderly assistance, the arts, etc. We will also conduct regional workshops to teach non-profits how to access this huge source of untapped funds.
Finally, although my platform is progressive, I detest fiscal waste. All government buildings and schools should be retrofitted to reduce energy consumption. As Governor, I will challenge all State Agencies to work more efficiency and eliminate waste and duplication of effort. We will develop a rewards system for workers with ideas that save money. In many cases we may have to invest for the short haul, in order to save for the long haul. As Mayor of Richwood we invested in new computers, trained staff to use them, gave them significant raises, saved money on exorbitant year-end external accounting fees, and still came out to the good. My financial philosophy is consistent with environmental preservation, since protecting our precious financial resources, increasing worker productivity and pay, and getting the most juice out of the orange as possible, is the proper use of resources.
As Governor I will travel widely to recruit businesses and to sing the praises of the Appalachian people. I will also fight hard against the stereotyping of Mountaineers (as in the Wild, Wonderful Whites of WV) in the media.
Education
The Stepping Stones Of Progress
I promote parental involvement on all levels, teacher merit pay raises, small schools, and the avoidance of consolidation. In education, bigger is not necessarily better. We should create grant programs to develop replicable new models of education. I'm not opposed to school and teacher evaluations--if they are done fairly and with a mind towards improving education and teachers' skills. We need to promote linkage of school curriculums with emerging jobs in health, computer technologies, land resources, and the green energy jobs of the future. Community and technical schools are one of the keys to our State's development. We need to continue to fund research and development in higher education. All educational institutions need to identify students with "hidden promise" and cultivate their skills, particularly in Math and English. Traditional colleges need to conduct "summer camps" to introduce them to the campus experience. With enhanced revenues from extraction industries, we will start scholarship programs for B students who've performed exemplary community service in their high school years. These could be our future leaders and small business creators. The Promise Scholarship should be "needs" based and focused on first-generation college students. We need to be concerned about the huge debts students are running up to secure degrees for jobs that are scarce here and elsewhere.
The Environment: Land, Water
People Before Profits
The safety of our deep miners can never been compromised, as the recent Upper Big Branch report clearly stated it was. My first priority will be to ensure the safety of deep-miners, protect "whistle-blowers", and empower inspectors to enforce the laws with vigor. The Marcellus shale opportunity could become a curse if it isn't properly and immediately regulated. Drilling permit fees need to be substantially raised and empowered inspectors hired to protect our natural resources and surface owners rights.
Ecologically, Forbes magazine ranked WV as, "the brownest State in the Union." Mountaintop Removal is an explosive issue that contradicts environmental common sense and is the antithesis of tourism. People won't pay to see ravaged hillsides and polluted rivers. Why would they? Are we to rename West Virginia "the mountain removal state?"
Still, the nation is as dependent on MTR coal as we are on the jobs. This will and must change. MTR buries topsoil and streams, contaminates wells, destroys trees, makes local residents physically and spiritually sick, divides our communities (and state), creates environmental debt, and is unsustainable. Reclamation has proven to be, with just a few showcase exceptions, a cruel joke.**
Men cannot remake in a few years what God has rendered in eternity. This is the height of arrogance and we all know it-even the miners who are working in the industry to generate profits for the big outside corporations who care not a whit about WV or its people. But what are the workers to do but participate in the demise of their own land and culture? For worse, not for better, that's exactly what's happening. Now trust me, "Friends of Coal" won't be around when the coal is gone and the environment is ruined-and that is coming sooner rather than later. Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency won't end MTR, but capitalism will-likely within the next 15 years. What will be left in its wake? No jobs and desecrated mountains-the worst of all possible scenarios!
