On Thursday, Governor Patrick Morrisey spoke at the West Virginia Chamber’s annual Business Summit in White Sulphur Springs, outlining his approach to economic development for the state.
“There is no stopping West Virginia. We’ll be that shining state in the mountains. We’ll become the regional and national powerhouse that I know we can be,” said Governor Morrisey during his address.
Morrisey detailed several priorities aimed at improving West Virginia’s investment climate. “We’re going to enhance West Virginia’s investment climate by lowering the regulatory and capital expense barriers to enter our state,” he stated. “We’re also going to more closely scrutinize the return on investment for any taxpayer dollars spent from an economic development perspective. We’re getting serious about the key factors that drive long-term economic growth – such as reducing regulations, reforming our tax system to be even more competitive, building our physical and digital infrastructure, and investing in our workforce.”
He highlighted efforts to reduce bureaucracy and change regulations with the goal of attracting business investments across key industries. “If West Virginia is going to get ahead of other states in the region, we have to move at the speed of business,” Morrisey said. He pointed out HB 2002, passed during the 2025 general legislative session, which established a centralized permitting dashboard intended to increase transparency, promote cooperation between agencies, and shorten processing times for permits and licenses.
The governor also discussed the Universal Licensing Bill: “I also prioritized passage of the Universal Licensing Bill, which makes it simple for licensed professionals and holders of an occupancy license in other states to move to West Virginia and immediately get to work, without having to go through lengthy and redundant licensing processes,” he continued. According to Morrisey, there has already been an 8% year-over-year increase in registered contractors since last year.
Morrisey cited HB 2014—the Power Generation and Consumption Act—as a recent example of his administration’s strategy. “HB 2014 combines the best of our economic development strategy: it targets multiple key industries – such as technology, energy, and advanced manufacturing – it lowers regulatory burdens and keeps taxes low, and it does this in a manner that ensures all key sectors of the West Virginian economy will be positively affected,” he said. He added that within months of passing what he called the Microgrids Bill, interest from data center investors had increased.
Governor Morrisey concluded by emphasizing ongoing efforts focused on workforce development.
