Hoppy Kerchaval
June 19, 2019 at 12:37AM
Back in 2001, the West Virginia Legislature passed the West Virginia Jobs Act. The aim was to require companies working on public projects financed all or in part with state taxpayer dollars to hire more local workers.
According to the law, “The Legislature finds that the employment of persons from outside the local labor market on public improvement construction projects contracted for and subsidized by the taxpayers of the state contributes significantly to the rate of unemployment and the low per capita income among qualified state residents who would otherwise be hired for these jobs.”
So, I suppose you can give lawmakers the benefit of the doubt. Their hearts may have been in the right place, but their economics were flawed, and the execution has been pitiful. That is evident in the findings in a report by the Legislative Auditor’s Performance Evaluation and Research Division (PERD).
Let’s start with the most incriminating conclusion. From 2011 until this year, Workforce West Virginia, which oversees the program, could not document any hires for a public works project because of the law. Not one.
The legislative audit found a series of problems with the program.
First, the law defined the local labor market as all of West Virginia and any county in surrounding states within 50 miles of West Virginia’s border. The law was likely written that way so it would not violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the U.S. Constitution which has been interpreted to prevent the discrimination of non-residents and preference for state residents.