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TABLER STATION, WV – Virginia’s shift to higher taxes and new regulations is creating an economic “conflict” between the states, as West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey tries to lure businesses and workers across the border.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has promoted an “affordability agenda,” but a wave of proposed tax increases and regulatory changes from legislative Democrats has opened the door for neighboring states to compete for businesses and residents.
Even if some of these proposals did not reach Spanberger’s desk or seek his signature, the political climate has prompted West Virginia officials to actively look for Virginia workers and employers, issuing lower taxes and fewer regulations as a way to compete.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Morrisey said he plans to take that message directly to Virginia communities, including Loudoun County, to attract businesses and workers to West Virginia.
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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivers a response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. (Steve Helber/Reuters)
“We’re going to spend some time in Loudoun County and the rest of Virginia doing a field trip and comparing how West Virginia is doing. [and] that’s how Virginia comes in,” Morrisey told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the announcement of a new 275-acre tax district that he said will bring $200 million in economic investment to the three-county Eastern Panhandle region.
“The backwoods argument for our state’s future is being won at the kitchen table and in the marketplace,” Morrisey said, noting that the Tabler Station project he unveiled is one of many similar projects underway in the state.
The area is home to West Virginia’s nationally ranked apple industry – until the high school team the “Musselman Applemen.” The area also has large industries including a large Clorox location advertising job openings to passersby on Interstate 81.
“While Virginia chooses to burden its citizens and job creators with higher taxes, West Virginia chooses freedom, fiscal responsibility, and a tax environment that makes our state more competitive for business than our neighbor.”
Morrisey said he and his allies in Charleston’s GOP supermajority are making all of West Virginia “open for business.”
He added that Berkeley and nearby Jefferson County — bordering Loudoun County in Virginia and high-tax Washington County in Maryland — should be an example of what regional business and tourism should look like.
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Country roads take West Virginians home across the Virginia state line near Charles Town, West Virginia. (Charlie Creitz/Fox News)
The governor also pointed to a growing trend of workers from Washington, DC moving to the Eastern Panhandle in West Virginia, despite long commutes and limited rail service.
“The difference between Virginia and West Virginia couldn’t be clearer,” he said. “West Virginia is coming to many of those businesses that used to be located in Virginia.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Spanberger for comment.
The Democratic governor noted that he has not signed several proposed tax measures that have never reached his desk, although he has approved an increase in the minimum wage and higher contributions to paid family leave.
State Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Martinsburg — who created economic development programs and got Morrisey’s signature — said many people come to his area near the Virginia line “to spend money, support local businesses and really help economic development.”
Barrett’s new law includes a framework for the state to create special taxing districts where part of the state’s revenue is redirected to the states – as only the legislature has the power to implement taxing structures. It does
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The law stipulates that redirected taxes may not “adversely affect” the federal budget. Barrett’s Act creates additional economic districts in Harpers Ferry, Henderson, Bridgeport, Princeton, Beckley and Wheeling.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, left; Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, right. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images; Mike Kropf/Getty Images)
With new residents and a broader tax base, Morrisey said he hopes places like Berkeley and Jefferson will increase their visibility as “tourist destinations” and for youth sports events where the money from the Tabler Station district will be used to build — accumulating more financial benefits for West Virginians.
While Richmond sought a tax increase, Morrisey in April signed a 5% statewide income tax cut and brought Charleston’s tax code into line with President Donald Trump’s tax cut proposals.
Morrisey told the crowd at Tabler Station that it will not be his last visit to the Virginia border in the direction of economic development, adding separately to Fox News Digital that across the country he plans to add 12,000 new jobs in the last six months among a total of $12.5 billion in private sector investment.
Spanberger, meanwhile, announced Monday that he would be taking his “economic development” trip to Virginia, saying in a statement that “from day one, my focus has been on building an economy that works for all Virginians and delivers real results for families, businesses and communities.”
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Spanberger said his administration has already held walkouts in Harrisonburg and Fairfax to encourage “bringing people together to create a clear, forward-looking plan.”
While parts of West Virginia, particularly in the south, continue to struggle with long-term changes in the energy industry, population growth and rising state incomes have prompted broad tax cuts — highlighting the contrast with neighboring Virginia’s push for new taxes and regulations.
