ABB 2006/7 | State Profiles | North Atlantic region | West Virginia | Governor

West Virginia has worked hard to earn your business. Industry and labour leaders and an aggressive state legislature have worked with me to make changes that ensure a profitable future for companies and workers that operate or locate in West Virginia. Workers’ compensation reform has realized $130 million in cost savings to businesses. Our state employers saw an aggregate 15% reduction on workers’ compensation rates, with some individual employers seeing drops as much as 25 to 40%.The state is committed to paying off long-term debt and unfunded pension liabilities.

In three phases including a plan to eliminate existing debt, West Virginia will transition to an open market of private workers compensation insurance carriers from a state-run system. Passage of civil justice and insurance reform legislation has provided cost savings to West Virginians. And our current work on tax modernisation and responsible government will keep us moving in the right direction.

Last year, West Virginia created 8,100 new jobs and saw nearly $2 billion in new investment. Some of the most well-known companies in the world like Amazon.com, Bayer, Coldwater Creek, Dow, Dupont and Armstrong locate in West Virginia for important reasons:

• The 2005 Milken Institute Cost of Doing Business Index showed that West Virginia’s cost of doing business was 14% below the US average.
• According to American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association figures, West Virginia’s cost of living was 8% below the US average.
• Energy Information Administration data shows that West Virginia had the third-lowest industrial and the lowest residential electricity rates in the nation during 2005.
• FBI Uniform Crime Statistics report that West Virginia had the fourth lowest crime index.

The state offers a high quality lifestyle, beautiful landscape and abundant natural and human resources, which make the Mountain State the ideal place to live, to work, to vacation and to do business.

Sincerely,
Joe Manchin III
Governor of West Virginia

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