Currently have about 6,000 direct jobs, and as many more indirect jobs, tied to MTR. We should never have headed down this road, but it was in the corporate interest to do so. There's an old phrase, "No matter how far down the bad road you've gone. . .turn back!" We must now turn back, by transitioning MTR jobs into the green jobs of the future. As an energy-producing State, we are perfectly positioned to do so-if we can muster the political will. First, we must tap into the Abandoned Mine Land Fund and put the dozers in reverse, paying the miners to reclaim huge chunks of devastated land as best can be done. And we need to begin to create a diversified economy (such as solar manufacturing plants and collection stations on formally stripped sites.) This will be accomplished with an "energy dividend" generated by increased severance taxes and responsible Marcellus Shale development that doesn't disregard surface owners' rights (such as my own ancestral home, upon which the drillers are pushing to invade) or degrade the environment. For now MTR needs to begin to downsize, to vastly lower its footprint, and to let miners go by attrition, retraining and retirement. I don't pretend to have all the answers for this incredibly complex and contentious problem, I wish I did. But I do acknowledge the issue, and that's a start. Meanwhile, we can begin the transition, but we must start NOW! Alas, neither of my opponents seems willing to discuss the obvious, but instead have their head's stuck in piles of coal and their minds stuck in the past. Some people, it appears to me, will do anything and take money from anyone to occupy the Governor's mansion. I am not one of them.
West Virginia's most precious environmental resource, its water, must be preserved for future generations.
Clean coal is like dry water-a contradiction in terms--despite all the slick ads we see on TV that seek to prove otherwise. At this juncture, I do not believe that "cleaning up" coal will ever prove to be economically viable on a mass scale.
**As the creator of the "Adoption" of Yeager Airport, where 10,000 trees have been painstakingly planted by Glenville State College, and where a forest has taken root, I know firsthand about the difficult challenges of reclamation.
Drugs, Crime
We must repeatedly warn our children of the dangers of all types of substance abuse-including tobacco. I strongly support rooting out and imprisoning physicians who over-prescribe addicting drugs. They are a cancer in our society that we cannot tolerate. I support real-time pharmacy accountability, where pharmacies (through no fault of their own) can't be "played" by drug abusers with multiple scripts. I support the aggressive prosecution of meth labs manufacturers, Oxy pushers, and hard drug purveyors of all stripes-particularly those who prey on our vulnerable youth.
Jobs for our youth are critical, especially in the coal-producing and poverty regions. If our young people have hope--and money--they'll be less inclined to fall into substance abuse and potentially criminal behavior.
I support the alternative community-service-based sentencing for minor non-violent crimes. This will save incarceration money and create the by-product of cleaning up roads, dumps, and river banks, while improving State parks and the environment.
Health Care
Affordable Medicine As A Right, Not A Commodity
West Virginia is one of the unhealthiest States in the country in large part due to poverty. We suffer from obesity, heart disease, stokes, diabetes, and excessive tobacco use. West Virginians also have poor dental health, also due to poverty. These pose grave risks for our people and our economy, both in the present, and even more so, in the future. We need to improve our school lunch and exercise programs, create exercise facilities state-wide, and invest in preventive medicine.
Like Social Security, I support Social Medicine--universal healthcare for all West Virginians. Of course, that cannot happen without federal support, which is politically unlikely at this time. Our current system rations the best care for those who can pay, supplements care for the very poor, and leaves the working poor uncovered-thereby penalizing that population quite unfairly. This problem needs addressed. Meanwhile, we need to secure prescriptions at the lowest rates possible through state compacts or other suitable mechanisms and assist the sick and elderly in securing affordable medicine.
I support increased funding for mental health facilities and health care clinics-all on a sliding fee scale. Our rural communities remain woefully underserved.
I support the best health care for Veterans that money can buy.
I will consider increased taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and gambling, with the bulk of the proceeds dedicated to education and prevention of these physically and mentally debilitating habits.
Transportation
Obviously, building new roads, and maintaining existing roads and bridges, poses a huge problem that will not be easily solved. Roads are the backbone of modern economic development, but building new roads is extremely expensive in WV. We will continue to seek matching federal funds for road and railroad construction, air and water port upgrades, etc. in order to remain competitive-especially in regards to the exportation of metallurgical coal.
Our current system provides hidden tax-payer subsidies for extraction companies which destroy roads and pass the burden onto the common citizens. In particular, over-weight coal trucks and Marcellus shale development both pose serious peril to rural roads. These practices must cease and Marcellus shale development must be regulated.
The new "super highway" to economic prosperity is Broadband. With the high price of gas, we need to cover the state with internet access to improve education and health, and to promote economic development and entrepreneurship.