Dead Last: West Virginia lawmakers must focus on boosting state
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Were it not for Mississippi, West Virginia would be the bottom of the barrel in most studies ranking states, in a variety of categories. Recently, Mississippi served as our barrier to being dead last when it comes to lowest average household incomes.
Median household income here is $65,332, according to data compiled by NiceRx. Our poverty rate is 17.1%. For purposes of the NiceRx study, those and other factors gave the Mountain State a "happiness score" of 1.66, ranking us 47th overall.
Meanwhile, the folks at WalletHub looked at another indicator of economic struggle -- credit scores. In its look at the states with highest and lowest credit scores, West Virginia ranked 43rd, with an average credit score of 676. (Minnesota was highest, at 724.)
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Virginia had the highest drug overdose mortality rate in the country in 2020, the most recent year for which there is complete data. During that year there were 1,330 drug overdose deaths -- a rate of 81.4 per 100,000 total population. Those are the kinds of tragedies born out of the economic struggle and hopelessness of our putrid personal economic figures.
On Jan. 11, those we elected to represent us in the state legislature will gather in Charleston for the regular session. Their priorities should be clear, given the numbers above. The socio-cultural crusades that send young people fleeing from our state and keep potential employers at bay must not be revived.
Our lawmakers have a duty to support schools teaching students more, not less. Students should be prepared for a vibrant, diverse economy, not an economy that hasn't existed here for decades. Potential employers must know they will be welcomed, and encouraged to create good jobs in a state that embraces new families and does right by those who have called it home for generations.
Safe, adequate infrastructure is essential -- forget about just Roads to Prosperity, how about broadband and safe drinking water for all?
We have so much potential here. We need not settle for dead last. It's not who we are. But come January, we'll get nowhere unless lawmakers get out of their own way and remember why we sent them to Charleston in the first place.