By Stephen Smoot
As Riley Moore ascended from the office of West Virginia Treasurer to join the United States House of Representatives, the voters selected Larry Pack to serve on the Board of Public Works.
Pack hails from the Kanawha Valley and graduated from the West Virginia Institute of Technology, becoming a certified public accountant shortly thereafter. With this experience, he succeeded as an entrepreneur and developed a passion for economic growth and development.
His most significant business experience came as chief executive officer of Stonerise Healthcare LLC between 2009 to 2022. Pack also served one term in the West Virginia House of Delegates before Governor Jim Justice invited him to serve as a Senior Advisor. That role put him in a position to bring his expertise to a State investment management board.
Much like the chief executives at the federal and West Virginia State government level, Pack wasted no time in bringing his vision to office.
“A year ago, I started asking questions,” said Pack. As he examined State investments involving Communist China and its various government and parastatal institutions, Pack concluded that “it didn’t make sense for us to invest in a country that’s working against our interests.”
Communist China has evolved over time from a more purely Marxist-Leninist model to one in which the state has allowed companies to grow under its strict control. This increasingly better resembles the economy of Italy as imposed during the rule of Benito Mussolini.
Pack put together a proposal which he will deliver to the quarterly meeting of the Board of Treasury Investments. According to a release from the West Virginia Treasurer’s Office, the BTI “manages more than $10.5 billion in short-term state and local government operating funds.”
This will not affect state pension or some other funds managed outside of the West Virginia Treasurer’s Office.
He will propose on Feb 25 that the Board create a Prohibited Foreign Investments Policy. It would, according to the release “prevent direct investments from companies affiliated with the government of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese military, or any instrumentality or combination thereof.”
“West Virginia should only invest state funds in high quality, respectable assets,” the release quoted Pack as explaining. Pack also stated that he held concerns over what would happen to those investments should the United States and Communist China fall into hostilities.
Others, including President Trump, have criticized the Asian economic and military power for creating competitive advantages over free world economies by using political and other prisoners, schoolchildren, and slaves as cheap labor.
Pack described how his own family lost their business to the kind of unfair trade practices President Trump has pledged to address with tariffs. He stated that “they take advantage of people and their own citizens. They don’t have our values.” Pack added that they see their social and economic ways as “normal.”
Under his predecessor, the State Treasurer’s Office expanded its scope and mission somewhat. Moore’s tenure included the establishment and administration of the HOPE Scholarship in West Virginia to help those families seeking public education alternatives for their children.
“We are the national leader in having the most open HOPE Scholarship in the country,” shared Pack. Approximately 2,000 students currently enjoy its assistance with that number expected to double. “There is no more important issue than how we educate our children, he explained. Pack added that his own children found academic success on pathways other than the traditional public school route after his family committed to a more profoundly Christian mode of living.
Another program implemented by the State Treasurer’s Office, along with several partners, was the “Get A Life” initiative. This created simulated adult financial situations that force middle school students to consider real life financial choices, challenges, and also opportunities.
Pack also cited his office’s successful administration of programs such as WVABLE. This allows those who receive disability benefits to save for the future without creating a risk of losing those benefits. It followed 2014 federal legislation authorizing their creation. Participants can invest in different options and spend the funds saved and grown on qualified disability related expenses, which can often soar into the thousands of dollars, depending on the severity of the disability.
The State Treasurer’s Office also administers savings plans for college and trades education as well. “we’ve got a lot of good things,” Pack said.
Going forward Pack shared one of the same goals that Governor Patrick Morrisey articulated in his State of the State Address. He stated that the overriding priority is to bring what President Trump is doing in DC to implement also in West Virginia.
Discussions of the future with Pack inspired a return to discussion of the values that shape his leadership style. He emphasized two sets of values that often work hand in hand, values of his Christian faith and West Virginia mountain heritage. For Pack, Christian values come from “what was taught in the Bible.” He said they were “an approach to life,” especially the value that “every life is valuable. Every life is precious.”
Walter Russsell Mead in his work “Special Providence” describes five main themes of American values. What Mead called “Jacksonian” aligns well with Pack’s ideal of mountain values. He describes them as “not pro government, but pro individual.” The State and its laws should “allow West Virginians to live like they want to live.”
He also stated that “I really believe in tax cuts that let you keep more of your money” and articulated firm support for further unlocking West Virginia’s vast reserves of coal, natural gas, and other reserves to create wealth and drive the economy. In Pack’s eyes also “I believe in local control” and said Charleston exercised too much. He supports “more power back into counties and regions.”
Pack concluded by expressing appreciation for his predecessor, saying “I’m very thankful for Riley Moore. I’m standing on his shoulders and trying to jump off of them.”
