W.Va. gov race features dueling views of economy - Houston Chronicle
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The leading candidates for governor in West Virginia's special election have very different views on how the Mountain State is doing. But that doesn't mean either is wrong.
Republican Bill Maloney and acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat, outlined their dueling positions last week to the state Chamber of Commerce at its annual summit. Tomblin cited a dropping unemployment rate, the recent budget surplus and ongoing tax cuts as signs that West Virginia is moving in the right direction. Maloney invoked lost manufacturing jobs and a low median household income to argue otherwise.
The contrast reflects the key theme of each campaign. A Morgantown business owner, Maloney is running as the outsider and has repeatedly attacked Tomblin as a career politician. As Senate president, Tomblin is acting as governor after now-U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin resigned the governorship last year. Tomblin has served as Senate president since 1995, and has helped shape state policy.
Taken together, the differing views describe West Virginia's tricky position as the national economy continues to struggle in the wake of the Great Recession, said George Hammond, associate director of West Virginia University's Bureau of Business & Economic Research.
The unemployment rate is indeed down from recent peak levels, Hammond said. When adjusted for seasonal hiring trends, the rate fell from 8.5 percent to 8.1 percent in July. That a percentage point higher than the U.S. rate, and well below the 9.7 percent figure reported for the state in December. Unemployment stood at 9 percent in July 2010, and at 8.3 percent the July before that.
"The state economy came through a very significant downturn in 2009, we hit bottom, and now we're growing," Hammond said. "We are adding jobs."
But as Maloney did Thursday, Hammond cited the state's labor participation rate for July. West Virginia's tally of people 16 and older who were either working or seeking jobs was the worst in the nation. It shows that West Virginians are dropping out of the work force, Hammond said.
"West Virginia's economic performance is still slower than what we'd like to see," Hammond said. "The job growth is not fast enough to do very much to drive the unemployment rate down."
Maloney had also cited per-capita income. It was $32,641 last year, below the national average of $40,584 and lower than that of all other states except Idaho, Utah and Mississippi, according to the latest federal figures.
But Hammond noted that per-capita income has been growing, and with the state's gross domestic product has been increasing faster than the U.S. rates.
"By some measures we're doing at least as well or better than the national economy," Hammond said.
With the U.S. economy still sputtering, however, Hammond also observed that, "Overall, the performance of the state economy is not particularly good, particularly when it comes to the labor market."
Hammond is compiling data for a forecast of West Virginia's economic outlook, which he plans to present at a Nov. 8 conference in Charleston.
Several other bright spots suggest economic momentum in West Virginia.
The state began its new budget year July 1, and collected more general tax revenues than expected in each of the year's first two months. With $4.01 billion in general revenue expected by June 30, 2012, the state entered September with $645 million or $9.1 million more than estimated.
Two key indicators of economic activity, sales and personal income taxes, beat their July projections but both fell short in August. Severance taxes, collected on coal and other extracted natural resources, came in slightly below estimate in September but helped account for last month's better than expected results.
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Lawrence Messina covers the statehouse for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/lmessina
04 Sep, 2011--
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