The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

November 2, 2009

Manchin sees pension session ‘highly likely’

By Mannix Porterfield

Chances are strong that West Virginia lawmakers will spend part of this month’s interims sessions taking up a plan to resolve a municipal police and fire pension crisis, Gov. Joe Manchin disclosed Monday.

“It looks promising,” Manchin said, as he prepared to brief a middle school audience in Shady Spring on the state’s efforts to deal with the threat of influenza.

“They’re going to have something. I haven’t heard exactly, but I know it’s been very progressive. Hopefully, we’ll know this week, or the first of next for sure. It looks positive.”

Manchin said a special session, dovetailing with the Nov. 17-19 interims, is “highly likely” to deal with troubled pension plans that are threatening to push some West Virginia cities into bankruptcy.

As far as major stakeholders are concerned, such as the city governments, and the fire and police pension personnel, Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, who chairs the Senate Pensions Committee, said a consensus has been reached.

“But you never know from one day to the next whether somebody has some other concerns,” he said.

“We feel really good about it. We have a bill and we’re doing some fine-tuning of that. I’m optimistic. I think we’re convincing folks of the need for this. The governor is certainly well-engaged and I think the leadership is.”

Basically, the plan calls for a 40-year amortization of existing plans that would be closed, with the creation of fresh ones to accommodate new hires in the police and fire departments, but participation in the plan is optional, Foster noted. All new plans would be supervised by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board.

“The main change is there will not be any money,” Foster said. “That is the major difference. There are a few other smaller differences.”

Originally, there was some thought given to re-allocating a portion of the insurance premium paid by homeowners, but volunteer fire units objected to any change in the schedule, the senator noted.

Lisa Dooley, executive director of the West Virginia Municipal League, has said the total unfunded liability spread among 53 plans in Class I and II cities, and 15 others in Class III towns, stands at $650 million.

Foster said it appears that progress is coming toward the goal of resolving the financial morass of police and fire pension funds, and hopefully the issue can be finalized in the mid-November interims, “rather than with all the vagaries of a regular session.”

“We’re continuing to work hard,” the senator said. “And I’m optimistic we’re going to get this done.”

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