West Virginia governor urges unhappy Virginia counties to secede and join his state

[VA Yankee]

So when is everyone leaving?

[Old Dominionite]

I would have thought that Governor Justice had more important items on his agenda (e.g., 20 percent poverty rate, opioid use, an economy that is still overly reliant on coal) than pander to an idea that has next to zero chance of advancing...

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...to-secede-join

Who would choose to leave Virginia to join a bankrupt, failed state West Virginia?

If anything, we should make the same offer to West Virginians. Harpers Ferry, Virginia, has a nice ring to it.

West Virginia is in worse shape than Virginia.

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by Old Dominionite

I would have thought that Governor Justice had more important items on his agenda (e.g., 20 percent poverty rate, opioid use, an economy that is still overly reliant on coal) than pander to an idea that has next to zero chance of advancing...

Justice spends too much time with his socialist and progressive Democratic friends than he does governing and improving West Virginia. West Virginia needs to elect a new governor.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by slowlane3

If that happens, then low-skilled workers will find that in being a part of WV their minimum wage is still $7.25, while if they had stayed a part of VA it will likely have increased to $15.00. In order to earn $15.00, they will have to commute into a locality that's still part of VA.

On the other hand, business owners in VA will find the cost of operating businesses higher, causing price hikes, and if they're close to a state border, then difficulty competing with businesses on the WV side of the border (this will be a problem in places such as Danville, Bristol, Martinsville, Covington, and Winchester) who will have lower overhead and can therefore offer cheaper priced merchandise.

Bristol is basically an hour and a half from WV up 81 forking off to 77 near Wytheville through Bland County toward Princeton. Bristol, VA is a financial mess as it is and people are moving a few miles away to TN to avoid VA income taxes (if they don't work in VA), personal property tax, as well as the inevitable rise in real estate taxes that Bristol, VA will have to do. If Bristol, VA raises taxes, it just encourages more people to move to Tennessee.

When I went to Charleston, WV a few weeks ago, gas prices in Princeton, WV were $.30-$.40 than in Wytheville. I paid $24 in road tolls in WV to go the hundred miles or so to Charleston and back out. Needless to say, WV taxes/tolls, at a cursory glance, make rural VA look very sensible by comparison.

I wouldn't be surprised if the city of Bristol, VA goes bankrupt, absent casino or weed stimulus.

[NOVAmtneer82]

As a former West Virginian who has lived in Northern Virginia for 15 years I can say that Jim Justice should worry about the problems in his own state rather than try and take on more territory. Being 'pro-2A' and 'pro-life' and Republican doesn't appear to have done anything for West Virginia- the state still leads the nation in population decline, is in the midst of a major drug/ obesity epidemic, very high poverty rates with a large number on welfare, disability and other social programs (but they hate 'big gubermint' and scream 'socialism' all the time) and virtually no economy. Why any county in western Virginia would want to be a part of that boggles the mind.