AND THEN AGAIN……by Tamara Pettit

……………Hold onto your hats West Virginia!  Governor Jim Justice is once again predicting our State is going on a rocket ship ride and he can’t wait for the Legislative Session (set to begin Wednesday) to fuel the rockets.  Instead, Justice called the Legislature into a Special Session on Monday at 11 a.m.  The call for the Special Session includes a bill to provide tax incentives based on certain investments and employment thresholds, labor intensive, heavy industry.  The remaining bills on the call are transferring funds to the Economic Development Office.

……..Pretty clear West Virginia is preparing to sweeten the pot to attract a significant industry and the Governor doesn’t want to take the chance of  his tax incentive bill getting bogged down in the regular session.  He’s painting a picture of time being of the essence.   He also wants to act on the $400 million surplus and direct funds  to the Economic Development Office.

……WV Metro News noted that sites in West Virginia along with sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania are being considered by Nucor Steel for a sheet mill.  Nucor announced in September it would invest $2.9 billion in a state-of-the-art, 3-million-ton sheet mill.  In a company release, Nucor said that once state and local incentives and regulations are determined, construction of the mill would take 2 years.

……I predict Justice and Sec. of the Office of Economic Development Mitch Carmichael are preparing to move quickly and should have already have ensured the votes are in place to get the tax incentive legislation through in 48 hours.  Should the legislation stumble and even fail, it would bode pretty badly for any deal they are trying to land.   The bills transferring funds from State departments may be a little hard for some  State departments to swallow.   All departments have maintained a flat budget for the past few years and may have been hoping this year’s budget would allow for some growth given the budget surplus.  I would also predict, however, that nary a peep will be heard from them.

……Does Justice have a major player ready to bite if the pot is sweetened enough?    There is a fine line when it comes to tax incentives between giving away the farm to attract the business.  We’ll find out Wednesday at 7 p.m. when he gives the State of the State.   Don’t want to listen?  Not to worry.  I’ll have a report online shortly thereafter.

……Those of us of a certain age can remember when books were books.   They were made of paper and you either went to the library and checked them out or went to a bookstore and plunked down money.  Books weren’t always convenient, though.    You had to go somewhere to get them.  That place had hours that didn’t always coincide with your schedule.  Books were cumbersome and sometimes awkward to hold especially at night for those of us who love to read in bed. 

…. Enter Kindle.  I remember when I received my Kindle as a Christmas gift.   It was a miracle.   I sat on my couch and bought a book that very night.   I entered my credit card and the world of books and magazines opened up to me.   No matter what time of the day or night I wanted a new book, I could buy it.  My Kindle was my friend.    I stuffed it in my purse and could read while I was getting my hair done….in a doctor’s waiting room….best of all, with the lights turned off all snuggly in bed.

……..But as with most things that are good to be true, there is a fatal flaw.  I soon found it.  Somewhere along the way, probably one dark and dreary night two years ago,  I purchased a magazine.  Just one, I swear.  It opened the flood gates to any number of publications because soon I was seeing numerous charges for magazines that I never in my wildest dream would order like Shape, Today’s Health, Log Cabin Living on my credit card.     I acted swiftly and called the numbers listed on my credit card and had them removed.   I was proud to be a vigilant consumer until I tried to order a book on my Kindle.  Somehow, all my attempts were futile.   They had shut me down completely.    After weeks of trying to fix the problem, I gave up and called in the big guns, actually my little tech guru, Shannon.    It took four hours and several glasses of wine during which she had numerous conversations with customer service representatives  from a land far, far away to get the problem resolved.  At the end of the night, given the language barrier and what she termed my hysterical need for access to new books once again,  Shannon was worried that she might have traded her first born child for my release from the Kindle jail.    I promised her I would never ever buy another magazine on my Kindle….or challenge the Kindle gods.

……You would have thought I had learned my lesson, but there it was on my November credit card bill.  Not magazines, but Amazon Prime Video charges for channels for which I had never subscribed.   This too, I thought is like the magazine scam.   I had to take swift and direct action.   I called Amazon and one by one,  had those channels removed from my charges.  Sure enough, when I went to buy a book on Kindle, it wouldn’t process.  Yes, the books come through Amazon.   No, I didn’t think that one through.