By VIC SPROUSE
CHARLESTON -- What will be happening in the year 2015?
Will we be traveling regularly to the moon? Will cars hover through the air? Will we be able to mentally teleport ourselves?
I'm not sure.
This I CAN be sure of ... with the compromise between the Legislature and the Governor's Office, the business franchise tax will be removed.
In ...
Get this ...
2015.
Holy smokes.
This is progress? This is the best we can do?
When I heard this my reaction was similar to the Jim Mora reaction when asked if his team had a chance of going to the playoffs. Of course, if you follow football you know what I'm talking about ... and even if you don't, you've probably seen the Coors Light commercial that shows him doing it.
Just a quick background. Jim Mora was a fiery coach of the Indianapolis Colts. At a postgame press conference after his team had lost, it seemed unlikely his team would win another game let alone do anything else.
So, a reporter stupidly asked him the question if he thought his team would make the playoffs.
And, if now one of the most famous meltdowns in press conference history. Mora lost his mind.
Mora shouted, "Playoffs? Playoffs? Playoffs?" with a look on his face like an alien just landed in the room. I think if he could have gotten away with it, he would have simply beaten the stupid out of that reporter.
That's how I felt.
I kept saying 2015? 2015? 2015? 2015? I was nearly as dumbfounded by the report as Mora was by the question.
I simply couldn't believe THAT was the compromise. THAT? 2015?
When I heard it I thought to myself, how old will I be in 2015?
2015?
I actually let myself get caught into being excited when I read the first press accounts that a "compromise" had been reached to eliminate the business franchise tax.
I allowed myself to think, Wow, wonderful!
Then, I read it.
And, the compromise was that we would eliminate the business franchise tax in 2015.
2015?
Brooks McCabe should have told them to stick it in their ear. 2015? What a complete and utter outrage. What an embarassment to our state.
We should send out letters about it to every major Fortune 500 company in the nation and tell them to give us a call in 2015 or maybe go ahead and wait until 2016, but THEN, we will really want them to invest in the state.
Absurd.
Outrageous.
Ridiculous.
Let's be honest, this change is so far out there and with the age of some of the Senators, I'm sorry, but they won't be around when it finally happens. And, I don't mean in the Senate, I mean ON THIS EARTH.
This is a perfect example of exactly what is wrong with our state.
The best we can do to eliminate a tax that EVERYONE with half of a brain (excluding a few in the Democratic House leadership, of course) agrees is the number one deterrent to investment in our state is ... drum roll, please ... 2015.
I'm sure some in the business community broke down in the halls of the Capitol weeping that such a historic day had finally come and just how really wonderful the Democratic leadership was to bestow this great gift upon the business community ... you know, this gift that will say its not right for the state to tax CAPITAL that helps drive our economic engine.
Yes, you heard it right, in 2015 or so, we will finally send that message to investors that West Virginia wants your investment.
I'll be 47 in 2015. How old will you be? Isn't it wonderful to have something to look forward to.
And, of course, if there is anyone left in the state at that time ... wow ... what a great place it is going to be to work and do business.
Sprouse has served in the Legislature since 1995 and resides in Charleston. He graduated from Penn State University with a Chemical Engineering degree and currently owns and operates several fitness centers in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
