AP Photo U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin made headlines this year by announcing his retirement from the Senate. His name has been mentioned in a third-party presidential run.

CHARLESTON – For West Virginia politics, 2023 was a year that saw one of its major figures announce a retirement, the state bringing in record tax revenues and historic tax cuts and several scandals involving executive branch agencies.

MANCHIN ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced in November that he would not seek re-election in 2024, choosing to retire at the end of his term.

“After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia,” Manchin said in a statement last month. “I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate….”

Manchin, 76, first won the seat in a special election in 2010 to succeed former U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd who died that same year. He defeated Republican Morgantown businessman and media mogul John Raese in 2010 and 2012, and a challenge from Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in 2018.

Manchin plans to spend the next several months touring the country as part of a new moderate political advocacy group created by his daughter, former pharmaceutical CEO Heather Bresch. Manchin, who has been whispered about as a potential third party presidential candidate, will be in New Hampshire – an early presidential primary state – in January for a political event.

“…What I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together,” Manchin said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recruited Gov. Jim Justice to run for Manchin’s Senate seat, entering the race in April. Justice, who is limited to two terms as governor and entering his final year in office, was already endorsed by West Virginia’s second senator – Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. – and former Republican president Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term after being defeated in 2020 by Democratic President Joe Biden.

“I want to tell you tonight I’m officially announcing my candidacy for the United States Senate, and I will absolutely promise you to God above that I will do the job, and I will do a job that will make you proud,” Justice said at his campaign announcement at his Greenbrier Resort in April.

Another top candidate in the 2024 GOP primary for U.S. Senate is Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., who announced his candidacy in November 2022. Only one Democratic candidate – veteran and self-described “socialist” Zachary Shrewsbury – has filed with the FEC to run next year, though Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott is considering entering the race.

WEST VIRGINIA ENDS FISCAL YEAR WITH ALL-TIME RECORD SURPLUS

While West Virginia has ended the last several fiscal years with large tax revenue surpluses, the state finished fiscal year 2023 – ending in June – with a $1.8 billion surplus, shattering all previous records.

“You deserve so much credit, West Virginia. It’s your money, and you are the ones who made it happen,” Justice said in a pre-recorded video message at the end of June. “You are the engines that made this great state move right straight to the forefront where now everyone recognizes us as the place to come to.”

The state ended fiscal year 2023 with more than $6.5 billion, which was 39.9% more than the official estimate set by the Department of Revenue and more than 10% more than the previous fiscal year, which saw more than $5.8 billion in collections and a $1.3 billion surplus.

Of the $1.8 billion collected in fiscal year 2023, $1.165 billion was appropriated in one-time funding placed in the surplus section in the back of the fiscal year 2024 budget. Another $231 million was deposited in the state’s Rainy Day Fund, putting it at more than $1.1 billion.

Using remaining surplus tax dollars and making adjustments to the fiscal year 2024 revenue estimate, the state was able to spend $552 million in supplemental appropriations during an August special session. Combined with rollovers of remaining funds in various department line items, the estimated unappropriated balance available to the state is more than $157.6 million.

But fiscal year 2023 may have been the peak for tax collections. Year-to-date tax collections for fiscal year 2024 – beginning July 1 and covering the first five months of the fiscal year – were $2.2 billion, which was 14.9% more than the $1.9 billion revenue estimate. That leaves the state with a $286.2 million surplus fiscal year-to-date.

JUSTICE, LAWMAKERS PASS LARGEST TAX BREAK IN STATE HISTORY

When the 2023 legislative session began last January, Justice and Republican members of the West Virginia Legislature were on bad terms after the governor helped tank a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2022 to give lawmakers the authority to make changes to the state’s tangible personal property tax system.

Instead, Justice introduced a bill to cut personal income tax rates by as much as 50%. While members of the House of Delegates Republican leadership were on board, Republican leadership in the Senate did not trust Justice’s proposal, instead introducing their own bill.

After negotiations between the House, Senate and governor’s office, a compromise was reached on House Bill 2526, which combined several proposals into one.

The final bill included a 21.25% cut across all six personal income tax brackets retroactive to Jan. 1, returning approximately $590 million to taxpayers. The bill also includes a trigger formula for further reducing personal income tax rates after Aug. 1, 2024, allowing for possible future reductions of up to 10% annually.

HB 2526 includes a 100% rebate on vehicle tangible personal property taxes for state residents in the form of a refund on annual personal income tax filings, returning an estimated $130 million to taxpayers annually.

The bill provides a 50% tax rebate in the form of personal income and corporate net income tax refunds for the payment by small businesses on tangible personal property taxes on machinery/equipment, inventory, leasehold investments, computer equipment and furniture and fixtures, returning approximately $35 million to taxpayers annually.

Lastly, HB 2526 includes a 100% refundable homestead tax credit for veterans who are 90% to 100% service-disabled. With all the provisions combined, the compromise bill would return approximately $750 million to taxpayers annually.

