Jim Justice

Jim Justice, a coal billionaire running for West Virginia governor, owes millions in back taxes to some of Appalachia’s most impoverished counties. Among them is a county in Kentucky that is struggling to pay the debt on a new rec center and has turned the lights off in its parks. Many of these counties have been devastated by the collapse of the coal industry, and their financial struggles are not all Justice’s fault. But officials say things would be easier if he paid up.