The late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd was often praised as West Virginia's "Big Daddy" for the billions in federal funding that he earmarked for the state.

But as a columnist in The Wall Street Journal pointed out this week, all that funding did not translate into a better economy for West Virginia.

When Byrd joined the Senate in 1959, West Virginia ranked 39th in median family income, and today the state ranks 48th, the Journal reported. Writer Brian Bolduc details some of Byrd's public projects, such as Route 50 between Clarksburg and Parkersburg, as doing little to stimulate development and ending up a "road to nowhere."

Essentially, Bolduc asks the question, "Did Byrd's work help create a 'culture of dependency' that contributed to the state's decline?"

Many in West Virginia likely would say no, especially in areas such as Huntington where Byrd's legacy is more linked to the medical school, university research and job training.

Yet, his point that the state failed to reinvent its economy during the Byrd years is well taken. Thousands of blue-collar coal mining and manufacturing jobs vanished, but West Virginia has struggled to grow the businesses that would replace those jobs.

And despite the "Open for Business" slogans, we are still wrestling with that problem.

This week CNBC released its 2010 "Top States For Business" Report, and just as in 2008 and 2009, West Virginia ranks in the bottom five.

The state scores well in only two categories -- cost of doing business and cost of living. The low-scoring areas are familiar to most readers -- workforce, quality of life, technology and innovation, transportation and infrastructure, access to capital and education. To top it off, West Virginia ranked 50th in "business friendliness," which gauges the legal, regulatory and tax climates.

Interestingly enough, many of our neighboring Appalachian states rank much higher -- Virginia at No. 2; North Carolina, 4th; Tennessee, 16th; Pennsylvania, 20th; and Ohio, 34th. Only Kentucky at No. 40 seems to be viewed with many of the same shortcomings.

Nurturing economic development in West Virginia will require real statistical improvement in very challenging areas such as education and technology, which will take a sustained effort over time. It also will require adjustments in tax laws and regulations, which the state needs to address more quickly.

Certainly those are great challenges, and it is unfair to lay all of those problems at Byrd's feet. Many would argue that it would have only been worse without his efforts.

But West Virginia does stand at a crossroads. The state likely will never see that pipeline of federal funding again, and the need to build a stronger, more business friendly economy is greater than ever.

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