“Today, we put our stakes in the sand to invite any and everyone to this great state, to bring their business opportunities to us, to bring their jobs to us, to bring their folks to us,” Justice said at bill signing event for HB 2526 in March. “It is an absolute monumental day; a day that I have incredible pride in.”

“We know that we can do it, so we’re moving forward with being able to have job creation, having educational opportunities and have the things our people deserve,” said Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley. “They’re finally getting them now, and now we’re able to give back and put some money in their pockets on top of it.”

“This is a validation of the last eight years of work,” said House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay. “What we’ve seen signed in House Bill 2526 here is only possible because of eight years of work and creating a new economy here. That’s why most of us are here and certainly why I’m here. We want to keep doing it.”

SCANDALS PLAGUE JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION IN 2023

Justice has had to fend off questions during his final seven years in office regarding the many lawsuits brought against his family businesses. But his administration departments and agencies have not been without their troubles.

Toward the end of the legislative session in March, news began to trickle out about issues within the West Virginia State Police.

An initial investigation ordered by Justice into alleged wrongdoing in the agency resulted in the resignation of Superintendent Col. Jan Cahill and the appointment of Jack Chambers – a deputy director with the West Virginia Capitol Police with 26 years of experience in law enforcement with both the Capitol Police and the State Police – as interim superintendent.

The Department of Homeland Security began an internal investigation of top leadership of the State Police after the governor’s office received an anonymous letter from a whistleblower. Allegations included the use of ghost accounts to get around state purchasing rules, misuse of state purchasing cards for personal purchases, extramarital affairs between officers and fights, misuse of federal grants, overtime abuse and more. The story was first broken by WCHS-TV in Charleston.

One allegation was that a now-deceased State Police employee placed cameras in the women’s locker room at the State Police Academy in Institute. When three troopers discovered a thumb drive containing the videos from the locker room, one of the troopers attempted to destroy it by smashing it with their boot. A civil class action lawsuit is pending regarding those allegations.

“The very biggest allegation that is to not be tolerated in any way is that we have violated – at our State Police-level – women’s rights,” Justice said during an administration briefing in March. “I don’t know how many things can be much, much worse than that. Wouldn’t you absolutely think that a women’s locker room ought to be a safe place?”

In recent months, two federal class action lawsuits have unveiled the deletion of emails from former administration officials despite litigation holds requiring those emails to be preserved.

The state recently agreed to a proposed $4 million settlement regarding conditions at the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley after U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn’s 39-page order finding in favor of a motion from inmates seeking default judgment against the state. Aboulhosn accused DCR officials of intentionally destroying evidence, including emails and electronically stored documents.

“…The failure to preserve the evidence that was destroyed in this case was intentionally done and not simply an oversight by the witnesses,” he said. “The court does not make that statement flippantly but after much thought and reflection of the disturbing testimony that took place that day.”

Justice and Department of Homeland Security Cabinet Secretary Mark Sorsaia have denied the intentional destruction of electronic records. Brad Douglas, the former interim commissioner of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Phil Sword, chief counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, were terminated last month. Another class action lawsuit regarding conditions in the entire correctional system is pending.

A hearing in a separate federal class action suit over conditions of the state’s foster care system is scheduled for January regarding a motion for sanctions against the Department of Health and Human Resources, which is set to split into three new departments at the end of this year.

A Better Childhood, Disability Rights West Virginia and attorneys with the Shaffer and Shaffer law firm are seeking sanctions after attorneys for DHHR admitted in an Oct. 6 letter that emails for seven former officials had been deleted by the Office of Technology — the state’s internet service provider — even after deposition holds were requested by DHHR. Attorneys for DHHR have apologized for the error.

Over in the Department of Transportation, Secretary Jimmy Wriston said in an October legislative interim meeting that he followed all the appropriate rules in awarding multimillion-dollar contracts to a firm that employed his son for years.

As first reported by WSAZ-TV, Wriston was personally involved with the awarding of bridge contracts to Michael Baker International, an engineering firm with offices in West Virginia. Michael Baker has employed Wriston’s son, Adam, for more than 15 years.

Wriston told lawmakers he sought advice from the Federal Highway Administration and the West Virginia Ethics Commission regarding the potential conflict. During his time on the selection committee before becoming cabinet secretary, he sat on one short list selection process, for the Glenville Truss Bridge, where Michael Baker made the short list of three companies.

State Democratic Party officials, including Chairman Mike Pushkin – a member of the House of Delegates from Kanawha County – have called for a federal investigation into Wriston’s involvement in contracts benefiting family members.

“The Department of Transportation can’t have it both ways. Either Secretary Wriston participated in the selection of his son’s company or he didn’t,” Pushkin said in an October statement. “There’s an old saying that says ‘it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.’ Since the Governor’s office and the Department of Transportation aren’t being forthcoming with an explanation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office should investigate this matter.”