(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Well, when Gov. Jim Justice said several months ago that he had no plans to self-fund his campaign for U.S. Senate, we can now say he wasn’t lying.

That’s because he really doesn’t have the money to self-fund. Or if he does, he is doing a good job of keeping his true income hidden.

Justice’s delayed and much-awaited financial disclosure report for the Senate came out last week, and it included a number of curiosities.

According to the report, Justice and First Lady Cathy Justice reported more than $253,000 in salaries, including $250,000 from his salary as governor, $3,500 from his salary as a high school basketball coach in Greenbrier County and less than $1,000 from her salary from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.

Some have asked me how Justice can report $250,000 as his salary as governor when by law his salary is set at $150,000. It’s unclear the specific timeframe the financial disclosure report covers, but according to the State Auditor’s Office, Justice receives his salary every two weeks. If the disclosure report splits the fiscal year, then it is possible to report a higher number.

Also, he could be including perks of the office, such as security and mansion staff. Sure, he doesn’t live in the mansion, but there are still mansion staff, including a full-time chef. Justice still uses the mansions for meetings and meals. But of course, without that $250,000 number being broken down, we just don’t know.

Gov. Justice and First Lady Justice listed 147 assets including public and non-public stocks, bank deposits, accounts receivables from businesses, real estate and blind trusts. The estimated worth of the assets was between $37.5 million and more than $1.9 billion. That’s a heck of a range. Yet, Justice only reported between $25,000 and $73,000 of income derived from dividends and interest from 10 of those assets.

The Justices reported between $37.5 million and $108.1 million in liabilities between lines of credit, promissory notes, and judgments. Of note, four of the 12 liabilities include lines of credit from four Justice-owned businesses: the Greenbrier Resort, Tams Management, Bellwood Corp. and Black River Farms.

These lines of credit have no interest and are payable by demand. In the case of the Greenbrier, the line of credit is between $5 million and $25 million. In short, Justice can ask for money from the Greenbrier anytime he wants. In a way, this makes sense. It’s his business. But by putting it down as a line of credit versus income, it muddies the water. For example, the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. is listed as an asset, but he reported no or less than $201 in income from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.

Another two loans to Justice have come from former paid senior adviser Bray Cary. These include between $2 million and $10 million in two promissory notes owed to Cary, who made his fortune by selling one company to ESPN in the 1990s and as a NASCAR executive in the late 90s. Cary later co-founded West Virginia Media Holdings, the owner of multiple TV stations in West Virginia and The State Journal business publication. Cary sold the company in 2015.

Full disclosure: I worked for Cary for one year as a statewide TV news producer for West Virginia Tonight Live and The State Journal’s Decision Makers, Cary’s weekly public affairs show. I also produced Cary’s commentaries that appeared on WVMH stations.

The two promissory notes, with interest rates of 10%, are directly owed to Cary and the Cary Foundation. Cary left the Governor’s Office in March 2021. The notes were issued Aug. 31, 2021. Justice appointed Cary to the West Virginia University Board of Governors in July 2021.

Something else happened in July 2021. WV MetroNews wrote that Jill Justice, the daughter of Gov. Justice, who manages Justice’s hospitality businesses such as the Greenbrier Resort, had a $8 million tax lien placed on her by the IRS as of March 2021.

Coincidence? Sure is. Honestly, we will probably never know exactly what the nature of these loans are. All I know is if I knew about Justice’s track record with paying loans and he came to me seeking a loan, there is not a chance I’d ever agree to give him a loan.

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I was looking through the IRS 990 forms the Cary Foundation is required to file as a 501(c)(3). Those forms only go back to 2019 on the IRS website, so it remains to be seen what a 2021 report would look like. But I was amused to see that in 2019, the Cary Foundation donated $4,000 to the Greenbrier East High School girls’ basketball team, which Justice coaches.

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The day after Justice’s financial disclosure report came out, the National Republican Senatorial Committee held a fundraiser for Justice in Washington, D.C. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee camped out in front of the event providing handouts to attendees.

We’ll see how well Justice did on fundraising when the Federal Election Commission October Quarterly report is due by Oct. 15.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com