Governor Patrick Morrisey delivers his second state address at the State Capitol in Charleston, West. Virginia on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. (Photo by Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislative Photography)
Gov. Patrick Morrisey delivered the 2026 State of the State address on Wednesday in which he reiterated his request for an income tax cut and urged lawmakers to fund flood protection.
It belonged to the governor second state-of-the-state addressand the hour-long speech hit the spot similar to his firstincluding praising President Donald Trump. While the speech was divided into nearly 20 different topic areas – everything from broadband infrastructure, energy policy and flood preparedness to drugs, the border and compact government – details and specific policies on these topics were limited.
While he acknowledged previous efforts to restrict the rights of transgender people, cut red tape for businesses and expand school choice initiatives, no modern information or next steps on these or several other efforts were announced.
In contrast to last year – when a A budget deficit of $400 million emerged – Morrisey said the state currently has $128 million Budget surplus will allow more flexibility in funding priorities. However, he made it clear that the state budget will remain in place “Apartment,” as has been the case in recent years.
The details provided focused on increasing funding for specific projects, including $100 million to supplement road and bridge repair work and $20 million to improve state parks.
Morrisey wants lawmakers who voted Wednesday to agree to a 10% cut in the state’s income tax, citing budget surpluses as a reason for pushing through.
“We also urge lawmakers to abide by the indefinite tax changes signed by the President [Donald] Trump,” he said. “Members of the House and Senate, we can afford this tax cut.”
Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, said lawmakers need to see what a proposed tax cut “looks like on paper.” The governor has already done it urged agencies to cut their budgets This year, some face a significant loss of federal funding because of Trump’s budget cuts.
“We need to hear a lot more to understand how we cut agencies by 2% but cut taxes by 10%,” Oliverio said.
House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said he wasn’t sure whether a tax cut would be fiscally responsible, citing the state’s sinking tax revenues.
“It seems like we don’t really have a plan. We’re just doing things for campaign fodder, right?” he said.
The governor also requested a 3% salary augment for all public servants.
Flood prevention is also a priority for Morrisey, and he asked lawmakers for $10 million to fund a modern flood preparedness initiative aimed at modernizing the way the state detects flood risks and warns the public.
“By expanding sensors in key areas, we can build predictive models and respond to leading indicators rather than lagging indicators,” Morrisey said. “These forecasts promise to detect flood risk one to six hours in advance with an accuracy of over 90%. It’s about protecting lives.”
Sen. Brian Helton, R-Fayette, said the flood prevention funds are fantastic news for Southwest Virginia.
“We were devastated in Wyoming, McDowell County, parts of Raleigh and even Fayette County. We took a big hit last year,” he said. “Hearing the governor’s remarks tonight and learning that funding is available means a lot to our families and our communities. I just really am.”
excited about it.”
Morrisey did not comment on plans for skyrocketing utility costs
While the governor began his speech by complaining about “significant price increases for all forms of energy” for West Virginians and an ever-increasing need for more electricity production, Morrisey expressed no plans or thoughts about how the state should control these costs for consumers.
Republican in the state House of Representatives said They want to prioritize legislation this session to ease the burden on residents from increased energy prices. However, no concrete law has yet been passed that would make this possible.
Morrisey praised Passage from last year of House Bill 2014 (the Microgrid and Data Center Act) and its yet to be developed law “50 by 50” planwhich want to see The country wants to augment its electricity generation capacity to 50 gigawatts by 2050.
However, he did not announce any modern energy-related policies that he said lawmakers should consider or adopt.
Little focus on the destitute health situation in West Virginia
In the second year, little attention was paid to the state’s destitute health outcomes or efforts to change them. Morrisey spoke mostly about his ongoing “Mountaineer Mile” initiative – in which every resident aims to walk one mile a day – and praised guidelines passed last year to remove a list of colorful dyes from food (an effort that was held up in court) and Stop residents from buying soda with their federal food benefits.
Hornbuckle said it was “extremely disturbing” that the governor had not spoken about the state’s health care needs.
West Virginia per capita in 2021 led the nation in deaths caused by Cancer (184.7 deaths per 100,000), Drug overdoses (90.9), diabetes (47.6) and Kidney disease (25.8), according to mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state is also expected to lose federal Medicaid money, which will impact hospital budgets.
“We’re going to lose over a billion dollars on health care. He didn’t talk about that. … It’s going to lead to the closure of rural hospitals. That’s something that really stood out to me,” Hornbuckle said.
Regarding the state’s ongoing drug and overdose epidemic, Morrisey did not share modern priorities, instead praising Trump’s efforts to “secure” the country’s southern border and “fight crime.”
Morrisey didn’t mention the certificate-of-needs repeal, a priority of his senior year that twice failed by vast majorities in the state House of Representatives.
The most specific requests came from Morrisey, who called on lawmakers to “support” the modern thing. Rural Health Transformation Program by “advancing legislative initiatives” to “promote prevention, well-being and personal responsibility”. He said he would like to see aspiring doctors trained in nutrition, more efforts made to educate the public about “new nutritional guidelines” and the Presidential Fitness Test reinstated.
Regarding the Public Employees Insurance Agency, Morrisey said Wednesday that progress has been made to sluggish rising health care costs for state employees. He urged lawmakers to “work with me on real reforms” for the state insurance agency, but gave no details on what those reforms might look like.
“I appreciated the commitment to raising public employee pay, but I really believe we need to do more than that and help them with their PEIA premiums,” Oliverio said.
Later this year PEIA will augment Health insurance premiums by 3%. In July theirs Interest rates rose by 14%.
Many of the governor’s other requests had been already announced in press conferences, including his idea for it Invest $6 million for a “Bring Them Home Fund” to build “world-class care centers” for foster children. Morrisey plans to bring hundreds of foster children living in out-of-state facilities back to West Virginia after the modern facilities open in the state. The State spent $70 million last year Funding for foster children to live in out-of-state facilities across the country.
“This approach will save our state tens of millions of dollars and provide our children with the stability, care and foundation they need to grow, heal and thrive,” Morrisey said. “Let’s bring our children home where they belong.”
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