West Virginia leaders would do well to look west for a model of the future. In Ohio, not only are leaders there attracting new businesses and growing the state’s population, they also are finding ways to put money back into the pockets of residents.

Consider: starting in January, Ohio residents making more than $26,050 annually will pay a flat personal income tax rate of 2.75%. That’s in contrast to West Virginia’s top rate of 4.82% on income.

Then there’s this: a group in Ohio this month is finalizing a plan to present to the General Assembly on how to reform the state’s property tax system.

What a contrast. In West Virginia, our elected leaders have spent much of this year arguing over vaccines — proven science — while in Ohio the path has been to make life more affordable for residents. There may be no clearer example that West Virginia’s leaders — at least until now –have been charting the wrong course for the future.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey entered office in January saying West Virginia needed to be competitive with its neighbors. Since then, though, our elected leaders have not backed that play, as this past legislative session saw little positive movement. As we see from Ohio and also in Kentucky, where personal income tax rates are being lowered, our neighboring states are not sitting around waiting for us to get it together.

That needs to change if West Virginia truly wants a prosperous future.