By Mannix Porterfield
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — Coal gets a bad rap in Congress, but to House Speaker Rick Thompson, the negative attitude is no mystery.
After all, he pointed out this week to the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, only 14 states produce coal, so their voices are in a minority on Capitol Hill.
“The simple numbers are, they’re outvoted in the Senate and the Congress,” Thompson, D-Wayne, said during a question-and-answer session after delivering brief remarks at the chamber’s annual summit at The Greenbrier.
“We just need to keep telling our story. We need to keep promoting the use of coal, the low cost of energy, so West Virginia and other coal-producing states can keep their place in the U.S. economy.”
For years, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, told the gathering, lawmakers in his region have tried to sell the positive side of coal production, especially the post-mine land uses that have turned former work sites into hotels, restaurants and other business developments.
Along Corridor G, he told the chamber, thousands upon thousands of acres could be utilized in an area that features a four-lane highway and lies within half an hour of an airport.
“That’s good, usable land out there, if we could ever convert it and be able to start using that kind of land for something besides snake pits,” Tomblin said.
Tomblin plugged conversion of onetime mine sites into housing in flood-prone pockets — one goal of a bill Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, crafted this year.
The idea at the same time is to diversify the economy while providing residents the opportunity to escape flood plains, he said.
“Look, we’re not tearing down the mountains, we’re doing economic development here,” he said.
“Until we do that, and have that poster child in West Virginia, it’s going to be hard for us to sell the fact that we’re not just scarring the land and leaving it by the wayside.”
Both leaders affirmed their support for a court of chancery that would deal exclusively with business disputes.
Thompson picked up on the idea at a conference in Delaware, prompting Tomblin to defend out-of-state trips as venues to learn new concepts.
“These courts would handle disputes when it’s just business to business,” he said.
“No consumer-related questions or concerns. No jury matters. I like the idea. It’s something that West Virginia needs. It’s something that will make us more business friendly.”
Tomblin said the chancery court concept Thompson subsequently advocated in a study resolution before the Legislature “shows you can pick up from other states when you travel and meet people as we did with the Rainy Day Fund. We came back and put that into place.”
Given the liability of the Other Post Employment Benefits issue, the two were asked if they envision any effort to convert public educators to state employee status.
“I’m not sure how many educators in the Legislature would go along with that position of making them state employees,” Tomblin said.
Some at the state level would prefer to “see all that burden pushed to the counties,” Tomblin said of the post-employment liability.
“I don’t think that could realistically happen,” he added. “That could put them in such a bad shape they could probably never bond to build another school building if we were to do that.”
Thompson said he expects to see resolution soon, but cautioned any effort to shove the liability back on counties could adversely affect their bond ratings.
Neither leader could say just when the Legislature will be prepared to tackle the troubled fire and police pension plans that are dragging some municipalities to the brink of bankruptcy.
“I think we are closer today than we’ve ever been to having a resolution of that problem,” Thompson said.
“I don’t think we’re quite there yet. We intend to talk to members and receive input from them. In the meantime, several other House and Senate members are working to try to reach an agreed-to bill as much as we can. If we can, we intend to do that in a special session. If we can get to that agreement.”
Tomblin said the focus has been on the two main cities mired in red ink — Huntington and Charleston — but said pensions can be just as troubling for smaller locales.
“Look at some of your own little towns you live in and the unfunded liabilities there you have. It may surprise you a little bit,” he said.
“The size of their budgets and the size of obligations for their pension programs, even though they may have only eight or 10 people retired or working out there, the actuarial obligation out there is huge and in some cases compares to what their annual budgets are. It’s something of interest to look at.”
The two leaders expect more advances in the field of broadband.
“Broadband is kind of like the interstate system,” Thompson said. “You’ve got to have interstate routes, the main routes, then the feeder routes. I think right now West Virginia needs to get its interstates in order and get feeders out to libraries and universities.”
Tomblin said the state will work to match as much federal stimulus money it can capture for broadband expansion.
Neither leader said he knew of any effort to undo reforms in the privatization of workers’ compensation or to liberalize benefits.
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
