Recently, there have been job losses at the Morgantown Department of Energy and NIOSH. Both of these entities are US Government facilities and funded by taxpayers. Many of the jobs were highly educated people making very good wages. These losses are on top of the jobs lost at the Mylan plant a couple of years ago and represent a large portion of the economy of the area. At the same time there are reported job losses in Fairmont, WV, again, at federal facilities. I have no information about what triggered these losses but expect it is the Trump's attempt to reduce the size of government and reduce the deficit. I have seen this kind of job loss many times in my life and all for political reasons whether or not justified. One of the problems of the job market in the Morgantown area is that most are for the University or government agencies with a very small portion funded by private business. The private sector is reliant on commerce and the ability to sell a product or service whereas a government funded job is funded by taxpayers of which many are voters. Government facilities are usually working with a budget but that may be increased without justification whereas the private sector cannot increase their budget unless they produce more sales or service. We have seen non-private job providers inflate their administrations without justification through strict budgeting. Examples are our schools where you may have more administrators than teachers or the University where the administrators get much higher raises than the professors or non-academic workers. It has been said that nearly half of the University and hospital workers are eligible for food stamps because of their low wages yet the administrators make huge salaries.
I do not know the reason for the recent firings but have seen it before. In the 1970s I was living in central New York. Griffis Airforce Base was in Rome, New York, which was about 20 miles from my home. We used the air traffic control on the base for commercial aviation as well as the military use. The base represented a large part of the economy in Rome and the area around the city. Suddenly the base reduced its size and moved much of it to Oklahoma. Many of my friends were given the option to move or lose their jobs. The move was political but could not be stopped. Later the move was complete, and the airport given to the county which uses it now. The job loss was great and affected many other industries that supplied the base and they too, closed down and laid off their employees.
Our state has been the recipient of federal dollars for a long time with Senator Byrd and Congressman Mollohan providing ear marks every year. While the purpose of the money was supposed to be for the West Virginia economy and of course to buy votes it really was a trap for the future as we are realizing today. Most of the ear marks provided jobs but were all funded by federal funds. There were very few federal dollars to support private enterprise. As the years passed many of the federal projects became outdated or were of very little use, but the federal dollars continued until a new administration started to look at the money being spent and the resulting benefit. We can argue the benefit and it's worth but that should have happened before there was any type of auditing done. There was no study done to determine the cost and effect of moving an entire B-52 air base and there was no attempt to annually audit the NIOSH facility or the Department of Energy in Morgantown. We, who live here know of some of the great things both facilities were doing but really had no look inside to see at what efficiency they were operating at.
I believe that in the future we need to let our elected officials know that when they offer free federal money to aid our economy, they should use it to assist private enterprise and not build large government job sites that rely on taxpayers' money. Politics are unpredictable and should not be relied upon for our future.
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