New Ideas for a better West Virginia

About Matt Rohrbach

My roots run deep in our community. I grew up in the Westmoreland neighborhood and graduated from Vinson High School and Marshall University. My father worked a union factory job at Owens, so I know firsthand the struggles of working class families. After completing my medical training, I moved back home and joined HIMG, where I have served the community for 32 years as a physician.

I was first elected to the House of Delegates eight years ago, and I currently serve as the chairman of the Health and Human Resources Committee. Previously, I served as chair of the Committee for the Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse, and was vice-chairman of the Seniors, Children, and Family Issues Committee.

My focus in the Legislature has been on fighting the substance abuse epidemic, supporting our senior citizens, children and veterans, improving state programs to help our children and families, and improving the quality and access to healthcare for all the citizens of West Virginia.

To fight the substance abuse epidemic I have proposed and got enacted into law, legislation that has created and funded increased treatment opportunities, advanced harm reduction programs, increased the penalties for drug traffickers, created mandatory K-12 drug awareness programs in our schools and a requirement of standards for recovery housing to meet in order to get state funding. Going forward, I plan further controls on recovery housing to stop the unregulated growth in residential neighborhoods that we are currently experiencing.

To assist our seniors, I have sponsored and supported legislation increasing funding for the nutrition and in-home care programs, as well as making the financial exploitations of seniors or vulnerable adults a felony. For veterans, we have funded a new nursing home and eliminated the state tax on veteran’s pensions.

For children, we have increased benefits for the CHIP program, improved the foster care system with increased funding and greater support for kinship foster parents and funded a counselor in every school. More work is yet to be done for improving the foster care system especially in the areas of eliminating out-of-state placements by increasing the number of in-state providers, a more robust and better funded guardian ad litem system and by properly compensating CPS workers to fill vacancies so cases can be resolved more quickly than at present.

Lastly, I would like to address the economy of West Virginia. The last two years have produced an unprecedented amount of new industries choosing to locate in West Virginia. The current business climate is attractive to a very broad range of businesses. The recruitment of Nucor, manufacturers of electric pontoon boats and school buses and the first large scale manufacturing complex powered by an on-site solar farm is evidence that West Virginia is now attractive to a broad range of industries beyond the mineral extraction businesses that have long dominated the state. Moving forward, we have to continue promoting a more diverse economy to improve the economic well-being of West Virginia families. This is and should continue to be one of the most important goals of the legislature. Given the growth coming to the Route 2 corridor in Cabell, Mason and Jackson counties the improvement of the road to four lanes is a major goal of mine for our local community.

I thank you for the opportunity you have afforded me to represent our area for the last eight years. I respectfully ask for your vote this election so I can continue to work on the health and economy of West Virginia. Thank you for your consideration.