Recently I wrote about the U.S. Supreme Court’s wrong-headed decision concerning campaign finance funding. The U.S. Supreme Court is not the only court in the land that gets it wrong from time to time. In the news today is a story about a major problem created by a wrong-headed decision by former Kanawha County Circuit Judge and current U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger.
The story concerns the South Charleston Technology Park, about which I have written before. The Governor and his friends have hatched a plan to save the Tech Park, in part by moving a significant number of state government offices there. But Judge Berger ruled several years ago when the West Virginia Lottery Commission tried to move its offices to Teays Valley that the West Virginia Constitution, which declares the seat of government to be Charleston (Article 6, Section 20), prohibited such a move. While technically in South Charleston, the Tech Park is literally feet, not even miles, from Charleston and a mere five-minute drive from the State Capitol Complex itself.
The Governor basically dared anyone to sue, but several Charleston politicians made it clear that they were ready to take that dare. Then some Charleston politicians hatched a plan to annex a portion of the Technology Park, but the City of South Charleston balked. All this craziness because of Judge Berger’s flawed ruling.
Stop and think for a minute:
- At one extreme, no one could argue with a straight face that every single state government job should be housed within the four corners of Charleston. After all, all major government agencies have offices scattered throughout the state, and the state’s citizens are better off as a result.
- At the other extreme, it would be hard to argue that West Virginia’s elected state officials should be headquartered outside of the State Capitol Complex, much less Charleston.
- Should statutorily-created Cabinet-level offices be required to be housed in Charleston? No. If the West Virginia Constitution’s framers did not see fit to require these offices, they almost surely wouldn’t view them as important enough to justify a requirement that they be housed in Charleston. A clear, easy-to-apply standard that can be justified with a reasonably logical argument.
- But do realize that the Lottery Commission itself is not a Cabinet-level office. It is one level down organizationally under the auspices of the West Virginia Department of Revenue. Just like the Division of Rehabilitation Services, headquartered in Institute, and the Division of Tourism, headquartered in South Charleston. If Judge Berger’s ruling applies to the Lottery Commission, it logically applies to Rehab Services and Tourism, too.
- Having said that, if I were a legislator, I would sponsor a bill that lists government agencies that can be headquartered outside of Charleston because the relevant provision of the West Virginia Constitution contains five important words: “unless otherwise provided by law.”
- And having said that, I seriously wonder whether Judge Berger’s wrong-headed decision may have prevented state politicians from making a wrong-headed decision of their own to take over a Tech Park that’s unlikely to flourish under the best of circumstances – an opinion that many of my friends do not share, but which seems pretty obvious to me.
The real discussion comes at the very end your imperial edict: Should the state try and save a business?
Years ago, I would have easily said yes. Now, all I can say is fund what you can afford and manage it well. State government is completely over-extended as it stands now.
I am amazed at business owners who constantly complain about bloated government but never complain about a state’s Development Office that hands out taxpayer dollars to said business owners.
I prefer to call my discussion profound, not imperial, but great minds like ours, even if half-a-bubble-off-plumb, may differ. I did bury the lead just a bit, something I taught my technical writing students never to do.