Residents across the Senate’s 15th district, which encompasses Morgan and Hampshire counties as well as parts of Berkeley and Mineral counties, spoke about the need for competitive wages, affordable housing and better infrastructure.
As part of Mountain State Spotlight’s “Citizens Agenda” approach to covering this year’s elections, we asked candidates running to represent the district about these issues.
Tom Willis, an attorney in Martinsburg, is running as the Republican candidate. Anthony Murray, an educator from Hampshire County, is representing the Democratic ticket. Both candidates are running to replace Senate President Craig Blair after he lost the GOP primary in the spring.
These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
The district has seen increased growth in population as more individuals are moving into the state from nearby urban areas. Because of this, the cost of housing has exponentially increased, often pricing out local community members. The limited supply of available housing in the counties has further exacerbated this. What will you do to help increase the number of affordable housing options in the district?
Willis: The good news is commerce is moving along up here, and there are people coming in, and there are investments. I mean, there’s a limited amount of control a statesman, stateswoman can have on the price of housing. It’s largely determined by the market, supply and demand. The more regulation and permitting and hoops that builders and developers have to jump through to build a neighborhood, the longer it takes, and the higher the cost per unit, which drives up the cost for everybody and makes housing unaffordable. And so you see a real dearth of housing.
So, one of the things that I want to do, not only with the housing sector but with all sectors in our business community, is take a look at what’s really necessary, what can we trim and how can we expedite things.
We have to make it so that it’s economically viable for our builders and our developers to produce those affordable housing units. And we do that by reducing regulation and the permitting processes.
Murray: One thing I think we do is increase the taxes on the new people coming in, especially because a lot of them open up Airbnbs, and a lot of their income comes from that, which is not taxed the same way as a property owner would be, which helps them retain a lot of their wealth. Unfortunately, that drives out the residents that were already there. It’s something that needs to be addressed especially in this area because so many people are generational, and they’ve lived here for so long. It’s really unfortunate for them.
Because of the rapidly growing population, folks also spoke about the concern that the infrastructure, including the roads, schools and water and sewer systems in the district, hasn’t kept up with the pace of growth. What will you do to help expand and improve the infrastructure in the district?
Willis: I’ll agree with part and disagree with part. I think that, at least in Berkeley County, the county has done a good job of keeping up with infrastructure on the water and sewer. I believe, if I understand correctly, we’re only at 50% capacity for our water, meaning we still have 50% capacity available to be used. So we’re doing well on some of our utilities.
The roads, that’s a major issue. And I agree 100% that our growth is outpacing our roads. And some of these intersections coming off of I-81 here in the Panhandle have a few bottlenecks that I want to work with the Department of Highways on. I know that some planning has been done to address some of these issues, especially, you know, route 9 into Hedgesville, exit 12 off I-81, but we need to see if we can expedite those plans. I’m hoping we can work with our legislative team from the Eastern Panhandle to get our roads and bridges pushed to the top as a priority for the state, because as one of the major economic engines for the state we’ve got to reinvest in our infrastructure here so that we can play to our strengths and keep the growth and the good direction we’re moving, and keep it going in the right direction.
Murray: One thing I think we should invest in is more trade schools. I think there are a lot of students that like that kind of education, and it’s more gratifying for them than a traditional academic setting, especially because the infrastructure around here — I think it was voted one of the worst infrastructures in the country a few months ago. It’s really bad too because obviously, just for the safety, but also with the influx of all these people too, the cars driving on the road, which aren’t built for that, and so they’ve had to build a lot of extra stuff.
I feel like one thing I would do is try to increase the amount of trade schools so people that could become welders and carpenters and stuff like, which is very much needed, could be a way to keep the jobs here and keep the kids here because I know a lot of kids leave the state, especially after high school. That is a big problem because then it leads to more problems within the population growth.
Another thing I would do is try to increase the taxes of the people coming in with higher income, especially with the Airbnbs, to help supply some of the revenue. I would try to reach out more for federal funding. A lot of the areas around where I am have big signs that say, like, we got grants from the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Act, so I think there’s definitely money that needs to come in for the area. West Virginia is obviously not a very high-income area, so we need a lot more federal funding than some other areas. But the thing is that’s what we need, and we shouldn’t be afraid to ask. I know a lot of people, especially some conservatives and Republicans, don’t want to get “handouts” from the federal government. But the thing is we need help. We can’t provide for ourselves if we don’t have some help to help ourselves at the beginning.
I also think we need to invest a lot more in green energy. West Virginia has a ton of natural resources other than coal. Coal is a horrible 18th-century technology that we’re still using unfortunately. It’s just a horrible industry from the way that coal miners have been treated for a long time with the coal wars and stuff up to now where a lot of miners still have black lung disease, and they still don’t get compensated for their health issues. A lot of the issues of pollution happen because of the dirty coal that they keep trying to promote as clean, which doesn’t exist.
We have a ton of water, we can use a lot of hydro. Microhydro is a thing now where a lot of hydroelectric streams to power some of their appliances and their house, or some electricity in their generators or whatever. There’s a lot of farmland that we can use a lot of solar. There are already windmills in the area. So, that’s definitely a good start. I think we need to move away from coal because it’s also just a dying industry in itself. I think we really need to work on looking at the things we have, instead of just relying on old coal.
Residents also spoke about how many folks travel outside the district and into neighboring states to find well-paying jobs. Teachers were often brought up as an example because they could work in Virginia or Maryland and get at least 10 to 20 thousand dollars a year more than they could get here. How would you bring jobs with competitive wages into the district?
Willis: Well, I’m all for locality pay for our teachers here. I have personal friends that tell me, ‘I can drive across the state border and get a 50% pay increase for an extra 15-minute commute.’ And of course, who wouldn’t do that? I mean, that’s just common sense. We all operate off of economic incentives to one degree or another. I know that other parts of the state have pushed back on the locality pay. But again, I think that’s where the delegation from the Eastern Panhandle really needs to unify with some of the other bordering counties around the state and see if we can find some sort of compromise to get locality pay for our teachers because we really are losing excellent teachers to Maryland, to Virginia, here locally, just because we’re not competitive on pay.
In the military part of your pay is determined by your locality, where you live. So for instance a soldier stationed in San Francisco is going to get paid a lot more by the army than a soldier in rural Kansas, and they account for that through a cost of living adjustment, and there’s also a housing allowance adjustment. And whether we do the same thing or something similar, I don’t know, but we’re just denying the economic realities of the market here if we don’t give our teachers in the Eastern Panhandle more competitive salaries compared to our neighbors.
Murray: Yeah, definitely increase the wages. Again, I think we’d have to look for federal assistance, and that’s something that I don’t think we should be ashamed of or anything. I think we need to fund more education because a lot of schools don’t have the number of educators needed or the resources. A lot of schools have issues with internet still. Internet is such a big problem around here. The world is so much more on the internet and a lot of these kids are missing out because they don’t have the right resources to compete and to stay up with other students. I think one thing would be paying teachers better salaries, and hiring a lot more teachers aides and things. And trying to retain a lot of teachers from around here.