Gov. Jim Justice is a skilled politician. He knows exactly what he’s doing when, a week before the speech, he lets slip that his State of the State address will include some big plans.

“I want everybody to stay close and tuned in to what we say that night,” Justice said of his Jan. 11 speech. “We’ll be outlining a state that is really, really going in the right direction.

“We’ll be announcing the biggest tax cuts in the history of this state, hands down. Hopefully, things will move right through the Legislature, and we will be able to pass on those tax breaks and tax cuts to celebrate all the goodness that has been happening to West Virginia.”

He didn’t go into details, of course. Where’s the flash in that? But he did hint that he understood his theatrics mean nothing if lawmakers don’t play along.

“I think when you see my tax plan and everything that will be coming out really, really soon, it will be different, but it will be a plan that I hope we can embrace,” he said.

There it is. A few who did not embrace Justice’s previous plans will have to play along this time, if his hopes are to be realized.

Make no mistake — West Virginia is in desperate need of tax reform. Almost no one argues that. And the state is sitting on about $1 billion in surplus revenue — again, no one argues that the money should be returned to taxpayers in some fashion.

It’s the manner of reform that is in question, and Justice has some convincing to do in the state Senate. He appears to believe he’s already got the support of the House of Delegates.

“Absolutely we can compromise,” Justice said. “At the end of the day, nobody has the perfect answer. Only God above has the perfect answer.”

He’s going to have to compromise, as are lawmakers. This is a job that must be done for West Virginia. Once the grand announcements are out of the way, Mountain State residents can only hope the governor and the Legislature are ready to get to work.

And there is much work to be done this session — from infrastructure to public education to the total overhaul of the state Department of Health and Human Resources. Lawmakers would do themselves a favor to get tax reform out of the way early, so that it does not get caught up in the wash in the final days of the session as lawmakers scramble to finalize legislation.